The history of Bedford School “is beyond belief,” says Legault

Photo: Christinne Muschi The Canadian Press Students at Bedford School were victims of an “attempt by a group of teachers to introduce Islamist religious concepts,” according to Quebec Premier François Legault.

Marco Bélair-Cirino in Quebec

Published at 8:18 AM Updated at 9:14 AM

• Quebec

Declaring himself “very shocked”, Prime Minister François Legault promises to “clean up” the religious situation not only at Bedford Elementary School, where teachers have dictated their law and their faith for years in defiance of educational rules, but also elsewhere.

Students at Bedford Public School in Montreal were victims of nothing less than “an attempt by a group of teachers to introduce Islamist religious concepts,” he argued on the X network (formerly Twitter) Tuesday morning. “That religious concepts are being introduced into a public school, that science is being rejected to help our children, that teachers are forming a clan and threatening other teachers in a public school in Quebec in 2024, it’s beyond belief,” he declared.

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The head of government says he has instructed the Minister of Secularism, Jean-François Roberge, to “take the time to examine all options” to “strengthen controls and secularism in schools” across Quebec. “In Quebec, we decided a long time ago to remove religion from public schools,” recalled Mr. Legault, before adding: “We will never accept going back.”

The Montreal School Services Centre (CSSDM) suspended, “with pay” Saturday evening, 11 teachers suspected of having maintained the “climate of fear and intimidation” mentioned in an investigation report commissioned by the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, on the Bedford elementary school and made public more than 10 days ago.

Finally, the Prime Minister urges Quebecers to “denounce” situations where the principles of secularism and the educational program have been undermined, as at the Bedford school, in the Côte-des-Neiges district of Montreal, “without being afraid of the bullies.” “It is all of Quebec that must defend the choice of secularism in our public institutions. Let us not be afraid,” he wrote on X.

M. Legault is expected at the National Assembly on Tuesday afternoon after a week-long parliamentary recess.

More “diversity,” says the PQ

On Monday, Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon called on the CAQ government to block “religious and ideological infiltration” into Quebec schools by strengthening secularism.

He notably invited elected members of the National Assembly to “study how to achieve diversity, so that microcosms do not form” in schools where, at present, “75% or more of students were not born in Quebec.”

More details to follow.

Read also

• Editorial | Why the Bedford School case is extremely serious
• Suspension of 11 Bedford School Teachers Came Too Late, Elected Officials Say
• Bedford Case Leads to Investigations in Three Other Schools
• CSSDM Director General Suspends 11 Bedford School Teachers
• Parti Québécois Wants Greater Diversity in Schools