TIME TO REVOKE PUBLIC FUNDS TO CATHOLIC SCHOOLS: NATIONAL SECULAR ORGANIZATION

May 30, 2012

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/-1663231.htm

TIME TO REVOKE PUBLIC FUNDS TO CATHOLIC SCHOOLS: NATIONAL SECULAR ORGANIZATION
Elephant in the Room Too Harmful and Expensive to Ignore Any Longer

TORONTO, ONTARIO—(Marketwire - May 30, 2012) - The hard-line response by Cardinal Thomas Collins to refuse GSAs signals an escalation in a war between the Catholic School System and the Ontario government that leaves vulnerable students as its casualties.

“The question as to whether catholic schools should be required to support GSAs has been satisfactorily answered,” said Justin Trottier, National Communications Director of the Centre for Inquiry (CFI). “The real question now is whether Ontario should be required to continue to support catholic schools.”

“The elephant in the room - public funding of Catholic schools - has become so destructive to fundamental rights and equality it’s impossible to ignore,” said Trottier.

 The Catholic School Boards’ bully pulpit has long been a source of friction with human rights. “Whether banning books by atheists, suspending students advocating pro-choice or refusing admission to non-Catholics, the status quo can no longer be maintained,” said CFI Chairperson Kevin Smith.

In now attempting to censor the very identity of gay students the system has reached its breaking point.

“This kind of conflict will crop up again and again so long as the Catholic School System is funded by all taxpayers but accountable elsewhere, to the Assembly of Catholic Bishops and Cardinal Collins,” said Trottier.

CFI urges the revocation of public funding to the Roman Catholic School system. This is not an attack on Catholics. The Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association supports GSAs and Catholic schools can do as they please. They simply cannot push their moral code at the expense of every Ontario taxpayer.

Contact Information: