I have said it before and I will say it again, if we are going to win the culture war that is going on in Canada then we need to know our history, we need to know our constitution.
Today I went down to the legislative hearings for a controversial bill and I asked a few questions of our politicians, the esteemed elected leaders that we put in place.
All I can say is wow. Either we elected some dim bulbs or we elected liars. It’s one or the other. Now I’m not new to this game, I know politicians are full of it and I mean politicians on all sides. But I actually heard a member of Ontario’s legislature say that we had to pass a bill to protect Charter rights and then when questioned on the constitutionality of the bill said he wasn’t there to talk about the constitution.
I mean sure that whole charter thing is part of the constitution but the rest of the document – meh.
I’ll get back to that in a moment.
First off the Bill they were studying was Bill 13, this is the McGuinty government’s anti-bullying legislation. Now we’re all against bullying right – everyone is – well except the bullies – but is that the real mission of this bill?
No, this bill is about an agenda.
The bill will force every school to set up and let students run clubs on their own – meaning without the teachers – and the purpose of these clubs, even if it is not in the name is to have gay straight alliances. As several presenters have pointed out, homosexuality is not the main cause of bullying in schools, not by a long shot – that would be body image. But this bill is about a political agenda.
One of the presenters, Dr. Tim Lau, a psychiatrist, raised many valid points about the bill including the fact that as student led clubs – which the legislation calls for – who will be responsible for what goes on. The legislation says the clubs must be student led.
Now Dr. Lau pointed to some of the material that is out there and promoted on the websites that back the creation of these gay straight alliance clubs. Here’s a website called MyGSA.CA which is supported by among others the teachers unions across Ontario – it’s looking for young men to get stoned and have sex.
That’s not a student support group, that’s a hook-up service for stoners.
Will this sort of thing be supervised properly in these clubs? I doubt it. Another presenter this morning was Alan Hubley. You likely remember Alan, he’s been on this show before, he’s a hard working city councillor here in Ottawa and a good guy. Alan and his family lost their son Jamie last year. Jamie, who had mental health problems, had been struggling with many issues including his sexuality, committed suicide.
Jamie’s name has been used to push these clubs, which once they hit Ontario will spread. Well, Alan told the committee again today to back away from forcing gay straight alliances on all schools and just focus on stopping bullying for all kids.
I think Alan has a point even if the Liberals and NDP are too ideological driven to hear it.
What the activists behind this bill and this movement have made clear is that they want to use this issue to take down Ontario’s Catholic School system by forcing them to accept secular doctrine that goes against their religion. And here’s where the constitution comes in.
You don’t need to be Catholic to be bothered by this, this should be bothersome on many levels.
Catholic schools are being told they have to accept that which goes against their faith in order to stop discrimination even though that itself is a form of discrimination. That doesn’t bother Liberal MPP Yasir Naqvi who was hold court with the media today. It also doesn’t bother Naqvi that this bill likely violates section 93 of the constitution which states that:
93 (1) Nothing in any such Law shall prejudicially affect any Right or Privilege with respect to Denominational Schools which any Class of Persons have by Law in the Province at the Union
This will be a violation of that section of the constitution. What does Naqvi say?
This man had just finished saying this is about protecting human rights, the ones laid out in the Charter, which is part of the constitution and then he says he’s not here to talk about the constitution? This goes to my point that progressives, be they liberals or new democrats or even those progressives inside conservative ranks, love the charter but hate the constitution.
The fact is that they are hoping this bill gets challenged and heads to court. Progressive Conservative MPP Lisa McLeod says the Liberals are making that clear.
Now I want you to take away two things from this. McGuinty’s move here is not about stopping bullying. There are five previous laws passed to stop bullying and more laws won’t stop kids from being mean to each other. And if it were about just stopping bullying then there is another bill which doesn’t mention gay straight alliance clubs or violate religious rights.
This bill is about pushing a sexual political agenda and smashing any opposition in the way using the courts and legislature and overturning the constitution if they have to. Right now the main opposition is the Catholic school system and that makes them the target.
Whether you are Catholic or not, support those schools or not, this story should bother you. It is agenda politics at its worst and its using our children as pawns.
And that’s the Byline.
Categories: Byline
How do we fight this?
I am in support of bill 13, or of a variation thereof. Mentioning homosexuality in the bill is not a violation of religious freedom. It is simply a statement of fact.
And the argument against student led groups is a red herring because we all know that it would never be an issue if the term “gay” were not used. The reality is that “student led” is not the same as “free from rules”. As a group using school space, a gsa would have to abide by the school’s code of conduct, the same code that a certain “religious leader” has characterized as a violation of religious rights. But please keep in mind that this very same “religious leader” was found to be incapable of abiding by a code of conduct established by a relious broadcasting station.
Gay-straight alliances are not “gay clubs”. In fact, they were first started by groups of heterosexual students who were sick of the lack of action by schools and boards on the issue of bullying of gays. In short, they were started by kids with more maturity than the people being paid to mentor them through their developing years.
Sure, it is true that kids are bullied for many reasons, all of them equally reprehensible. But bullying due to sexual orientation is one that is far more systemic because it is rooted in one of our fundamental culltural and social institutions, religion. For most people, the bullying ends when they leave school, but this isn’t always the case for homosexuals.
“But bullying due to sexual orientation is one that is far more systemic because it is rooted in one of our fundamental culltural and social institutions, religion”
WRONG!! There is LESS bullying in Catholic schools. They believe in the inherent dignity of the person.
Quebec abolished Catholic schools – it has a higher suicide rate for gay teens than in Ontario!
“This bill is about pushing a sexual political agenda and smashing any opposition in the way using the courts and legislature and overturning the constitution if they have to.”
Exactly!
GSAs do not promote sex? In what other type of club would a link to a group like this be tolerated?
From the my.GSA website
Submitted by ccamilleb on Thu, 2012-05-10 11:31.
SPUNK! is a support group for gay, bi and queer young men ages 18-29 who use drugs and alcohol. Trans guys are welcome! HIV positive, HIV negative and even guys who don’t know their status are welcome!
We run 6 weeks end-of-May through June, 7pm-9pm, downtown Toronto.
We support guys who use drugs to use in safer ways. No one will be told they have to quit. We talk open and honestly about drugs and alcohol free of judgment. We are sex-positive. We talk about sex from an encouraging point of view. We talk about the kinds of sex we want to have, the sex we have when we’re sober and the sex we have when we’re high or drunk.
Ken, you are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts. There is absolutely no evidence to back up your claim that bullying due to sexual orientation is far more systemic. No one is in favour of bullying for any reason, and that should be the sole focus. For the militant homosexual lobby to take advantage of real victims of bullying in order to impose their agenda is disgusting to say the least.
contact Parents as first Educatiors http://www.p-first.com/ they have a lot of information and a petition– but you have to ACT NOW– time is running out
Step one: abolish the separate school system. Then there will be no state-sanctioned religious body to be targeted.
Yes, the Constitution says there’s a separate school system. But can someon, anyone, tell me WHY in 2012 a specific, faith-based, no, sectarian-based school system is necessary?
Why Roman Catholic? Why not my religion too? Oh wait, someone tried to correct that, but they were pummelled at the polling stations.
Until this happens, this sort of petty nonsense will continue. And people wonder why my children go to private school.
Imagine if they were trying to force Muslims to eat pork in school cafeterias. Then we’d have trouble!
Solution to the problem is do what the NDPQ do regularly: ‘ Call on the UN to solve the problem jst as they NDPQ, have called on theUN to help them solve other problems.
Sorry Sean but you are wrong on two counts. First of all we do not have a cafeteria style constitution where you pick and choose. I am not Catholic or even Christian, but even I understand this. Secondly, it is the same problem for all public schools regardless of religion.
“There is less bullying in Catholic schools” Where do you get your statistics. I would be very much interested in looking at this study. This being said, I don’t actually doubt that your statement is probably true. Public schools have much greater diversity, simply due to the numerous religions of the students. Therefore the Catholic schools have fewer triggers for bullying.
Most Catholic schools also have uniform codes. One more trigger removed.
But arguing that catholic schools respect the inherent dignity of the individual is implying that public schools do not, which is a fallacy. Telling gay kids that homosexuality is an abomination, a sin, unnatural, is hardly respecting their dignity; it is robbing them of their dignity.
Okay Ken, we get it. You do not like Catholic doctrine or the Bible and demand that it be changed to endorse homosexuality. Unfortunately for you there is such a thing as religious freedom in Canada. No one is forcing you or anyone else to join the Catholic church or any religion for that matter.
Alain, I don’t see anyone saying that catholics must endorse homosexuality, any more than we would expect you to endorse teen pregnancy. But they both exist. Pretending they dont wont make them go away.
I remember the day when pregnant teens weere removed from school because some idiot thought that allowing her to stay in school was an endorsement of teen sex. Providing support tools like gsas is not an endorsement of homosexuality anymore than allowing pregnant teens to stay in school is an endorsement of teen sex.
Alain, you are correct that nobody is forcing me to join a church. But nobody is forcing any kid to join a gsa. If you are so strongly opposed to them, tell your kid that he or she can’t attend one.
Great News Article.
Interesting perspectives being put forward here.
Personally, am finding it frustrating that the government thinks it’s good for Ontarians to have legislated opinion. Going so far as to legislate what the church can and cannot believe.
The question here seems to be, whose rights will triumph in this case? Sexual rights or religious rights. The going trend seems to be ‘sexual rights’ trump – and the current government seems determined to prove this true.
Interesting times we live in.
Catholics have the religious right to believe that homosexuality is intrinsically disordered. The orientation is in itself contrary to natural law, and the one flesh union as taught by Christ. Catholics teach not out of spite or fear or any other phobia. It teaches gay and all students the purpose and the design of sex. Catholic schools, when doing their job in line with the magisterium, teach that all people not in a married state (one man to one women) must be chaste and develop self control for the sake of freedom and love. This out of respect for the meaning and purpose of the one flesh union, and procreation within marriage. GSAs do not foster this. Rather they send the message and give a sense of permission that same sex attraction acted upon is fine and in some sense equal to the attraction of a man and a women. This liberal premise is behind the GSA push. To uphold homosexual orientation as equal or normal or just another sexual expression among many is simply dishonest and wrong . Catholics embrace and love all people but we love truth as well. The truth has and is shown to us by natural law, reason, and Christ. It is impossible to go against it. GSAs do not support or give evidence to this and would be a sign of discord and dishonesty.
Lilly certainly has an agenda. I don’t see the problem with stating that separate schools not being allowed to discriminate against a minority for the sake of religious dogma. The fact that they get public funding makes it doubly imperative that they meet societal standards. Even if they weren’t accepting public funds though, I still think their behaviour should be regulated in this fashion. Once you preach hate in a public forum, whether it be anti-gay, anti-Muslim or any form of racist ranting, the law should make it clear that this will not be tolerated. I might question the form the law takes, preventing school prohibition of a gay-straight alliance club, but without a toehold like this empowering gay students and their allies, it might not happen in some schools.