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Michael Del GrandeToronto Catholic School Board

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ANALYSIS

TORONTO, December 18, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — The non-stop attack by the LGBT activists and dissenting trustees against Catholic trustee Mike Del Grande for opposing gender ideology reached a new low when his opponents leaked confidential information to the Toronto Star in order to smear his reputation.

Del Grande has been under fire since he voted last month along with Teresa Lubinski, Nancy Crawford, and Garry Tanuan against adding “gender identity” and “gender expression” to the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) code of conduct.

The campaign has left no doubt that dissent runs deep in the TCDSB, and revealed the deep animus certain trustees and LGBT activists have toward Del Grande.

The Toronto Star has been their go-to media ally in the attacks, with two stories by three reporters on Del Grande appearing in one day in Canada’s largest newspaper.

Star reporter Isabel Teotonio ran an “exclusive” story Tuesday based on “a fax recently sent anonymously to the Star.” That fax revealed student trustee Taylor Dallin’s complaint against Del Grande that the board is handling privately – thus putting Del Grande in the position where he can’t defend himself without likewise breaching confidentiality.

A Grade 12 student at Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts, Dallin is pro-abortion and pro-LGBT “rights,” and alleged in her complaint that Del Grande started a discussion about abortion with her when she was alone in the trustees’ lounge after a September 25 meeting. He allegedly “harassed” her about “my more progressive and welcoming views” to the point where she cried. 

The genesis for discussion was that the Living our Catholic Values subcommittee heard a delegation asking to show the pro-life movie Unplanned in TCDSB high schools. Dallin told the committee that some doctors said it misrepresented abortion and so students should discuss and do research before a decision was made, according to the Star. 

According to the Star, Dallin’s encounter with Del Grande allegedly prompted the board to implement a safety plan for her and to hire an outside lawyer to investigate the incident.

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Teotonio’s article was followed by another later on Tuesday by the Star’s Queen’s Park Bureau Chief Kristin Rushowy and City Hall Bureau Chief David Rider, who solicited comments from Mayor John Tory and Education Minister Stephen Lecce on Dallin’s leaked allegations, as well as on Del Grande’s using the word “evil” when defending his stance against gender ideology in LifeSiteNews.

Lecce said the board should make a “fulsome investigation” and Tory opined that the alleged incidents were “dinosaur-like.”

Trustee Markus de Domenico, who tweeted support of Dallin, has now called a special board meeting December 23 in which he wants the board to ask Del Grande “to withdraw those statements (on LifeSiteNews.com), apologize and repudiate the impressions that he’s given staff, students, families and trustees,” he told the Star.

The other side of the story

That’s the same de Domenico who told Campaign Life Coalition before the last election that he would oppose the teaching of gender identity in schools, but then pushed for the inclusion of the gender terms in the code.

And that’s the same de Domenico who repeatedly interrupted Josie Luetke, youth coordinator for Campaign Life Coalition, to tell her she was “wrong” when she appeared before the Living Our Catholic Values subcommittee to oppose adding gender terms to the code.

“I find it a little hypocritical that Trustee de Domenico tweeted that Taylor Dallin ‘deserves a safe and nurturing work environment’ when he made no attempt to provide the same for me when I delegated to the board,” Luetke told LifeSiteNews.

In fact, Luetke “was taken aback by how aggressive he was, especially given that he's a Catholic school trustee and I was just trying to patiently and sincerely express my views,” she added.

“He came across as quite disrespectful, and other trustees had to intervene in my defense, asking him to show more civility. But, unfortunately, as a pro-life young person, I am quite accustomed to being attacked for daring to dissent from mainstream opinion,” she said. 

“Of course, while the mainstream media is all too happy to call out Trustee Del Grande, I sadly don’t expect Trustee de Domenico or other dissident Catholics to be held to account,” she observed.

The Star’s Teotonio also “obtained” another private complaint against Del Grande – this one filed by former chair Rizzo regarding the alleged September 25 incident. Rizzo alleged she witnessed Del Grande “cast indirect insults” toward Dallin and that he appeared to use “aggressive body language.”

That’s the same Rizzo who sent “cease and desist” letters to Catholics who questioned her about her pro-LGBT stance in which she threatened to call the police and take legal action against them if they contacted her again.

And that’s the same Rizzo who did not seek re-election as chair “apparently due to a legal case before the Court having to do with the uttering of a threat involving physical harm against a Union official,” former MP Joe Volpe noted in the Toronto-based Italian-language publication Corriere Candese.

“Now that’s a story,” said Jack Fonseca, director of political operations for Campaign Life Coalition. 

“The Toronto Star shows its bias by publishing confidential info on Del Grande, who they know very well is only doing his job as a trustee defending the Catholic faith, but they ignore the story everyone knows about, that Trustee Maria Rizzo uttered a serious threat of physical violence against a union official,” he said. 

“This is shameful reporting bias by the fake news Toronto Star.”

He blasted the “hit-piece” against Del Grande but said the “greater shame belongs to  “anti-Catholic dissidents in the TCDSB who leaked the private complaint…We need to find out who’s violating the rules of the board.”

The Star also overlooked the “scandal” of Dallin openly dissenting from fundamental Catholic teaching that “abortion is the murder of children in the womb. Why the hell do we permit pro-abortion student trustees to hold such a position?” asked Fonseca.

Sign the petition to support Del Grande and the trustees who voted against the false and dangerous gender ideology.