Public funding for Catholic schools must continue, Steven Del Duca says despite anti-abortion moves by some

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This article was published 03/05/2022 (969 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Catholic schools will face repercussions for “intolerant” actions like a recent anti-abortion poster contest in a Woodstock Grade 8 class if Liberals win Ontario’s June 2 election, party leader Steven Del Duca warns.

On the first official day of campaigning for the provincewide vote, Del Duca said a leaked U.S. Supreme Court opinion that would overturn the right to abortion there means pro-choice politicians everywhere must be vigilant.

While Catholic schools should not be stripped of public funding for anti-abortion or anti-LGBTQ actions, the next premier of Ontario needs to send strong signals that such activities are “not acceptable,” he added Wednesday.

“This is not the right time for us to have a decision about how we can further undermine or disrupt publicly funded education,” Del Duca told reporters in Etobicoke when asked about the possibility of withdrawing millions in public funding for Catholic schools or imposing other financial penalties.

“One would have to hope it doesn’t have to come to that,” he added during a lunch-hour stop at a busy Oakville cafe where a lone protester outside catcalled him over the previous Liberal government’s gas plants scandal and sell-off of Hydro One.

“If additional steps are required around looking at laws, looking at regulations, I am open to that conversation,” the former transportation minister under premier Kathleen Wynne said in reference to Catholic schools.

Directives from the minister of education are one possibility, noted the married father of two girls in the York Region Catholic school system.

Del Duca said a number of Catholic boards have exhibited anti-abortion attitudes and intolerance toward LGBTQ issues, such as fighting gay-straight alliance clubs for students, in “far too many circumstances.”

They have included Catholic high schools students in Hamilton being allowed to earn volunteer hours required for graduation by attending anti-abortion prayer demonstrations, which Wynne’s government condemned at the time.

Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford — who sought the support of evangelical Rev. Charles McVety of Canada Christian College to win the party leadership in 2018, and whose Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff has been vocal with his own anti-abortion views — is missing in action on calling out Catholic school boards, Del Duca said. McVety has repeatedly come under fire for homophobic comments.

“I don’t think it’s disruptive for a premier in this province to use a podium like this … to make crystal clear statements to everyone, including Catholic school boards across this province, that certain behaviours are not acceptable,” said Del Duca, who wrapped up his day with a campaign stop in Hamilton.

“We should not underestimate the authority and the power of a premier using his or her voice to make it quite clear and then backing up those words with meaningful content and action and I’m quite prepared to do that.”

Last month, St. Patrick’s Catholic elementary school in Woodstock, Ont. had an assignment for Grade 8 students to make anti-abortion posters for marks and to submit for cash prizes in a contest run by the Oxford County Right-to-Life group.

Officials from the London District Catholic School Board said the assignment was part of the “sanctity of life” religion curriculum. Some parents and pupils objected and went public with their concerns.

Such assignments are more troublesome in the wake of the Supreme Court leak, Del Duca said, pledging to “protect and enhance” access to safe abortions in Ontario.

“These are rights that cannot be taken for granted. They are frail. There are always those in society who are prepared to try to move us backwards in this regard. Ontario Liberals will not stand for that.”

In Brampton, Ford was unequivocal that abortion rights would remain intact in Ontario.

“The U.S. Supreme Court has absolutely zero jurisdiction in Canada. We’re not changing anything in Ontario,” said Ford.

“We’re just keeping it exactly the same.”

Green Leader Mike Schreiner said anti-abortion activities in publicly funded Catholic school classrooms are “inappropriate.”

But his party is no longer advocating an end to public funding for Catholic schools to save taxpayers about $1 billion in duplicative administration costs because of disruptions to classrooms over the last two years of COVID-19.

In Scarborough, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said questions about the future of abortion in the United States reinforce how “women deserve to have control over their bodies.”

Ontario should consider helping Americans who need the procedure if the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision is overturned later this year, she added.

With files from Robert Benzie and Kristin Rushowy

Rob Ferguson is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario politics for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @robferguson1