The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms represents the plaintiff in this case. The Epoch Times invited School District No. 70 to write a rebuttal or provide comments but did not receive a reply.
The B.C. Supreme Court has rendered an astonishing judgment against Candice Servatius, the mother whose young children were subjected to an aboriginal “smudging” ceremony at a public school without her knowledge or consent.
Justice Douglas Thompson ruled on Jan. 8 that this ritual, intended to cleanse the classroom of bad energy by fanning smoke on the walls and furniture, was merely a cultural demonstration that did not impose any spirituality or religion on children.
In September of 2015, Candice Servatius and other parents received a letter from the principal of John Howitt Elementary School in Port Alberni, B.C., about a “cleansing” of students and the classroom to be carried out by a member of the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation of Vancouver Island. The letter described in detail how smudging, a spiritual ceremony that uses smoke from the burning of a plant considered sacred, would “cleanse” the classroom of bad “energy” and cleanse the “spirits” of the students because “everything has a spirit” and “everything is one, all is connected.”
How would Thompson have ruled if a Catholic or Orthodox priest had burned incense in the classroom of a public school, exposing all the children to this smoke? What if the priest had prayed against the negative energy of Satan and other evil spirits, and asked for the blessings of the Christian God to descend on the classroom? What if the school had sent a letter to parents explaining that the purpose of the prayers and incense was to “cleanse” the classrooms as well as the “spirits” of the children? Would Thompson have said this was merely a “demonstration” of Canada’s traditional Christian culture, and one that did not in any way impose religion on children? Would the court have dismissed the concerns of atheist, Jewish, or Sikh parents who objected to their children being present in a classroom at the same time that a priest burned incense and prayed?
David Adams
Article URL : https://www.theepochtimes.com/christianity-is-a-religion-but-aboriginal-spirituality-is-merely-cultural_3203523.html