TORONTO, Ontario, May 31, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Over 500 parents and pro-family activists rallied at downtown Toronto’s busy Dundas Square from 12 to 1 Thursday afternoon, completely filling the entire perimeter around the square and even spilling across the street in front of the Eaton Center. At 1 p.m., with police escort, they marched to Queen’s Park to protest the McGuinty government’s homosexual ‘rights’ bill that would force homosexual activist groups on the province’s schools, including Catholic schools. (see video)
The group bore tape across their mouths to signify that pro-family Ontarians are being “oppressed” by McGuinty’s government. They handed out flyers to the public and rally captains were seen engaged in many conversations with passersby.
The protesters charge that the government’s “anti-bullying” Bill 13, which could face a final vote any day now, has a hyper-focus on bullying based on sexual orientation rather than factors like body image that have been shown to be the main causes of bullying.
They argue key provisions, including one that would force schools to allow “gay-straight alliance” clubs, violate parental rights and religious freedom.
Phil Lees, leader of the Family Coalition Party and an organization called PEACE, said the protest is “a reminder to the legislators in the pink palace down the street that we will not allow the rights of responsible, traditional, principled Ontarians to be taken away.”
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The bill originally allowed schools to opt to allow homosexual clubs with a name of the schools’ choice, but Education Minister Laurel Broten amended the bill this week after intense pressure from the homosexual lobby, mandating the name “gay straight alliances” or GSAs, as they are commonly referred to.
The issue has become a flash point for Ontario’s Catholic bishops, who had said they would allow clubs focusing on homosexuality, but in accord with Catholic teaching and without the GSA name.
In a statement Monday after the government announced the GSA amendment, Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto suggested the amendment “overrides the deeply held beliefs” of the Church and “intrudes on its freedom to act in a way that is in accord with its principles of conscience.”
Also, referring to the McGuinty GSAs model, Collins stated in a SUN news video report “we just think that that’s fine, for others, if other people want that, but we don’t believe that is in our schools.”