Sunday, July 31, 2011

Did Horwath Step Into Toronto School/Mosque Debate?

 Actually, given her earlier statement here, I think not.  But some guy up in Orangeville is on about the Islamist menace and yada yada yada and says:

“Timid” Tim Hudak’s response to the ‘discovery’ of public school mosque-activity is entirely lacking, totally inadequate for someone seeking to become premier of Ontario, which position has direct responsibility and oversight for the totality of Ontario’s publicly funded education system. He has, effectively, stated that this “is a local school board issue.” This response is a cop-out. Obviously, politically, Mr. Hudak is mindful of “Gentleman” John Tory’s electoral chances (and silver opportunity) crashing and burning in 2007, in large part over the issue of school choice. But, this Islamification of the conventional school day is entirely different and most certainly not merely a local school board issue. It is the thickening edge of a wedge. Only Ms. Horwath, of the provincial NDP, has come out openly against school hour, in-school and in-cafeteria Islamic prayer hours in our shared public schools, ground-zero of neutral Canadian citizenship.

[...]

It may take Ms. Horwath, to stand up for Ontarians now and to say, “Enough is enough”, and that all the slights and put-downs toward females, and the wrongs done them taken together, cannot make even one right.

Did Andrea Horwath change her position 180 degrees, or can we put this down to the ramblings of a small-town opinionizer? 

But while we're on the topic of Valley Park School, its important to distinguish two levels of  concern with the school's actions.  One is: has the school successfully navigated its way through the various legal issues (accommodation vs. gender equity) in arranging these prayer services?  The 2nd is: whatever the legalities, is the school doing the right thing  by inviting an Imam onto school property to lead prayers on Friday afternoons?

Because, despite the MCC's threat of legal action, the answer to the first question is almost certainly "yes".  Or at least, the TDSB is as lawyered up as anyone, and it would be astounding if this decision wasn't scoped out from a dozen different angles by their legal people.

I also think that the answer to the 2nd question is a qualified "yes", but to prove it I would have to discuss the female menstrual cycle, and this would probably make me gag.

5 comments:

Kirbycairo said...

Regardless of the content of your blog here I beg you to stop using the phrase "Horwatch" because any way you slice it is really sounds like you are calling the woman a"Whore" and it just lowers the value of anything you might want to be saying. Let the right-wing keep their status as the promoters of hate.

bigcitylib said...

That was actually just a typo.

Scanner said...

"Did Andrea Horwath change her position 360 degrees, or can we put this down to the ramblings of a small-town opinionizer?"
Seriosly BCL, I know about political spin, but if you change your position 360° you are back to your original position.
As for the Islamist threat, if we are going to secularize then the Separate School system has to go. Let them pay for their own Catholic Schoolgirl uniforms.

bigcitylib said...

Sigh. I obviously hadn't consumed enough caffeine when I wrote that bit.

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