‘i Don’t Think It’s Very Democratic’: Montreal Police Raid Jewish Elementary School, Place Students under Lockdown

By Jason Magder
National Post
June 1, 2016

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/i-dont-think-its-very-democratic-montreal-police-raid-jewish-elementary-school-place-students-under-lockdown

Police and youth protection officials were at the school — which might have been operating without a permit, according to reports — in Montreal Wednesday afternoon.

Police raided an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Montreal’s Rosemont—La-Petite-Patrie borough Wednesday.

In the early afternoon, police and youth protection officials were at the school, which might have been operating without a permit, according to reports.

Two police officers escorted a group of 11 women and one man, several of whom are Batshaw Youth Services social workers, from the building around 1 p.m. One of them was holding a cardboard box, another a plastic shopping bag, and another had a red folder. They walked to an adjacent parking lot and left in several cars.

“I can’t tell you much, because the Youth Protection Act has very strict rules regarding confidentiality,” said Claire Roy, a spokesperson for the West Island Centre Integrated University Health and Social Services Centre. “We can’t comment on a precise case, but information may follow when it is available.”

Police are reportedly keeping the school on a virtual lockdown until lawyers can speak either with students or school officials.

The school appears to be a religious elementary school.

Bryan St-Louis, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, said the school in question is not registered as a teaching establishment that instructs under the Quebec school curriculum. He said it is a religious school, and parents whose children attend there have the obligation to ensure they are taught the curriculum, either through tutors or by home schooling.

Alex Werzberger, a spokesperson for the Hasidic community of Montreal, said youth protection officials arrived at the school in the morning asking questions about the names of the students and the subject matter being taught.

Police stand outside the suspected illegal school on Wednesday.

Werzberger said he spoke with someone in the school who explained that police are keeping the students inside the school on a virtual lockdown until lawyers can speak either with students or school officials.

“I don’t think it’s very democratic,” Werzberger said. “Maybe they are there for good reason, but it seems strange to me to lock down a whole school.”

According to Werzberger, the school has been operating for about a year. He didn’t know the school’s official name, but a sign on the door of the school reads Talmud Torah, which translates from Hebrew to the study of Bible.

Werzberger said youth officials told school administrators this is the first in a series of schools they plan to raid. Another school in the area was also raided on Wednesday, he said.