Premier of Quebec Takes Issue with Rabbi on Religion in Schools

The fundamental structure of the public school system of the province of Quebec again became a national issue when the Prime Minister of the province, Maurice Duplessis, accused Rabbi A. L. Feinberg of Toronto and the Daily Star of that city of working towards the abolition of religious instruction in the schools

All public schools in Quebec are Christian and belong to either Catholic or Protestant school commissions. They are maintained out of school taxes and government funds, Rabbi Feinberg in a statement to the press denied that “we are trying to preach atheism.” He accused the Quebec Premier of misusing religion for a purpose which was probably political.

Rabbi Feinberg has written in the Ontario newspapers that religion should be taught to school children in Canada, but that sectarian religious instruction should not be financed out of public funds. Premier Duplessis said: “Various persons who have expressed the view that religious teaching in schools should be abolished may, or may not, have taken concerted action. But they were giving a concert of admiration for godless schools and for atheism,” He pledged that as long as he remained premier, Quebec schools would keep their confessional character. He stressed, however, that he had no intention of imposing on Anglo-Protestants and on other minorities a system of educational rules that would not fit them.