Category: GSAs

Before I move on from the issue of gay-straight alliances, I’d like to address one misconception: that this was about a name. As if to suggest that had these support groups been called something else, the Catholic school boards wouldn’t have banned them. This is one of the greatest untruths of this debacle. The objection was…

As of a few minutes ago, the Accepting Schools Act (Bill 13) is law. Come September, Catholic schools will no longer be able to ban support groups for queer students. According to the Globe & Mail: Bill 13 passed with 65 MPPs voting in favour and all 36 Progressive Conservative MPPs voting against it. The…

Bill 13 is going into final vote, and this has the Catholic leadership, religious groups, and the Sun incensed. It has mobilized protesters and grabbed the national headlines. It’s a fury the likes of which we hadn’t seen yet for this. They say that this is a violation of religious freedoms, that they’ll sue the…

I got up early this morning and headed over to the Marriott hotel where I attended the public hearings for Bill 13 & 14. It was a full-day affair, lasting from nine to five. My boss knew I wouldn’t be in today and was very supportive. There were 29 groups and individuals scheduled to speak,…

The Standing Committee on Social Policy will be in Ottawa on May 22nd to hold public hearings on Bill 13 and 14. Among the confirmed speakers will be the Catholic Women’s League of Canada and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (“homosexual activists … subvert already weak Catholic sexual teaching in the schools”). When: 9:00am, Tuesday, May 22, 2012 Where: Ottawa…

This was another day of debate for Ontario’s Bill 13, also known as the Accepting Schools Act. You can read my coverage for the previous debate here. You can read a transcript of today’s events here. The NDP through MPP Cheri DiNovo affirmed their support for the legislation, while re-iterating where they saw avenues for improvement.…

Introduction Yesterday was the second reading for the Accepting Schools Act (Bill 13), the anti-bullying legislation introduced by the Liberal Party of Ontario. The provisions in the bill would create a “bullying awareness and prevention week”, grant the Minister the ability to put a policies and guidelines to deal with bullying, and also the following:…

The saga of the ban on Gay-Straight Alliances in this province’s Catholic schools continues. However, there is much cause to be optimistic. This past November, the McGuinty government introduced Bill 13, also known as the “Accepting Schools Act.” Among the provisions in the bill is the following: Every board shall support pupils who want to…

  The picture of the television screen above was taken from my hotel room in Toronto a few weeks ago. The caption read “Forcing Liberal Agenda on Kids” and was referring to the new provisions in the Ontario curriculum that would make schools more inclusive for queer students. Naturally, the accompanying imagery wasn’t of children, but of…

The new school year has come, and contrary to my hopes, LGBT students in Catholic schools are still banned from forming Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) clubs. However, to satisfy the provincial government, these schools are to roll out their own groups using a framework devised by the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association which is to manage the issue…