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The complaints are in the names of the children’s mothers, Shabnam Nazar and Farhat Amir, on behalf of their then 14-year old sons, Naman Siddique and Sarmad Amir, then in grades 9 and 10.

Webber Academy offers schooling for about 1000 students from kindergarten to grade 12. It was founded in 1997 by Neil Webber, a retired professor, former provincial cabinet minister, and Progressive Conservative MLA for Calgary-Bow. The tribunal described it as a ” highly respected school, consistently ranking as a top school in Alberta.”

For some reason, it drew the line at Sunni prayer rituals, conducted in private, in a place that was convenient to the school and the students from time to time.

In 2015, a tribunal found the school discriminated on the grounds of religious belief in a service customarily available to the public. It found the school offered the boys’s parents a “generally positive indication of acceptance” of prayers, and even pointed out a space in the library. Two weeks after the boys started attending classes in December, 2011, however, Webber called the parents to say prayer was not allowed.

“Dr. Nazar testified she asked Dr. Webber if the students could pray in the garage outside, in a corridor, in the basement, behind some trees or even in a closet. Dr. Webber answered no, and said that they must go off the school premises,” the tribunal wrote. They did go outside through January of 2012. “If there was a blizzard outside or if it was too cold to pray Mr. Siddique testified that he and Mr. Amir would find a nook or cranny and pray. He felt that this was humiliating.”

In one crucial episode, Barbara Webber, vice president of administration, confronted Siddique as he prayed in the library, interrupted him, and “contributed to a sense of shame and humiliation developing in this 14 year old student,” as the tribunal put it.