This strikes me as wrong and I don't see how the school board, the province or anyone else can support this unless all the links are grossly misleading. Now I am from Alberta and have had very little (OK nothing) to do with the educational system for over 20 years, so maybe I don't fully understand how things are done in the Center of the Universe but...
A couple things stick out to me:
- religious ceremony during class time. I can see allowances made for kids to attend certain religious festivals/holidays/etc. but utilizing school facilities during regularly scheduled classroom hours is wrong. From the links, even the Muslim Canadian Congress agrees prayers can be held later in the day, so I don't see the urgency.
- segregation of non-muslims and girls. If this is being held at a public school, during class hours, how can barring non-Muslims (who may be curious and wish to observe) be tolerated? Likewise the segregation of girls, with an emphasis on the "menstruating" girls, is totally inappropriate and at odds with pretty much any civil liberties standard written.
- making this compulsory for students. Again, if this was a once a year thing, and something that could be roped into the social studies curriculum, then this wouldn't be a big deal but when a public school board is making any regular religious indoctrination mandatory, I view that as unconstitutional.
Now for the record, I don't have issues with a community group using school facilities for religious ceremonies during off hours: I grew up with that kind of situation with some of the Christian sects who needed space. The schools were available (usually for a small rental fee and the agreement that any mess/damage was on the group using the facility) and various groups used some classrooms on Sunday for Sunday school, or held prayer meetings in other class rooms, etc but again, it was all during non-school hours. But this goes way beyond...
