Trustee candidates criticize Milton ‘Sanctity of Life’ motion

Thestar.com
October 4, 2018
Saira Peesker

Five out of Milton’s six Catholic trustee candidates agree: the board’s controversial Sanctity of Life motion has got to go.

At an all-candidates meeting at Jean Vanier Catholic Secondary School on Tuesday, Bob Grynol was the only one present to show support for the motion -- which curtailed schools’ fundraising for charities that directly or indirectly support abortion, contraception, sterilization, euthanasia or human embryonic stem cell research. The motion, introduced in February, was put on hold May 1 after an uproar from students and parents.

“I would vote to uphold the teachings of the church,” said Grynol, to applause, adding he hadn’t been following the fracas over the policy very closely. “I have the highest regard for sanctity of human life.”

Fellow candidates Marvin Duarte, Patrick Murphy, Kanakam Davis, Korin Abdelsayed and Samantha Attew were less enthusiastic about the policy.

“I have faith in the principals and leaders in our schools,” said Murphy, also to applause. “If you have a sick child in the class and (the other students) sell cookies for Sick Kids (Hospital), that’s not going to be used in the wrong vein.”

Abdelsayed suggested changing the wording of the motion so it only cuts out charities that do direct work in the contentious areas. “We can change the text to ‘directly’ (from ‘indirectly’) to make it more viable.”

Duarte suggested that the ongoing debate is tarnishing the reputation of the school board.

“The present controversial policy has divided us as Catholics … I would like to pick my battles and focus on protecting Catholic education,” he said, later adding, “Right now, the board is the laughingstock of the province. We need to work toward setting things right.”

Two trustees will be elected to represent Milton in this election, an increase from one on the Catholic board currently.

The event was organized by Halton Catholic school board employees and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA). Moderator Keith Boyd, president of the Halton OECTA chapter, tried to enforce rules meant to prevent the discussion from becoming a debate -- but that didn’t stop controversy from surfacing.
One attendee asked the candidates to declare whether OECTA has endorsed them -- referring to a letter the teachers’ organization sent to its members Sept. 18 encouraging them to vote for Attew and Duarte.

“This is an important election because of the dysfunctional nature of our current school board trustees,” states the letter. “Let’s take right-wing, American political ideology out of our classrooms!”

The letter slams the current board for its Sanctity of Life policy, fiscal mismanagement, rolling out French immersion without enough teachers and the daily recitation of the Oath of Citizenship.