School Cafeteria Controversy: New Brunswick’s Halal-Only Menu Sparks Parental Outcry

The mother discovered this change in the menus by going through the list of meals for the week, sent by email by the school of her two children. The email mentioned that "our menus are halal". "It shocked us, I must say," Doriane Loucheux said on Monday in a radio and television program in Montreal.

"I have a personal confession, but it’s not just for that that I refuse to eat halal, [but] now I no longer have a choice," criticized the mother, who denounces this measure taken without warning. Doriane Loucheux and several parents from Dieppe have asked the schools concerned and the community cafeteria for explanations. Their concerns have remained unanswered, reports Le journal du Québec.

The mother disapproves of forcing children to consume halal meat without the prior consent of the parents. "I don’t agree that we are presented with a fait accompli, and then finally that we are not given a choice," she said. And to add: "I believe that a choice has been taken away from me, and that I have to fight for my rights. We all have to make a few accommodations and live together."

Was the measure taken at the request of the Muslim community? "For now, it’s really not clear," says Doriane Loucheux, who as an immigrant, says "do her best every day to integrate." "It’s very important to me, [and] it wouldn’t occur to me to impose my values." According to the 2021 Canadian census and data published by Statistics Canada, about 1.2% of the population of New Brunswick is Muslim.