ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the uneasy nexus between religion and schooling by considering educational funding arrangements, religion in the formal and informal curriculum, religious clothing and symbols, and religious holidays and ceremonies. All Canadian provinces fund public school systems: Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario fully fund Catholic schools. The Federation of Independent Schools Associations serves a constituency which may include a 'particular religious/cultural perspective'. School laws eventually mandated daily opening exercises including the Lord's Prayer and Scripture readings. The opening exercises also included a patriotic component: the singing of the national anthem originally 'God Save the King/Queen' and later 'O Canada'. In Commission Scolaire Regionale de Chambly v. Bergevin, the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed the importance of freedom of religion in a democracy and acknowledged the duty to accommodate religious beliefs' in the context of religious holidays. The Court treated the parents' 'choice' to pay for denominational education was 'a response to religious beliefs, not government action'.
