Asked about Bedford School, Justin Trudeau discusses freedom of expression

Photo: Adrian Wyld The Canadian Press Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during Question Period in the House of Commons in Ottawa on Wednesday, October 23

The issue of Bedford Elementary School in Montreal reached Parliament in Ottawa on Wednesday. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the situation “unacceptable,” but not before making a plea for human rights.

“On this side of the House, we respect provincial jurisdictions in education. But we will always be there to defend freedoms of expression, the fundamental freedoms to which all Canadians are entitled,” the Liberal leader chanted in the House when asked to give his opinion on the Bedford school affair.

The leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, summarized what is being accused of against 11 teachers suspended from this elementary school in the Côte-des-Neiges district of Montreal: “Intimidation, harassment, verbal violence, disregard for science, corporal punishment […] for reasons of religious intransigence.”

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Mr. Blanchet simply could not believe the Prime Minister was mixing freedom of expression into this affair. “I understand that the Prime Minister’s mind is elsewhere,” he quipped, referring to the criticism Justin Trudeau heard from his own caucus that very morning. “Is he saying that the forced teaching of religion in a school and corporal punishment are part of the freedom of expression of teachers?” the sovereignist leader continued in Ottawa.

“No […], that’s not at all what I said,” Justin Trudeau responded during this tirade. “We will always defend the fundamental freedoms of all Canadians, and that includes children who have the right to be educated in accordance with our values ​​as Quebecers and Canadians. »

Asked to comment on the case a third and fourth time, Justin Trudeau was even clearer. “What is being reported [concerning] these children is unacceptable. […] But using cases of excess, exceptions like that, to attack the diversity of Quebec, the different origins that bring our country together, is also unacceptable.”

These comments come the day after Quebec Premier François Legault promised on Tuesday to “clean up” Quebec schools that violate the state’s principles of secularism, starting with the Bedford school.

“A group of teachers [tried] to introduce Islamist religious concepts into a public school in Quebec,” Legault said in outrage. The Parti Québécois has called on its government to combat “religious entryism,” and both the Quebec Liberal Party and Quebec Solidaire have stressed the incompatibility between proselytism and public education.

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