REAL Women of Canada is a non-denominational organization. We have a diverse membership representative of all walks of life, and have different faiths or no faith. What unites us is our commitment to the family, children, and the rights of parents to raise their children in a safe and nurturing environment.

For this reason, REAL Women is concerned with the increase in bullying tactics being used at some of the Catholic School Boards in Canada. The bullying is carried out not only by woke, “progressive”, left wing activists, but also by equally woke, progressive trustees, who are intimidating and harassing their fellow trustees, who are correctly endeavouring to uphold the tenets and rights of the Catholic faith, guaranteed by the Canadian Constitution. Judeo-Christian beliefs, which are part of Catholic values, have always recognized the importance of nuclear families consisting of a father, mother, and children. This also includes the conviction that the family is the foundation of society and that parents have a duty and responsibility to educate their children, including teaching them their faith beliefs.

Ontario

There are 29 English Catholic school boards and eight French Catholic school boards in the province of Ontario. In recent years, incidents of bullying by woke trustees have occurred at the Niagara, Waterloo, Peterborough, Toronto, York Region, and Hamilton-Wentworth School Boards. These trustees use a board’s Code of Conduct as a weapon to intimidate and silence those trustees who uphold traditional Christian values. Any comments made by such trustees are regarded as offensive and politically incorrect, and they have been suspended, sometimes for months at a time without pay, while it is claimed that they are violating the board’s Code of Conduct. This bullying undermines the legitimacy of all boards and trustees.  Subversive trustees are also violating the constitutional rights and liberties of Catholics to educate their children in the tenets and values of the Catholic faith. This is expressly guaranteed by s. 93 of the Constitution Act, 1867 (BNA Act) and subsequently recognized and confirmed by s. 29 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. These constitutional guarantees are further recognized and affirmed by s. 19 of the Ontario Human Rights Code, which requires that nothing in the Code should be “construed to adversely affect any right or privilege respecting separate schools enjoyed by separate school boards or their supporters under the Constitution Act, 1867 and the Education Act.”

Catholic Education

Catholic parents send their children to Catholic schools precisely because they are CATHOLIC — schools where Catholic principles will be taught, and Catholic moral guidance offered.  A great many non-Catholic parents, of other faiths or no faith, also send their children to Catholic schools because they value the education experience their children receive there.  For those who don’t like Catholic social or moral teaching the answer is simple: don’t send your children to a Catholic school.

All children at Catholic schools are treated in a manner consistent with the Church’s social and educational tenets.

Catholic education is already “inclusive” and “diverse,” but the rallying cry of “inclusivity and diversity” has become the new dog whistle for progressive trustees to inject woke and secular policies, that are antithetical to Catholic values and teaching.  Moreover, in doing so they are also being contradictory, as diversity, by definition, means the presence of situations and policies that are different from theirs. That is they are contradictory, as diversity, by definition, includes the Catholic board’s mission and policies that are, in fact, very diverse when compared to those desired by the woke progressives.

Ironically, these trustees, who must themselves be Roman Catholic to qualify for election, are elected to a Catholic board by a democratic process, in order to ensure that children are being instructed in the tenets of the that faith. The actions of these trustees are preposterous in that they are ignoring the teachings of the Catholic Church to which they claim to belong and they are undermining the faith of Catholic children by insisting that their own, personal, socio-political values be imparted to them instead.

This problem usually arises when LGBTQ activists demand that Catholic schools fly the Gay Pride flag. When trustees, who uphold traditional Catholic values and teaching, raise objections to this demand, they are subjected to harassment and bullying by the homosexual activists and supportive trustees. If bullying is unacceptable in the school yard, it is surely also unacceptable at the school board level. The demands by the LGBTQ activists that Catholic schools fly their flag is based on the argument that Catholic schools are “publicly funded” and must follow a policy of “inclusivity and diversity”. Catholics, however, pay taxes as do Muslims, Evangelicals, Orthodox Jews, Sikhs, and others who do not agree with or support the homosexual agenda. It is bizarre that traditional Catholic trustees are being accused of discrimination towards homosexuals for simply failing to agree to fly their flag. In actual fact, it is the LGBTQ activists and their woke enablers who are discriminating against Catholics, who are simply exercising their constitutional right to educate their children in accordance with the Catholic Faith. The Catholic schools themselves are, in fact, a sign of diversity in Canada. Simply put, there is a constitutional acknowledgment and guarantee that Catholic values in their schools are an authentic part of Canada’s diversity.

Whatever “inclusivity and diversity” may mean, it does not mean that all speak and act from the same, progressive hymnbook and adopt the same secular-materialistic outlook on life and its problems. It is problematic and hypercritical that those who demand inclusion and diversity are intolerant of including Catholics at the table unless, of course, they think exactly like them.

A Similar Problem of Intolerance in Other Provinces

This intolerance against those who uphold Catholic teaching is also taking place on Catholic school boards in other provinces, such as Manitoba and Alberta.

These provinces (as all other provinces), when joining confederation, were expressly granted the same rights to their separate schools as set out in S. 93 of the BNA Act (1867) and subsequently recognized and confirmed by section 29 of the Charter of Rights.

Manitoba

Francine Champagne, a trustee elected to Winnipeg’s Louis Riel School Division Board (LRSDB), was suspended many times without pay by trustees on the same board. The latter caused her to resign. This occurred despite the fact that, in her election to the board, Ms. Champagne had received 2,817 votes by those who had determined that she was the best choice to represent them. Ms. Champagne raised objections when board Chairman, Sandy Nemeth, posted on social media platforms that the board fully supported the presence of LGBTQ resources in their schools. When Ms. Champagne requested that this matter be discussed by the board because it had not approved this policy, Chairman Nemeth immediately shut her down, stating that she, as chairman, had posted the statement on behalf of the trustees, and that the diversity policy was not up for discussion. Nemeth also told Ms. Champagne that she had violated the board’s Code of Conduct for her “hateful posts on social media that were not in alignment with the Board’s diversity policy”.

The woke trustees on the board then proceeded to criticize Ms. Champagne publicly in the press, claiming that she was “anti-trans” and “anti-LGBTQ”. This initial suspension was followed by numerous further suspensions, despite the fact that Ms. Champagne had been democratically elected by the community. Since there was no provision under Manitoba’s Public School Act for the board to remove or dismiss Ms. Champagne, they continued to give her suspensions for her refusal to conform to their secular policies. The board environment became so unbearable and unsafe for Ms. Champagne, that she was obliged to resign.

Alberta

In Alberta, in November 2023, Monique LaGrange was “disqualified” as a trustee of the Red Deer Catholic School Board for conduct arising from her posting on social media in her private, personal capacity, a meme featuring two pictures: on top were children holding and waving swastika flags; on the bottom, young children in a classroom were holding and waving Pride flags, with the caption, “Brainwashing is brainwashing.”  In posting the meme, Ms. LaGrange was expressing her political and religious beliefs that young children waving a flag of a complex ideology, that they were unlikely to understand or endorse, amounted to brainwashing.  In an interview in the Western Standard, Ms. LaGrange expressed her view that the meme she posted is “centred around indoctrination and how children are vulnerable to evil agendas (agendas coming from organizations like Planned Parenthood, the UN, or SOGI 123) filtering through culture.”  SOGI stands for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. The woke members of the board then removed her because of her alleged violation of its Code of Conduct. The Board argued that it had the power to do so under Alberta’s School Act. In response to her dismissal, Ms. LaGrange stated, “I did not resign because I believe I didn’t do anything wrong. I was elected to stand up and protect our children and that is what I am doing”. Ms. LaGrange has brought a legal action against the Red Deer Catholic board for removing her from her elected office.

Woke, “Progressive” Trustees Betray Catholic Values

Woke, progressive trustees on Catholic school boards are a disgrace because of their intolerance and disrespect for Catholic values.  By abandoning the teachings of the Catholic Church, they are failing in their duty and responsibility to protect children by attempting to indoctrinate them with their own, personal, secular values that are clearly at odds with the tenets of the Catholic Church. Since the progressives don’t support the teachings of the Catholic Church, it is they who are unacceptable. They should do the honourable thing and resign.  However, in all likelihood, these trustees will continue to enjoy their power and the income they receive while continuing to undermine, corrupt, and manipulate Catholic school boards to adopt secular values. It is critical that this situation on the school boards be remedied by the trustees themselves by holding each other accountable for violations of conduct that are truly antithetical to Catholic teaching.

The Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association’s guide Catholic Trustees: Advocates, Guardians and Stewards of Catholic Education succinctly expresses the expectation that accompanies the duty and responsibility of a Catholic School Trustee:

For the Catholic trustee, the Church’s mission to proclaim, teach and witness to the Gospel finds its particular expression in the mission of the Catholic school. And the mission of the Catholic school is to evangelize youth so that they will become not only well-developed persons and good citizens but also faithful Disciples of Christ and “witnesses to the faith!” [Emphasis added.]

This expectation should be at the centre of the mission of trustees and their boards.

Practical Activism

  1. For those of faith, pray as if everything depends upon God, and act as if everything depends upon you.
  2. Codes of Conduct should all contain express language that clearly states that the Code of Conduct is to be interpreted and applied in such a way that does not contradict the Catechism of the Catholic Church or the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.
  3. Woke trustees on Catholic Boards must be reminded of their duties as set out in documents, such as the Catholic Trustees: Advocates, Guardians and Stewards of Catholic Education (OCSTA’s) and, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which plainly states Catholic beliefs. Trustees who fail to uphold them should not be re-elected to the boards.
  4. There is truth in the saying that there is strength in numbers. School trustees, school boards, school administrators, and teachers need to know that parents as a group are supporting efforts to protect children and to maintain authentic Catholic values in the school system.  Organize a parents’ group at the board level, as well as the individual school level, with the express aim of holding officials, administrators, and educators accountable.
  5. Make your views supporting Catholic values in Catholic education known to the Catholic bishops, who are ultimately responsible for maintaining the faith in each diocese. The protection of children and the constitutional rights of these children to be educated according to the tenets of the Catholic Church must be supported.
  6. The education of all children in all Christian schools is too important to be left entirely in the hands of the “professional educator” class. Parents must stand up and support trustees who support Christian values in the classroom.  In short, it is time that parents become involved since it is now known that some trustees cannot be trusted to carry out their responsibilities as required.