TORONTO – York Catholic District School Board (YCDSB) no longer believes in its own Constitutionally mandated obligation to defend and promote the catholicity of its schools. Both the Director (Domenic Scuglia) and the Chair (Frank Alexander) have ceded responsibility for that to the teachers’ union, OECTA and its local president, a certain Mike Totten.
It is not theirs to abandon. As per the Constitution Act (Section 93), The Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Education Act, the Ontario Human Rights Code (sec 19.1) only parents – through the Magisterium, the Pope through his local bishop Boissineau, in this instance – have the authority to make such policy decisions.
The Bishop was nowhere to be seen at Tuesday’s YCDSB meeting. To be kind, Trustees appear divided on the matter of religious policy, although they have no jurisdiction over it. Thugs from the teachers’ union and their allies in the “gender lobby” seemed more than happy to fill the void. Parents frankly did not have a chance.
First, they were practically shut out from the lower and upper gallery of the Board room. Outmanoeuvred by the early flow of gender lobbyists, they were ushered into an overflow room where expressions of their reactions to delegations would be out of earshot. Therefore, only those of the activists (many of them manifestly anti-Catholic) could have an impact on the Trustees.
Secondly, at least four armed Policemen were on hand to keep order and to support an equal number of Board Security officers. They were strategically positioned at the entrance of the overflow room and the doors to the lower gallery where two oversized private security agents “protected” the supports of anti-Board delegators. No need to do so. These delegators, a husband and wife team, were deferential and polite to a fault.
Third, Director Scuglia, whose inaction or connivance, initially permitted the distribution and promotion of stickers and gender-ideological discussions in elementary schools without parent consultation and/or discussion, shut down any debate by declaring this to be an “Operational matter”. Nonsense. Unfortunately, Frank Alexander concurred. Neither of them could point to a Bylaw or a Motion of the Board to support their position. They even apologized for the outbursts of parents at a Board meeting in February.
In fact, the activist gender ideologues were “released” from their seating arrangements only after disappointed parents had left and collected outside the building.
Totten, then emerged from his safe hiding place, seemingly gloating over his victory. As I approached him, politely, to ask a question, he snapped that he would not talk to me. I suggested such a response might weaken any credibility he might try to attribute to his displacement of a parent’s right to know what and why was being taught to their children.
He did not seem to care. Parents are faced with a serious dilemma: neither the Administration of the schools nor the elected Trustees are willing to fulfill their sworn duty. Teachers are behaving like yahoos running amok. What is the difference then between Catholic and Public schools?
