TORONTO – Catholic educators are not backing down as trustee members meet Monday evening to draw up a plan against an anti-bullying bill it opposes, one day before the government is set to pass the legislation.
An Ontario bill forcing Catholic schools to allow gay-straight alliance groups if students want them is expected to face stiff backlash.
Just last week, Thomas Cardinal Collins, Archbishop of Toronto, accused the Liberal government of infringing on religious freedom by amending its anti-bullying bill to say Catholic schools must allow student clubs to use the word “gay” in their names.
Premier Dalton McGuinty dismissed the Cardinal’s argument.
“We’re not mandating the terminology gay-straight alliance,” he said, “but we think it’s very important students should so choose to be able to use that language.”
The Liberal government initially said Catholic trustees could determine the name for new anti-homophobia student clubs called for in the legislation.
However, last month Education Minister Laurel Broten announced all schools would have to allow the groups to be called gay-straight alliances if that’s what the students want.
Broten said she changed her mind after hearing from students at committee who said they don’t want her or principals and trustees dictating the names of their clubs.
“We know that words matter. The message that we’re giving to Ontario students today is you will be listened to, it’s your club,” Broten told reporters last month.
Broten didn’t want to speculate about what action she would take if the Catholic schools don’t allow clubs to be called gay-straight alliances, but suggested cutting funding for those who don’t obey the law was one option.
Collins, who is also president of the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario, said trustees and principals are the legitimate stewards of the spiritual tradition of Catholic schools, not students.
“Should one student suddenly be able to determine the method to deal with the issues in a school?” he asked.
“I find that very puzzling. The point at issue here is the imposition of the one approach to deal with an issue to which there are many approaches.”
The Ontario Catholic School Trustees Association called the word gay “a distraction” and said anti-bullying legislation is supposed to protect all students, not just those who are picked on because of their sexual orientation.
“We don’t want to focus on the name,” said OCSTA president Marino Gazzola last week.
“We want to focus on the content and what the groups are all about. These are externally developed groups that do not necessarily reflect the unique values of our students.”
The Progressive Conservatives said the Liberals were picking a fight with the Catholic school system, which gets about 33 per cent of Ontario’s $24-billion annual education budget.
“The government has decided in this case to be aggressive, they want to provoke the Catholic education system for whatever reason,” said Tory education critic Lisa MacLeod.
With files from The Canadian Press and Postmedia
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