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BC Gov’t Urged to Add Animal Rights in Mandatory Gay-Friendly Social Justice Course

By Gudrun Schultz

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, September 26, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - If animal rights activists have their way, BC high school students will soon be taught to give cows and chickens the same care and attention enjoyed by cats and dogs, in a broad new course on “social justice.”

The controversial high school curriculum already includes “gay-friendly” content, designed to promote acceptance of homosexuality in the schools. A deal between the BC Ministry of Education and a homosexual couple granted the two men the right to privately determine pro-homosexual content in the course, after they filed a complaint against the Ministry in 1999. The complaint accused the Ministry of failing to adequately “address issues of sexual orientation” in the existing curriculum.

The men, Murray Corren and Peter Corren, not only sought and won the inclusion of explicitly pro-homosexual material in BC classrooms, but also ensured the material would be mandatory. Parents were denied the right to request that their children opt out of the material.

Now, an animal rights activist is promoting the inclusion of “speciesism” in the course, saying prejudice against groups of animals is the same as prejudice on the basis of race or gender.

Lesley Fox of the Vancouver Humane Society told a private meeting of educators and social-justice experts that assigning greater or lesser values to animals or a particular species of animal is not acceptable and should be brought to the attention of students, reported the Vancouver Sun yesterday.

“We aren’t trying to make [Social Justice 12] into an animal-rights course,” Fox said. “[But] it is my opinion that if we are going to discuss social justice concepts such as oppression and exploitation, animals should be included.”

The exclusive meeting, by invitation-only, included such parties as the B.C Teachers’ Federation, the B.C. School Trustees’ Association, the Aboriginal Education Association, Educators Against Racism, and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, among others. The Correns were invited along with members of the Gay and Lesbian Educators of B.C.

Conspicuously absent, according to Brian Roodnick of the Concerned Citizens of B.C., were any representatives who would speak on religious discrimination. In an interview with the Sun Roodnick questioned why no one was invited to speak to the group about such issues as anti-Semitism or prejudices against the Muslim community.

See previous LifeSiteNews coverage:

Gov't Agrees to Mandatory Homosexual Curriculum with No Opt-Out for Students or Parents
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jun/06060101.html

B.C. Gay Couple Seeks Mandatory Homosexual School Curriculum Without Parental Opt-Out
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/jul/05071106.html

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