DouG

COLLINS

The judges cre now making the laws in this country. — Provincial
Education Minister Tony Brummet?, complaining about the court decision
that bans Bible readings ia B.C.’s public schools.

SO THEY are, Mr. Brummet. And you have yourself and
other provincial governments to blame for that. Plus
pertiament. For it was you and Ottawa that applauded when
Pierre Trudeau the great manipulator laid the egg known as
the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

It almost makes me say, ‘‘Serves
you bloody well right.*’ For it is in
important social mztters that
power has been taken out of the
hands of the legislators and placed
in those of judges, who are not
loath to receive such a gift. What
else did you expect?

Today we cheer when we are
placed in the tumbrils. On this very
question of saying the Lord's
Prayer in the schools, for instance,
Christian clergymen themselves
either praised the ban, fluttered
their hands, or retreated to the
closet. The representatives of other
races and religions behave dif-
ferently, however.

The plea was tiiat prayers,
the Bible, and all that junk
made non-Christian students
Jeel uncomfortable. To which
the sensible response would be
that of that is so then they and
their parents should choose
Some country where they don't
Seel uncomfortable.’’

Only a couple of weeks ago,
thousands of Mosiems demon-
strated in England. Their fury-
distorted faces appeared on the
fron? pages of British newspapers
and on the TV screens. And what
were they complaining about? A
singic, newly-published book in
which s Moslem author had

belittled the Koran. They
wanted it banned, and themselves
burned the book in public in the
city of Bradford.

For them it was a matter of
freedom of speech be damned,
which is in line with their tradi-

with impunity. It can also be
driven cut of the schools with the
eager support of civil liberties
groups. It was the B.C. Civil
Liberties Associstion under John
Dixon that did just that in the
school prayer case.

The plea was that prayers, the
Bibie, and all that junk made
non-Christian students feel un- °
comfortable. To which the sensible
response-would be that if that is
so, thea they and their parents
should choose some country where
they don’t feel uncomfortable. In-
stead, ever compliant, we ban the
Bib!

Can you imagine such a thing
happening in Iran, India, Iraq,
Libya or any other country outside
of the declining West?

It is ironic that one of the
champions of kicking the Bible
and the Lord's Prayer out of our
schools is Irvine E. Epstein,
former chairman of the Pacific
Region of the Canadian Jewish
Congress. He even wrote a piece in
the Globe & Mail about the in-
justice of Christian practices in
B.C. schools and the Globe editors
were only toc happy to put a
headline over it that read: ‘‘The
Lord is their shepherd, like it cr
not.”

In Ontario, the Canadian Jewish
Congress and B’aai B’rith Canada
were the main players in a similar
action — again in conjunction with
a Civil Liberties Association.

itis ironic that the Epsteins
would not get very far in Israel, in
which church and state are one.
But one cannot fault them for
showing muscle here when we
ourselves have lost all sense of
direction. We don't care enough
about our own inheritance. We are
only too happy to destroy it.

That’s why we can’t wait to
ridicule Bill Vander Zalm when he
attempts to siand up for it: ‘‘A sad
case,’” commented one columnist.
“It’s just him and the Lord Jesus
Christ against the rest of us...."”

It cannot be said that Mr.
Brummet has fought a good fight.
When Dixon and Co. were prepar-
ing their case, he said that the ‘
prayer provision might be removed
anyway as the result of a review of

the education system. Dixon
laughed at him and went ahead,
stating that he had no intention of
withdrawing on the strength of a
Brummet hint.

The above thesis is strengthened,
aot weakened, by the news that the
Lord’s Prayer and Bible readings
had in any event been dropped by
most schools in B.C. If that is so,
why did Dixon & Co. bother?
Wasn't the fact that we are volun-
tarily abandoning our cultural ship
enough for them?

Moslems, Sikhs, Hindus,
Jews, etc. are stronger than we.
Which is why in the struggle for
cultural and racial identity they
will win and we shail lose. To the
accompaniment of our Ioud
huzzehs®

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