Posted on 04/07/2013 12:41:22 PM PDT by rickmichaels
TORONTO - When a single dad signed his nine-year-old daughter up for female-only swim lessons, he didn’t realize he — as a man — was going to be banned from watching her practice.
Chris (who didn’t want his last name published) was shocked when he had the blinds to the viewing area of the Dennis R. Timbrell Recreation Centre pool in Flemingdon Park shut on him and then was told by staffers it was for “religious reasons.”
“I spoke to a staff member and she told me that it’s because of Muslim women, that we’re not allowed to look at them or whatever,” Chris, 38, told the Toronto Sun Friday. “I don’t think religion has a role to play in a public pool.”
Chris said he enrolled his daughter online through the city’s website and registered her for the Ultra Swim 1: Female class – a nine-week course offered for free at the community centre.
Nowhere on the form did it mention that males could not watch the lessons.
So, when he showed up with his child at the pool on March 28 and again on Thursday night, he was confused when told he wasn’t allowed to watch.
“She doesn’t have a lot of friends and I wanted her to swim with girls,” Chris explained. “I don’t know what parent wouldn’t want to watch their child participate. There were other fathers there who weren’t too happy.”
Local Councillor John Parker hadn’t heard of the particular case until the Sun contacted him Friday, but said the dad’s point is a “legitimate one” and raises a “fair issue.”
“If we have a young child and there is a desire for the parent to provide supervision I would hope that we would not be so inflexible,” he said.
The Ward 26-Don Valley West councillor said there are only so many hours available in the pool.
“So we have to decide and we have to determine just what are the options that are available to us and how many hours are there in the day to allow the different options that communities want,” Parker said. “So far the pressure has been to provide hours for women only, this gives rise to the legitimate question: ought we to find time for mixed groups precisely to accommodate the concern that this parent has raised.”
Female-only swim programs began 20 years ago on the basis of “accommodating cultural and religious practices and requirements,” confirmed city aquatics manager Anne Jackson.
“Without a female-only program, there would be women that wouldn’t be able to participate in swimming,” Jackson said. “This is the way it needs to be in order to accommodate the programs. We’re not opening the door to one cultural group only — this is all females we’re accommodating.”
Late last month, Dennis R. Timbrell began a male-only swim course where only men could watch from the sidelines — no moms. The program bred from the same religious/cultural reasons, Jackson said.
If any parents wish to watch their child who is enrolled in a female or male-only swim class, they would have to move them to a mixed boys/girls class that runs three days a week.
The weekly gender-specific swim classes are open to anyone from two to 18, but Jackson said the city won’t consider separating existing classes into younger age groups (that would allow parents of the opposite sex to be present) because it wouldn’t “accommodate the needs of the majority of people who want to participate in a girls-only program.”
She agreed, however, the registration forms should be clearer in stating that only parents of the same gender of the child will be admitted.
“I think that’s a fair criticism,” Jackson said.
There are currently nine pools across Toronto that run the female-only swim program. All pools follow the same policy of not allowing people of the other sex to watch practices, Jackson said.
I am getting this book *A Nation of Immigrants* by John F. Kennedy (1958). This politically correct nonsense goes back to the immigration policies of the Kennedys, yes even John F. Kennedy. Every one blames Ted Kennedy for the 1965 Immigration Act but it had been in the works for some years previous to that. JFK called for ending the quota system.
The Democrats have always known which side their bread is buttered on. More immigrants has always meant more voters, power and money for them.
You know how the lib weenies like to chant “What does democracy look like? This is what democracy looks like.” We need to counter with “What does multi-culturalism looks like? This is what multi-culturalism looks like.”
or “This is what Islamicization Looks Like”.
When I was a young un, parents didn’t “watch” their children swimming, they didn’t drive them to the school, and we walked home usually after dark.....but I am not too smart, define obtuse. :o) this is sure a blast from the past, from an article over a week old....I had to look it up to see what I wrote....
This is indeed a case of of the squeeky wheel getting the grease. We need to put that old adage to our advantage.
Seriously. The orthodox Jewish community has the same rules yet they don’t insist that the greater country has to abide by them either. Most orthodox communities in warm climes have their own pools, like in their school. So they can have girl days and times and boy days and times. Religious Jews have been here for centuries and this has never posed a problem for the greater communities.
NY area Jews would have to tell me if this has been accommodated at public pools there. Not here in SoCal where the orthodox communities I know have a pool, plus of course out here many families have their own pools.
And by the way, the prohibition is about the state of DRESS!! So why don’t they have the little girls swimming in burkas? I’m not joking. We used to live on a lake in Switzerland and on our same little bay was a Catholic Retreat. The nuns in full sister Bertrille style habits would get out there in the water and have a blast! They were not allowed to remove their robes, or maybe they had separate swim robes. But they would be out there frolicking and throwing a beach ball around.
Orthodox Jewish women like to wear a pretty bathing suit but then cover it by a big dress sized tee shirt. So all is covered. It’s up to the modest to be modest.
What would be next, no women in bikinis at the beach because a Muslim male might walk by??
That actually happened in Dagestan, a Muslim country that was part of the Soviet Union on the Caspian Sea. A group of women wearing bikinis were walking on the beach early in the morning. There were several beefy looking guys wrestling on the beach. The males stayed close to the females even though the beach was empty of virtually any people. When the women went to play volley ball, one of them stepped on a bomb that was hidden in the sand. She lost part of her leg. Now women do not wear bikinis on the beach, instead they wear burkas and any male over the age of 8 is not allowed at the women’s only beach.
It is believed that the local mullah authorized the bombing of the bikini wearing women and the young thugs on the beach were the ones who planted the bomb.
I wonder if all the villains in these comics are blond and European looking?
I found one of the articles about this bikini bombing so that you can see for youself that this really happened.
Sick.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.