{"id":22478,"date":"2015-01-20T23:03:11","date_gmt":"2015-01-21T04:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/?p=22478"},"modified":"2015-01-20T23:03:11","modified_gmt":"2015-01-21T04:03:11","slug":"atheist-files-human-rights-complaint-because-school-favours-christianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/atheist-files-human-rights-complaint-because-school-favours-christianity\/","title":{"rendered":"Atheist files human rights complaint because school favours Christianity."},"content":{"rendered":"

From here<\/a>:<\/p>\n

An Ontario school is fighting a human rights complaint over its Christian life centre and relationship with Habitat For Humanity.<\/p>\n

In November 2013 – in his second action against the District School Board of Niagara – Rene Chouinard filed an Ontario Human Rights Code complaint arguing the board “continues to exhibit preferences for Protestant Christianity” at its facilities.<\/p>\n

Chouinard, an atheist father, signalled out Eden High School in St. Catharines, Ont.<\/p>\n

His complaint said the board has “continued to allow other missionary organizations, including Habitat for Humanity, to operate Christian mission activities within its programs.”<\/p>\n

The school also has privately funded Spiritual Life Centre, which Eden’s website says provides a “meaningful program to assist in the development and support of Eden’s students through a rich array of life activities.”<\/p>\n

That centre describes its mandate as “leading students to learn of Christ and live for Christ.”<\/p>\n

A hearing on the complaint was held before a human rights tribunal in St. Catharines on Monday
\nThe tribunal adjourned to rule on the issue of Chouinard’s standing – whether or not he has the right to take the complaint to tribunal. That written decision is expected to be made shortly.<\/p>\n

“I have a kid in one of those schools,” Chouinard told QMI Agency after the hearing. .<\/p>\n

Chouinard wrote in his complaint the board’s activities exposed him to abuse and “character assassination in the local media and community.”<\/p>\n

Among other effects, he alleges are that there has been harm to his three children in that they have perceived Christianity as the norm and “concepts of non-belief were not respected.”<\/p>\n

He is seeking $50,000 in compensation from the school board to run a long-term media campaign promoting the validity of secular humanism.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chouinard is complaining that “concepts of non-belief were not respected.” If he is an atheist, he believes that God does not exist: he has a belief \u2013 admittedly, not a particularly rational belief, but a belief nonetheless, so the missing respect<\/em> does not apply to him. An agnostic can claim “non-belief”, not an atheist.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s laws and standards of morality have their foundation in a Judeo-Christian understanding of how the created order works. If Chouinard can\u2019t cope with this, he should relocate to a country where atheism is the state religion; he would feel more at home. North Korea comes to mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From here: An Ontario school is fighting a human rights complaint over its Christian life centre and relationship with Habitat For Humanity. In November 2013 – in his second action against the District School Board of Niagara – Rene Chouinard … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[2049,1947],"class_list":["post-22478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","tag-atheism","tag-rene-chouinard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22478\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}