| Mennonites may flee Quebec town 15 families; dispute with province over children's education |
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Brothers and sisters,
Plesae pray for the Mennonites in Quebec who are being compelled
by the authorities to close their Mennonite schools and send their
children to the government school collectives, because the Quebec
government wants to teach the children about godless evolution
and to normalize ungodly behaviors.
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> Mennonites may flee Quebec town
> 15 families; dispute with province over children's education
> Andy Riga
> CanWest News Service, with files from Marianne White
>
>
> Thursday, August 16, 2007
>
>
> ROXTON FALLS, QUE. - Members of Quebec's only Mennonite community say they
> may
> move to Ontario or New Brunswick so they can keep their children in a
> private
> school that suits their religious beliefs.
>
> Fifteen English-speaking Mennonite families in this small community in the
> Monteregie region say they won't send their children to
> government-approved
> schools, balking at the teaching of evolution, the acceptance of gays and
> lesbians and low "morality standards."
>
> They say they are considering relocation out of fear that child-protection
> officials will seize their children.
>
> Other townspeople here -- mostly francophone Catholics -- support the
> primarily
> English school, deemed illegal by Quebec's Education Department.
>
> "It boils down to intolerance to our religion" by education officials,
> said
> Ronald Goossen, who in the early 1990s was among the first Mennonites from
> Manitoba to move to Roxton Falls, a sleepy town on the Riviere Noire,
> about 100
> kilometres east of Montreal.
>
> "It's kind of sad because we enjoy the community, we have friends and we
> have
> good rapport with our neighbours.
>
> "But when they threaten to take our children and put them in foster homes,
> that's beyond what we can accept," said Mr. Goossen, 56, a hog farmer who
> also
> works in a local factory.
>
> He said about 30 members of the community -- young couples and their
> school-aged
> children -- will have to move before school starts. The others will
> follow.
>
> News reports last year about unsanctioned schools led to a complaint to
> the
> Education Department about the Mennonite school.
>
> Parents were warned they would face legal proceedings if their children
> aren't
> enrolled in sanctioned schools this fall. That could lead to children
> being
> taken from families, Mr. Goossen said.
>
> The Mennonites established their own school in the late 1990s, initially
> in a
> community member's home.
>
> Since 2002, it has been housed in the Church of God in Christ, a spartan,
> vinyl-sided church down the road from Roxton Falls' steepled Catholic
> church.
> Last year, eight children were enrolled in Grades 1 to 7; this fall, 11
> students
> were expected. |
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