I don't follow happenings in Canada like I should ,but needless to say my home state of Louisiana has a link to that region. That is to what some call a war crime down . That is the Acadian expulsion . That Loyalty Oath that Acadians were ordered to take to the King was problematic. Acadians had signed qualified Oaths to the King that allowed them not to have take up arms against the French. Further things got of hand as we see here :
.in 1754, when Major Charles Lawrence illegally demanded that the Acadians sign a loyalty oath to the English King and repudiate their Catholic religion. (Lawrence did not have the approval of the British government to do this.) When the Acadians refused, the men were forced from their families and arrested. Within days, all the farms, barns, churches, and shops that made up the Acadian colonies were burned to a crisp. So were their crops and livestock. A mass expulsion ensued..
The Acadians took their Catholic Faith seriously and the tragic deportation resulted.
So what does this have to do with Anti Bully Laws. Well it seems Catholics must now take another kind of Oath . See Despite criticism, McGuinty won't back off sex-ed component of bullying law . It appears that Premier of Ontario is the new Major Charles Lawrence in a way. He of course is not about to deport Catholic Acadians but one cannot think certain lessons were not learned from the past.
...“To force, especially Christian classrooms or schools, to have homosexual clubs would of course be an affront to their family values,” Charles McVety, of the Institute for Canadian Values, told a joint news conference ....
...There's radical, radical stuff in there, all of this agenda on gender identity and facilitating the questioning of a child's gender and all this other sex-driven stuff that's clearly coming from activists,” said Jack Fonseca of Campaign Life Catholic.
“It's not coming from parents' consultations. It was drafted with consultations by radical activist groups.”
Education Minister Laurel Broten rejected the criticisms expressed by the religious representatives as “homophobic,” and said her job was to make sure every child finds school a warm and inviting place, regardless of their sexual orientation or any other factors....
This seems pretty radical indeed. I think many people that would be for such education would not want to force it on a Catholic school. Of course maybe I am looking at this through the American viewpoint. OfHowever this also would be aCatholic Compendium of Social Justice viewpoint too so I think I am on good ground.
Basically the Government is saying you have to teach concepts that are in direct opposition of the Catholic Faith.
The flip side of this is I think that these Catholic schools receive State funding. To see the background on this see here. While this would seem foreign to the USA one can make an analogy to vouchers in the USA.
The fact that a Catholic School would be mandated to teach something in opposition to the beliefs of the Church is concerning. It's more concerning this is now associated with anti bully legislation. Something that should be watched. I am not against anti bully laws ,but they must be carefully crafted. This seems to have little to do with bullying.
At the top of my page is the Acadian Flag we see often in Louisiana. As explained here :
The Tricolour represents the Motherland of the Acadians. The yellow star, the Stella Maris, is the symbol of Mary, Acadian national symbol and patron of the mariners. It is set on the blue stripe, because blue is the colour of Mary. The yellow colour of the star represents the Papacy.
Perhaps it is time for concerned Catholic to maybe adopt this symbol in Ontario.
While this would seem foreign to the USA one can make an analogy to vouchers in the USA.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to see how a voucher system would play out in the USA vis a vis parochial school autonomy. If vouchers were available, and the school accpeted them, would theschool thenbe required to follow teaching mandates by the state (to some extent, they are required to already just to get certificiation, which is another issue). If acceptance of vouchers were mandatory (just as accepting worthless federal reserve notes is) would that make it less likely the state could force the curricula? It seems just using the certification carrot/stick would be enough, but I haven't heard of that tactic being employed, probably because of the political backlash.
Actually, Catholic Schools in Ontario are fully funded by the government (taxpayers). The Catholic and Public school systems are publically funded entities. There are as well private religious schools to which this law would not apply
ReplyDeleteI think it does show a possible danger of vouchers in the USA at least as to the Church though I am still rather bullish on them.
ReplyDeleteI do wonder if the Church up there is considering just bailing and going private which well would be dramatic. Though I guess it might be a back up plan. I have not seen that discussed