[LINK] "Banning gay-straight alliances goes against equity grain, McGuinty warns"

[rfmcdonald]

Tamara Baluja at The Globe and Mail notes that the decision of Ontario's publicly funded Roman Catholic school system to ban gay-straight alliances is becoming more of a political issue. If the system accepts public funding, how can it go against the Education ministry's policies on equity?

A Mississauga Catholic high school’s decision to bar students from launching a gay-straight alliance doesn’t jibe with Ontario’s education policy on equity, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Monday.

“We are making it perfectly clear to all our school boards, all our schools, all our principals, all our teachers and all our students that it is unacceptable in Ontario to discriminate based on race, gender, religion or sexual orientation,” the Premier said in Question Period.

Mr. McGuinty stopped short of saying the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board was actually in violation of the ministry’s code on equity, saying that “boards can find different ways to ensure that they adhere to those policies.”

The Premier’s response comes after 16-year-old Leanne Iskander approached St. Joseph’s Catholic Secondary School principal Frances Jacques to start a gay-straight alliance recently and was flatly turned down.

The gay and lesbian newspaper Xtra! reported that Ms. Iskander was told, “There’s already supports in place at the school, such as guidance counsellors. Also, a GSA [gay-straight alliance] is premature for your age.”

NDP education critic Rosario Marchese said the Premier’s response was a non-answer.
[. . .]

The Premier and the Ministry of Education has been predominantly silent on the issue since the issue first made international headlines in January. In neighbouring Halton Catholic District School Board, chairwoman Alice LeMay came under fire when she told Xtra! the board “doesn’t allow Nazi groups either. Gay-straight alliances are banned because they are not within the teachings of the Catholic Church.” Public outrage forced the Halton Catholic board to lift the ban on gay-straigh alliances, but it still does not allow any student group with the word “gay” in its title.