News

Friday April 30, 2010


Lesbian Teacher’s Allegation She Was ‘Fired’ From B.C. Catholic School Sparks Debate

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

VANCOUVER, April 30, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Debate over the right of religious schools to expect staff to follow a code of conduct in keeping with the school’s moral values has been re-ignited after lesbian music teacher Lisa Reimer claimed she was “fired” by Little Flower Academy, one of three private Vancouver Catholic schools. Reimer says she was fired when school administration discovered that she and her homosexual partner were having a baby.

Reimer, who is not Catholic, said she signed a “Catholicity clause” at Little Flower Academy saying she would respect the Catholic school’s faith and “demonstrate a respectful and sympathetic sensitivity to the aims and nature of the school and to the Catholic beliefs and practices of the school.”

The clause, which allows religious schools to insist that teachers and students conform to articles of their faith, was upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2001.

However, Reimer did not tell the school when she was hired for a one year contract to replace the school’s regular music teacher who was on maternity leave, that she was a lesbian and involved in a homosexual relationship.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Reimer said school administration told her she would no longer be allowed to conduct classes at the school, though she would continue to be paid.

“They said, ‘You’re employed ‘til the end of June 30, and you’ll be paid out, but you’re no longer allowed on campus to see the girls, and your classes have been cancelled,” she told reporters.

“I feel like I’ve been fired with a payout,” she said.

Celso Boscariol, chairman of the Little Flower Academy’s board of directors, said Reimer was not fired and she remains on contract with Little Flower Academy until the end of June.

Boscariol said Reimer was hired to replace a teacher on maternity leave and while her contract would not have been renewed anyway, he confirmed that the school decided not to allow her to continue teaching the students after she identified herself as a lesbian whose partner was pregnant.

“When it came to light that she wanted parental leave because her lesbian partner was having a baby, that’s when we had concerns,” Boscariol told the Vancouver Sun.

Though Reimer could have been fired for breach of the Catholicity clause in the contract she signed, Boscariol said the school did not want to fire her and chose instead to continue paying her until her contract ran out.

“At this stage we will honour our word. We could have fired her back when she announced (her homosexuality), as it was a breach of her employment contract. At the same time we wanted to be decent and fair with her without compromising our adherence to Catholic values. We didn’t want to visit financial hardship on her family,” Boscariol said.

B.C. Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid said her staff is looking into the situation.

Little Flower Academy is accredited as a Group 1 Independent School by the provincial education ministry and therefore receives 50 per cent of the per-pupil funding given to public schools within the Vancouver School District.

“I am concerned about what I have heard and I have asked ministry staff to look into this,” MacDiarmid told the media.

“Stepping way back, there are labour laws, human rights laws in British Columbia and they have to be followed. They apply to everyone. The law is the law,” MacDiarmid said

“Our tax dollars should not be funding institutions that are violating people’s rights under the Charter,” Irene Lanzinger, president of the BC Teachers Federation, told CTV News.

However, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association said that Little Flower Academy’s decision about how to handle the situation with Reimer was not illegal and the school was justified in its course of action.

“As a matter of our constitution law protected by the Charter (of Rights and Freedoms), people have the right to associate in groups. That means that churches are protected and can define their membership,” the association’s President Robert Holmes told CTV News.

“She (Reimer) has a choice as well, and the choice is to not work there, not to associate with them,” Holmes said.

In a late report, the CBC said that Reimer will not be launching a human rights complaint against Little Flower Academy.

“I’m going to let this unfold,” Reimer said Thursday evening, adding that when she signed the Catholicity clause in her contract with Little Flower Academy, she didn’t disclose that she was in a homosexual relationship. “I was not made aware that my personal life would be judged by anyone,” she claimed.

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