ยป Bigoted Vancouverites
A Catholic girls’ school in Vancouver denied a lesbian parent childcare leave and then asked her to sit out her contract at home. The public really shouldn’t be funding religious schools, especially not ones run by bigots.
I hope my goddaughter won’t go there — hate and bigotry are spiritual death, and I’m responsible for her soul. I just emailed her bioparents to ask.
I didn’t know that BC had publicly-funded religious schools!
Still, I find it funny when people say “separation of church & state” in Canada: Protestant and Catholic schools are enshrined in the Constitution!
Jared
30 Apr 10 at 9:01 pm
Update: Bioparents aren’t involved with that school. Excellent.
Jack
1 May 10 at 9:08 am
Yes, there is no constitutional requirement of a separation of church and state in Canada. And, although I’m an atheist, I have no problem with that in principle: Christmas trees at parliaments and city halls don’t bother me, nor prayers in legislative chambers, nor the fact that “Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law”.
However, I wish that Ontario didn’t have a publicly-funded, public system of Catholic boards and schools that are a parallel system to the normal public system. (i.e. In Ontario, the Catholic school system is not just a private system that happens to receive some provincial grants.) And they actively discriminate. I’m not thinking of a single, egregious event like that mentioned by Jack, but many (most?) Catholic boards in Ontario have an active, publicly stated policy that, although any children can attend, only baptized Roman Catholics with a recommendation from an RC priest can apply for teaching positions. “Protestants need not apply.” [My statement, not a direct quote from them.]
Now that Ontario is introducing government daycare for 4- and 5-year-olds via “all-day kindergarten” and the requirement that schools provide subsidized child care for parents who need to drop off their kindergarteners early or pick them up later, Catholic boards have said that only Roman Catholics can apply for child care positions, too.
How Catholic boards haven’t been sued about this, I don’t know. Or maybe they have been and won, which would be even harder for me to understand.
Don
2 May 10 at 6:18 am
Don, I think if anyone has bothered to sue they have lost. Quebec may no longer be religiously Catholic, but they still are culturally Catholic, and therefore the schools are simply keeping a minority culture alive in Ontario, like Chinese schools.
Jared
2 May 10 at 9:55 pm
Catholics are not a minority in Ontario in any usual sense of the word “minority” when discussing demographics. As of 2001, they were practically tied for largest religious group, claiming only two-tenths of a percentage less of the Ontario population than protestantism. I wouldn’t be surprised if they pull slightly ahead in the 2011 census.
But I think that isn’t really relevant to my main point. Even if one accepts that a separate, public Catholic school system is important to protect a minority culture, that doesn’t excuse discriminatory hiring practices. That Catholic boards would require that teachers have the knowledge and willingness to instruct students what the Roman Catholic church teaches in addition to their normal teaching duties, and to be able to answer students’ questions, seems perfectly reasonable to me. The further requirement that the teachers actually be Catholics seems unjustifiable for government schools.
Don
3 May 10 at 7:37 am
Okay, I agree with that: they shouldn’t be required to be Catholics. But all schools, secular and theological, require their teachers to uphold community standards of decency. Being a lesbian is indecent in the Catholic community.
The larger issue here is that the State raises children instead of parents. If you don’t want your kid indoctrinated, don’t send them to school.
Jared
4 May 10 at 9:06 am
Tolerance towards intolerance self-annihilates.
Jack
4 May 10 at 10:37 am