Supreme Court reaffirms religious liberty in Canada (but not Quebec)

National Post, 28 March 2024

Court upholds the right of Muslim students to pray at Calgary private school

An unsurprising Supreme Court decision last week left standing a somewhat surprising result in Canada, namely that secular authorities must accommodate religious practice. We have been accustomed over many decades to the opposite; religious believers are the ones who have had to accommodate those who object to religion in the public square. Recall just last fall when the Canadian military banned any mention of God on Remembrance Day.

The case is unusual, for the secular authorities here are a private school, not the state. Webber Academy was founded in Calgary in 1996 and offers an “enhanced curriculum” to its approximately 1,000 students from K-12. It considers itself “nondenominational.” Tuition ranges from $21,700 for kindergarten to $23,300 for high school. It appears to be an impressive place.

In December 2011, Sarmad Amir and Naman Siddiqui enrolled in Grades 9 and 10. As practising Sunni Muslims they asked to pray in accord with their religious obligations, which require prayer at five specific times of day. Some of those times would fall during school hours.

For the first few weeks, staff found empty classrooms or offices for the two students to pray in. Shortly thereafter, founder Neil Webber caught wind of their piety and told them it would not be permitted. They could pray off-campus, or on campus only if they prayed in such a way as to not make it evident that they were praying. No bowing, no kneeling. And the students would not be allowed back the following year if they persisted. Webber’s fatwa against prayer was essential, the academy argued, as its nondenominational character was key to its identity and mission.

Off to the Human Rights Commission went the parents. The HRC ruled in their favour, and fined the academy $26,000. With near-biblical zeal, Webber Academy set off on a 12-year pilgrimage through the courts, losing at every stage and spending $1 million in the process. Webber lost at the HRC (twice), the Court of Queen’s Bench (twice) and the Alberta Court of Appeals (twice).

“Webber Academy’s non-denominational policy is not affected by providing the students with access to quiet, private space to pray,” wrote the Alberta Court of Appeal in its 2023 ruling. “In our view, it cannot reasonably be suggested that Webber Academy is endorsing any religion or religious practice, and should not be seen to be doing so, simply by providing such accommodation.”

When the Supreme Court refused to take Webber’s appeal last week, the matter ended, with Webber never having prevailed in any proceeding.

It’s a reversal of what we often see, where religious believers have to accommodate the secularists. In some places — especially the United States or Quebec — any hint of religion must be quickly driven out of any quasi-public space. But Alberta is not Quebec, and this time the Supreme Court agreed.

There was no chance that Webber was going to prevail in its no-prayer or pretending-not-to-pray policy. Explicitly religious schools have for generations made accommodations for secular students; it is not hard to do. The Muslim students at Webber were not asking the academy to alter its offerings or ethos at all. That private prayer anywhere on campus was a threat was not convincing to anyone.

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