Canadian court bars religion-based censorship in schools. (Around The World).The Canadian Canadian (kənā`dēən), river, 906 mi (1,458 km) long, rising in NE New Mexico. and flowing E across N Texas and central Oklahoma into the Arkansas River in E Oklahoma. Supreme Court has ruled that public school officials may not ban books from the classroom on religious grounds. In a decision handed down in late December, Canada's high court concluded that a British Columbia British Columbia, province (2001 pop. 3,907,738), 366,255 sq mi (948,600 sq km), including 6,976 sq mi (18,068 sq km) of water surface, W Canada. Geography school board could not legally ban the book One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads from use in kindergarten kindergarten [Ger.,=garden of children], system of preschool education. Friedrich Froebel designed (1837) the kindergarten to provide an educational situation less formal than that of the elementary school but one in which children's creative play instincts would be classrooms, Reuters reported. Religious groups opposed use of the book because of its gay theme. "Religion is an integral aspect of people's lives and cannot be left at the [school] boardroom door," the court's chief justice wrote for the 7-2 majority. "What secularism sec·u·lar·ism n. 1. Religious skepticism or indifference. 2. The view that religious considerations should be excluded from civil affairs or public education. does rule out, however, is any attempt to use the religious views of one part of the community to exclude from consideration the values of other members of the community." |
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