MONTREAL -- While schools across Quebec have begun going back to online learning, some ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools in Montreal have decided to stay open despite the government order requiring all schools to remain closed to in-person learning until Jan. 17.
Children headed to class Friday at Belz Community School in Montreal's Outremont neighbourhood.
No one would talk to CTV News about why the school was open in the middle of the lockdown, though one parent said many families do not have internet at home for religious reasons.
The education ministry said that did not grant them special status.
"The exemption is for students in regions where there's limited internet access," the ministry wrote in a statement. "Not for people who choose not to use it for whatever reason."
In the first COVID-19 pandemic wave, when students were first forced to attend classes remotely, the Belz Community also kept its schools open.
The government expressed its displeasure at the choice, but the schools were never forced to close.
Education Minister Jean-Francois Roberge calls the decision to stay open illegal and unacceptable, and that the police are investigating.
The government added that, if it has to, it will get a court injunction to force the schools to close.
