BC’s New Homosexual Curriculum Blasted by Civil Rights League Director
By Jonquil Frankham
VANCOUVER, November 11, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – BC’s new aggressively pro-homosexual, heavily left-leaning curriculum hasn’t got its facts straight, says Catholic Civil Rights League director Sean Murphy in an in-depth analysis of the curriculum. And this, indicates Murphy, is only the beginning of the problems with the curriculum.
In his article Murphy points out that “Making Space, Giving Voice,” the new curriculum guide for B.C. schools, mistakenly teaches that Canada, and not America, deported Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who was suspected of terrorism by US authorities, to Syria, where he was tortured. Murphy, however, counters that while Canadian officials “bear considerable responsibility for what happened to Mr. Arar” the fact is that “the United States – not Canada – sent him to Syria.”
“The first step in making progress towards social justice is getting the facts right, particularly when the facts are in dispute,” continues Murphy. “Thus, it is disturbing to find that Making Space, Giving Voice gets facts wrong not only when they are not in dispute, but when they are publicly available and familiar to well-informed citizens.”
The new curriculum was formed under the guidance of Murray and Peter Corren, a “married” homosexual couple who were given an unprecedented level of control over the development of the curriculum by the BC Ministry of Education. Murray Corren, who is a teacher in the Surrey school board, aired complaints of “systemic sexual discrimination” in BC schools before the Ministry in 1999. His complaints led to a complete overhaul of the province’s curriculum, from Kindergarten to Grade 12, to include homosexual propaganda in every subject.
From a human rights perspective, the greatest problem with the curriculum is the “no opt-out” policy the Correns insisted on when planning their new guidelines, says Murphy. Under the curriculum guidelines parents are not permitted to remove their children from objectionable classes. As of this past June, however, only two BC school boards had said they would enforce the no opt-out policy.
A leftist, homosexualist ideological dogmatism is evidenced throughout the overhauled curriculum, charges Murphy. “Tolerance” is no longer considered sufficient by the homosexual ideologues, he says. In Making Space, Giving Voice it is instead “expected that students will ‘accept’ (ie, affirm the moral and social acceptability of) any and all sexual lifestyles presented to them, excepting only those that are illegal. ‘Acceptance’ is to be presented to students as a moral, social and legal obligation imposed by the requirements of social justice.”
Meanwhile, suggests the director of the CCRL, there is to be no “acceptance” of any viewpoint on sexuality other than the Correns’. “The approach taken by Making Space, Giving Voice is openly authoritarian. … On the grounds that students must be kept ‘safe,’ it advocates the suppression of contrary views by controlling student expression, and the silencing of critics with accusations of bigotry. Parents are to be denied the opportunity to prevent morally objectionable materials or ideological instruction from being forced upon their children, or to prevent them from being coerced by oppressive instructional or classroom management practices.”
“Making Space, Giving Voice is really not meant to make space for all, nor to give voice to all,” writes Murphy. “For all the cant about welcoming ‘diversity,’ and the importance of ‘inclusiveness,’ some voices are not welcome, and some views are to be excluded. …The mask of neutrality is coming off.’
Murphy points out the irony that while “Making Space, Giving Voice” suggests that students should critique “unflinching observance of tradition” and asks them to consider “what old ways of thinking or behaving are still slavishly adhered to,” this skeptical attitude seems to apply only to the values held by their parents, and not those of the Correns.
“Certainly,” he says, “it is nowhere suggested that students should critique the unflinching observance of the current establishment’s norms or consider what new ways of thinking or behaving are slavishly adhered to.”
To read Sean Murphy’s article from the CCRL, go to:
http://www.ccrl.ca/index.php?id=4932
For more coverage on the Corren case, see:
New Vancouver School Policy: Parents Refused Right to Pull Kids from Pro-Homosexual Lessons
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08062512.html
B.C. Gay Couple Seeks Mandatory Homosexual School Curriculum Without Parental Opt-Out
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/jul/05071106.html
Homosexual Activists Consider Targeting Private Christian Schools for “Homophobia”
Want provincial ministry of education to exert “more control” over curriculum and staff hiring
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/feb/07022706.html
