Brody's Notes... Church-versus-State Showdown Sparked By Using The Word "Gay"

Dalton McGuinty

By Brody Levesque | TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA -- The Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto accused Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's administration Monday of making “religious freedom . . . a second-class right.” Marino Gazzola, chairperson of the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association told the Toronto Star in an interview Tuesday said that using the word “gay” in the name of supportive clubs is going too far. “In our view the word itself is a distraction,” he said. “We want the focus to be on more than just one thing, more than just the sexuality of the student. We want the focus to be on the entire student.”

The church-versus-state showdown was sparked by an amendment from Education Minister Laurel Broten to the anti-bullying bill, closing a loophole that gave schools veto power over club names. Broten said that Ontario's LGBTQ students received highlighted mention in the legislation as statistically LGBTQ youth are at increased exposure and risk to being bullied and that schools, parents, and government needs to reinforce the message that this behaviour will not be tolerated.

According to some conservative lawmakers, including Tory MPP Lisa MacLeod, it’s a thinly veiled effort to undermine the $7 billion a year that Catholic schools get from Ontario taxpayers — almost one-third the annual education budget.

“The government has decided in this case that they want to be aggressive, they want to provoke the Catholic education system for whatever reason,” MacLeod told reporters. “Catholic school board trustees . . . are worried this is going to cause the de-funding of their system.”

Minister Broten categorically denied that her bill was an effort to defund Catholic schools instead pointing out that all provincial schools must follow the law as “we root out discrimination of all kinds, whether it’s racism, whether it’s misogyny, whether it’s homophobia."

“Our Catholic schools are public schools . . . every single one of our schools, whether Catholic or public, must be safe and accepting places for all of our students,” she said adding that is not “radical” for a gay club to have the word “gay” in the name noting that the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association support her position.

The battle shows it’s time to scrap Catholic school funding in favour of a single, secular public school system that could save taxpayers as much as $1.5 billion a year, said Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner. 

“Is it fair we fund one religious school system at the expense of all others?” he asked, citing a 1999 United Nations finding that Ontario was violating the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 

Catholic school boards said they’ll look for ways to fight back should the amendment on gay clubs be passed. 

“We’ll have to review and reassess our options,” Gazzola said during a 20-minute conference call with the media. 

“I the legislation passes, we expect our boards will obey but that still leaves us options to look at,” he added, refusing to comment on the prospects of a court challenge. ~ The Toronto Star