On Tuesday, the Minister of Education for the province of Ontario attended a breakfast to mark the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. It was there where the Xtra! finally caught up to her, and was able to talk about the Gay-Straight Alliances and its province-wide ban in Catholic schools.
Unfortunately, it turns out that the minister sides with Catholic boards on the ban. Though I should have expected this outcome given the previous tepid response from the provincial politicians on the matter, it still came as a shock.
It’s a disheartening development, because short of the courts, the provincial government is the highest authority on the matter. So now you have the schools, the boards, their religious overseers, and finally the provincial government all backing homophobic policies.
What’s particularly discouraging is that I feel like there’s no one left to turn to. The provincial government was the last level in the Catholic boards’ chain of command that could have put an end to this bigotry.
I’m very skeptical on there being swift progress on this issue. Despite the negative press, the Liberals are getting out of this relatively unscathed and the Conservatives are keeping silent. Meanwhile, the minister’s endorsement of some initiatives to counter homophobia is serving as an effective shield to defuse criticism.
The burden is on advocacy groups and dissenting voices, but I don’t know what these voices are worth if there’s no one left to listen.
I contacted my local MPP, Yasir Naqvi, who also happens to be the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Education. I promptly received a reply from his staffer informing me that he’d get back to me. That was over a month ago. I sent an email to follow-up the other day, and I was told by the staffer that a response was forthcoming. I have yet to receive a reply from Mr. Naqvi.
A thank you to Duncan for catching and informing me of the typographical error.