The Standing Committee on Social Policy will be in Ottawa on May 22nd to hold public hearings on Bill 13 and 14. Among the confirmed speakers will be the Catholic Women’s League of Canada and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (“homosexual activists … subvert already weak Catholic sexual teaching in the schools”).
When: 9:00am, Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Where: Ottawa Marriott Hotel on 100 Kent St., Victoria North Ballroom (2nd Floor)
I got in touch to be among the speakers, but I was too late. Nevertheless, I have the following prepared should the opportunity present itself:
To my esteemed parliamentarians and participants here today,
My name is Julien McArdle. Full disclosure: I organized in the spring of last year a petition to lift the ban on Gay-Straight Alliances, or GSAs, in the Ottawa Catholic School Board. I amassed over 700 signatures to this effect. The accompanying Facebook group has over 400 followers.
I’m here today to talk about Bill 13, and more specifically to discuss Gay-Straight Alliances and the clubs like them. I believe it to be the elephant in the room with regards to this bill and the reason why there is such strong opposition from a dedicated minority.
What I propose is simple: listen to the students. I find that they are so easy to forget when we hold these sessions away, both in time and place, from schools.
If you listen to the students, they have already spoken. They did so when they tried to set up Gay-Straight Alliances. Let me remind you that it was not the students who subsequently forbade their establishment.
I must also speak out on the “Respecting Differences” clubs. I would find it a wonderful asset were it not actually utilized as a tool to legitimize the prohibition of genuine support to students. The guidelines for the Respecting Differences group forbid conversations on gender identity. I ask you: how is a group where you can’t even discuss what you’re facing supposed to be of any help? It can not. Imagine how ineffective an anti-racism club would be if its participants were not permitted to talk about issues surrounding race.
On the matter of religious freedom, an argument oft-cited by opponents, I ask this: how is one’s religious freedoms impinged by the existence of a group whose mandate is to foster understanding? It is not.
That some speakers before you have made comparisons to slavery and the residential school abuses in reference to a mere support group attests to the toxicity in the public sphere that makes clubs like GSAs so necessary to the young recipients of this ignorance.
I conclude with a simple message: the beneficiaries of this bill are the students. They have already spoken, they just need for you to listen.
Thank you very much for your time.
Comments
5 responses to “Bill 13 & 14 Public Hearings in Ottawa”
Amen.
Hear hear!
*Bangs desk*
Great statement. I hope you get a chance to read it!
[…] if I’d be among those speaking. I told him that I was too late. I nevertheless showed him the speech I had prepared, and he helped me submit it so that all the parliamentarians on the committee would at least be […]
Julien, you speak eloquently and truthfully. There is so much intolerance and fear and those are the two main roadblocks to the passage of this Bill. Those who are using Catholicism as their shield against Bill 13, are ignorant of their own religious tenants. A true Catholic, in fact a true Christian is a tolerant, giving person who does not hide under misrepresentations of ‘the Word’.
During the public hearings, for which I was present for only a portion, it was distressing to hear the ignorance proferred in the name of religion. This is not about religion, it’s about anti-bullying. It’s about our children and youth, it’s about our school system, it’s about the fear people have that somehow things as they ”know them to be” will change. I also heard some very intelligent and knowleadgeable speakers. One such person was the director for Social Services here in the city. Her stance was pro Bill 13. She had seen firsthand the damage done by exclusion (reverse bullying) and bullying. She knew about the suicides and the attempts to hurt oneself, the mental torture, the physical and social scars, the long-lasting residue that occurs by NOT having any legislation in place to truly protect this segment of our society. She spoke about Bill 13 being way too long in the making and yet the only legislation with any true power to affect change. There were a few other voices like hers. I’m sorry that your voice was not heard at the hearing Julien, but congrats for submitting your ideas via Yasir Naqvih’s office.