Toronto School Board Anti-Christian, -Jewish, and -Islamic

The National Post reports the Toronto School Board has warned teachers against celebrating Hallowe’en because it might be disrespectful of Wiccans.

Of course there’s no mention that its demonic and cultish aspects, however ironic, might offend Christians, Jews, and Muslims (and other faiths). A family on my block refuses to handout Hallowe’en candy because their religion deems Hallowe’en as a celebration of demons.

So the TSB’s decision was made more out of antipathy toward those groups than any concern for the Wiccans. The antipathy is explicit in this bizarre statement:

“Many recently arrived students in our schools share absolutely none of the background cultural knowledge that is necessary to view ‘trick or treating,’ the commercialization of death, the Christian sexist demonization of pagan religious beliefs, as ‘fun,’ ” says the memo

I have no idea what exactly “Christian sexist demonization of pagan religious belief” is supposed to mean, but I think it’s p.c. mumbo-jumbo for intolerant.

Thankfully, the Wiccans themselves seem to be more commonsensical than the TSB:

Nicole Cooper, a first-degree priestess of the Wiccan Church of Canada’s Toronto Temple, agreed. “Frankly, Wiccans are a minority — an extreme religious minority,” she said.

The Halloween celebrations of North American pop culture, she added, are “not actually threatening to my religion anymore than eggs and cute little bunnies are threatening to Easter.”