Quebec cracks down on Mennonite school

Last fall, unlicensed evangelical schools in Quebec were given an ultimatum: unless they accept the provincial curriculum in its entirety (which included teaching evolution and "sex education") the province was going to shut them down. A small Mennonite community in Roxton Falls, Quebec was among the first to find out that this wasn't an idle threat. Their small community school that teaches 11 children aged 6 to 13 was declared illegal by the provincial government. The province threatens legal action if the school is not shut down.

This leaves over a dozen Mennonite families with no other choice but to leave Quebec and relocate to one of the provinces where parents are still allowed to make decisions over their children's education.

"We hoped to grow old here," a tearful Ron Goosen, one of the Mennonites, told CBC News on Thursday. "We have our burial plots and we hoped to be buried here, but it doesn't look that way."

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The people of Roxton Falls don't want the Mennonites to leave. The mayor of Roxton Falls and seven other local mayors have written to the education minister to try to get a reprieve.

Only 1,308 people live in Roxton Falls, so the loss of a dozen families would leave a big void, he said.
"These are good people," Mayor Jean-Marie Laplante told Radio-Canada in French. "They integrated with us. They've helped us."

Hopefully the mayor could convince the bureaucrats in the ministry of education to leave the Mennonites alone. But if the Mennonites have to uproot themselves, I'd suggest they choose New Brunswick. It's bilingual, it's close to their old hometown and the rules on homeschooling or private schooling are nowhere near being that strict.