VANCOUVER, March 22, 2008 [www.ccrl.ca] – The Catholic Civil Rights League will collaborate with other groups “to develop strategies that concerned parents can employ to passively and actively resist, counter and protest” the kind of instruction recommended by a new teachers’ manual, Making Space, Giving Voice.

The statement was included in a letter to School Districts and District Parent Advisory Councils notifying them of the release of the League’s critique of Making Space, Giving Voice. The Ministry of Education manual explains how K-12 students will be introduced to “the full range of gender identity and sexual orientation.” The manual was designed to fulfil the Corren Agreement, a private contract between the Ministry and two homosexual activists.

Keith Cassidy, Professor of History at the University of Guelph, describes the League’s critical review of Making Space, Giving Voice as “utterly devastating,” adding, “Every educator and parent in British Columbia should read and consider this publication.”

The League had previously written to School Districts to ensure that, notwithstanding the Ministry’s private agreement with the Correns, School Districts would continue to respect the authority of parents to withdraw their children from classes or lessons to which they objected for reasons of conscience or religion.

“We had to file complaints with the Provincial Ombudsman to get some districts to reply,” said Sean Murphy, a director of the League for western Canada. “In the end, only two districts in the province seem clearly willing to enforce the coercive section of the Corren Agreement.”

According to Murphy, responses from districts representing almost half the province’s school population indicate that they will not compel students to attend classes over the objections of their parents. “But the problems identified in Making Space, Giving Voice can’t be addressed by withdrawing children from classes,” he explained. “That’s why other strategies have to be developed.”

Read the CCRL review on line at http://www.ccrl.ca/index.php?id=4932
BC School Districts and fundamental freedoms at http://www.ccrl.ca/index.php?id=4835

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Western Contacts
Sean Murphy (BC & Prairies) [email protected] Tel: 604-485-9765
Ed De Vita (BC Lower Mainland) [email protected] Tel: 604-430-9596