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Candidate was not Catholic
Read the article / show / issue that provoked me to write a letter and my response below that or go straight to my response
Date Posted on this Site
January 15, 2007
Publication
Brantford Expositor
Publication Date
January 15, 2007
Published Content
Because the ministries of Municipal Affairs and Education choose not to address my concerns, I would like to publicly bring into question the validity of the recent municipal election.
Certain criteria are used to determine the eligibility of potential candidates, at least 18, not in prison, not a judge, etc. When it comes to running for the separate school board, legally, you must also be Catholic.
We all pay taxes to support the Roman Catholic school system, (designation of tax support on tax assessments gives no financial benefit to eithe board) but two-thirds of Ontarians are disallowed from running for a place on that board.
"No taxation without representation" is central to our concept of democracy and the rule of law.
Restrictions on eligibility are obviously not enforced, seeing as I was candidate for trustee on the Catholic board. I'm not Catholic. Were any other candidates, for the various offices, frauds like me? With this lack of enforcement, who knows?
I don't object to the Catholic Church or its beliefs. I do object to the self-righteous attitude. Why should the Catholic Church's beliefs dictate social policy in a pluralistic democratic society? It shouldn't.
I object to the privileged status the Catholic Church has achieved in Ontario. Why should the Catholic Church have its own separate school system fully funded by the taxpayers of Ontario? Why are the taxpayers of Ontario obligated to fully fund a school system that can discriminate as to who can attend (in Catholic elementary schools) and who can be employed?(in all Catholic schools.)
Religion gains respect when it promotes tolerance and understanding, not when it claims special status and imposes its beliefs on society.
My aim is to hasten the day when Ontario's education policy recognizes the dignity and worth of all children, their right to equality, and their right to freedom from religious discrimination.
Peter Jones
Brantford
My Response Letter
The letter writer is mistaken. No one in Ontario is forced to attend Catholic school or to divert their property taxes to a Catholic school board. For those who do not subscribe to Catholic educational principles, there is another option: the public school system.
Catholics have a constitutional right to their own education system. If the issue is there is only one religious school system but many religions, then the answer, in a "pluralistic society", is not to dispose of religious education, but to allow all Ontarians the option to divert their tax dollars to religious education of their choice, whether it be Catholic, Islamic, Jewish, or some other faith.
Of course, if the letter writer would truly like to "hasten the day when Ontario's education policy recognizes the dignity and worth of all children", then he will support the Catholic school system and religious educators. Unlike many others, they're teaching the truth about human dignity, from conception to natural death.
Jason Gennaro
Was my response published?
No
Did I get a response?
No