IN Toronto magazine

SOUND OFF:

Ontario’s Liberal minority government has unrolled legislation designed to give students the right to form anti-bullying groups like gay-straight alliances at school. But it is not clear if the bill would force Catholic schools to allow clubs with the word gay in their title, something currently banned in the publicly-funded Catholic system. Ontario’s three main parties weigh in.

“There are a variety of names chosen by students who are coming forward to put a group together. It cannot be a generic group that tackles bullying in a generic way. We have been crystal clear that groups that speak to a specific issue must be supported. You cannot simply say [students] can have a group but can’t talk about sexual orientation. We feel confident that Catholic education will cooperate with this act. We have set our expectations.”

Laurel Broten, Minister of Education, Liberal MPP for Etobicoke-Lakeshore; despite repeated requests, Broten would not confirm specifically whether the bill gives Catholic students the right to use the term gay-straight alliance

“Once again this issue has become a political football in Ontario. I am surprised the government left a lack of clarity as to the naming of support groups. This legislation provides an opportunity for schools to disallow certain names if they wish. How wrong is that? If young people want to name their group gay-straight alliance they should have the opportunity to do that. Period. By not allowing students to use the word gay, you’re telling them that they’re wrong. It’s almost like you’re forcing kids back in the closet by saying they can’t use the word gay. It’s wrong this continues to be an issue.”

Andrea Horwath, NDP party leader, MPP for Hamilton Centre   

“Our leader Tim Hudak has made the point that all publicly funded schools should have groups. It matters not about who you are but that every person feels safe. [In terms of clarifying the usage of “gay-straight alliance” in Catholic schools,] the government could have addressed it at any time, but they chose to do it this way. If this issue needed to be addressed, they could have sent out a memo-
randum and declared that this should happen. When the government speaks, that’s what happens in our schools.”

Elizabeth Witmer, Progressive Conservative MPP for Kitchener/Waterloo; Witmer has put forward her own anti-bullying legislation which makes no reference to gay-straight alliances