News

By Patrick B. Craine

TORONTO, Ontario, September 23, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A public school trustee candidate from Ancaster says the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board’s equity policy, now being implemented in accordance with the Ontario government’s equity and inclusive education strategy, “represents sexual abuse in the first degree.”

“To manipulate a child’s mind and coerce them into believing that it is permissible and acceptable to do something which is against their parent’s beliefs is reprehensible,” said Klaas Detmar.  “This makes me mad!”

The Hamilton policy, adopted in 2008 despite strong objection from parents, commits all the board’s policies and procedures to be “anti-homophobic and anti-heterosexist.”

The cross-province push for “equity,” spearheaded by the Ontario Ministry of Education, is becoming a major issue in the upcoming Ontario municipal and school board elections for October 25th.

The government’s equity strategy, mandating that all boards develop such an equity policy by this month, is facing strong criticism from parents and pro-family advocates because it equates acceptance of the homosexual person with an acceptance of homosexuality itself.

Detmar, who is running in Ward 13, says he wants to be a trustee to “bring about change that reflects God’s love and truth for the students in the Public Schools of Hamilton-Wentworth.”

“In my opinion, the policy paper drafted up by the Hamilton Board does not reflect the best wishes of the majority of parents and guardians and should be scrapped,” he said.  “It was a waste of time and taxpayers money.”

John Davidson, a former public school trustee for Stoney Creek who is seeking election in Wards 9 and 10, told StoneyCreekNews that the Hamilton policy represents “the whims and extreme ideologies of politicians and their flunkies.”

Davidson told LifeSiteNews that the pursuit for “inclusive rights” is “changing our culture and challenging family values.”

The equity policy, he said, is a “one size fits all approach,” and there has been “little effort or direction by School Boards or Government as to how parents can exit from the policy.”

“I believe parents must be given their ultimate say and support for their family values,” he added.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

School Trustees Slam “Homosexualized” Ontario “Equity Strategy”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/sep/10092110.html

Parents Must Unite to Scrap Ontario Equity Strategy, Says Pro-Family Group  
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/aug/10083106.html

Ontario Equity Strategy Threatens to Embed Religious Discrimination: CLC  
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/sep/10090211.html

Catholics’ Constitutional Rights No Safeguard Under Ontario Equity Strategy: CLC  
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/sep/10090708.html