TORONTO, December 17, 2020 (Corriere Canadese) — Dear Dr Browne:
May God bless you and your Board! You have given the Corriere Canadese, and me personally, so much material to dissect — Daily — that we can barely keep up. All levity aside, as I indicated in an open letter to you early in your mandate, a personal scheduling decision by you resulted in the reopening of an issue that had been laid to rest. The outcome is a legal and religious morass.
We are a secular publication. We never question the religious devotion of anyone, Catholic and non, although everyone on our staff is a Roman Catholic. We also do not question the sexual orientation of any of our staff; several of our staff writers and contributors are not heterosexual. We are concerned only with the quality of everyone's research, analysis and journalism.
So are our readers. They pay for their subscriptions or purchase at their point of sale. They expect and get quality, no matter what some of your trustees would like to believe. Every day, we try to provide an informative product to our readers on a wide range of topics of interest to them, locally, nationally and internationally. Ours is a knowledgeable questioning and mature readership.
Trudeau Liberals have inserted ambiguous, and possibly discriminatory language into the application for COVID-19 relief funding.
This means that the government could seek to bar Christian organizations from receiving COVID-19 aid - which now includes Canadian Summer Job (CSJ) monies - if they don't betray their religious beliefs.
This would be wrong under any circumstance, but given the global COVID-19 pandemic, this would amount to a grave trampling on the freedoms of religion and speech.
Please SIGN this petition, directed to the Liberal government, the Opposition, the Canadian government's Ombudsman, and the Canadian Supreme Court, which asks the Government to ensure that COVID-19 relief aid will not be contingent on an anti-religious test.
Under the COVID-19 relief aid CEBA program - the Canada Emergency Business Account, an interest-free loan of up to $40,000 for businesses, non-profit groups and registered charities that generate a portion of their income from the sale of goods and services - an applicant will be excluded unless it can confirm it "does not promote violence, incite hatred or discriminate on the basis of sex, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, culture, region, education, age or mental or physical disability."
This language potentially discriminates against Christian organizations who, under Canadian law, retain the right to hire individuals who share the same beliefs.
As Marty Moore, a lawyer with the Calgary-based Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) told LifeSite: "A religious organization has a legal right to hire those who align with its beliefs to carry out its religious purposes. The law permits that."
But, the current wording of the aid application lacks reference to the legal phrase ‘contrary to applicable laws’, which would guarantee freedom of religion and conscience in this case.
"There is legitimate concern that the federal government, with a track record of discriminating against beliefs it disagrees with, will use the CEBA to also discriminate against religious entities," Moore pointed out.
Please SIGN this urgent petition which asks the government to clarify that COVID-19 relief aid will not be contingent on a religious organizations having to betray their beliefs. Thank you!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'Trudeau forces businesses, charities to ‘confirm’ they don’t ‘discriminate’ to receive emergency aid' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/trudeau-forces-businesses-charities-to-confirm-they-dont-discriminate-to-receive-emergency-aid
'Christian charity takes Canadian govt to court over Summer Jobs discrimination' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/christian-charity-takes-canadian-govt-to-court-over-summer-jobs-discrimination
'Canada won’t fund student summer jobs unless employers support abortion' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-canada-wont-fund-student-summer-jobs-unless-employers-demonstrate
**Photo Credit: Jack Taylor/Getty Images
It is, however, overwhelmingly Catholic — if one takes into account how individual property owners and renters wish to register their Municipal property or rental assessments. By that account, our readers are “devout Catholic ratepayers”.
We are pretty confident at least one of your Trustees is not. If verified, she has been engaged in matters for which she has no authority.
She and you are custodians of our readers' “assets” in the education system. May I suggest that until such time as she clarifies her legal status as a voter and Trustee you encourage/insist that she not participate in discussions or votes that impinge on those assets?
You are a busy man. We expect you should be, so, you do not have the time to read what we print daily. Our coverage of the TCDSB's issues outstrips that of the other publications combined by a vast margin. Moreover, our readers are almost all Catholic ratepayers.
I attach but a few samples in English to illustrate what your ratepayers are reading daily. Our archives are available on line should you wish to “catch up”. We intend to defend our readers' interests.
Regards,
The Hon. Joseph Volpe, P.C., C.Dir.
President/Publisher
https://www.corriere.ca/english-articles/time-for-tcdsbs-maoist-gang-of-four-trustees-to-leave/
https://www.corriere.ca/english-articles/tcdsb-towards-self-destruction/
Published with permission from the Corriere Canadese.