Anti-bullying law called a Trojan Horse by Campaign Life Coalition
By Deborah Gyapong
Canadian Catholic News
OTTAWA
About 140 people, led by Johanne Bronrigg (right) of Campaign Life Coaltion, protested against Bill 13 June 1 outside one of Dalton McGuinty constituency offices in Ottawa. Deborah Gyapong / CCN.
Ontario’s anti-bullying Bill 13 is a Trojan Horse for government policies that will not only radically sexualize Ontario public school classrooms but also encroach on parental rights in the home.

That’s the message Campaign Life Coalition public affairs officer Johanne Brownrigg brought to about 140 mostly-Catholic Ottawa residents who demonstrated June 1 against the legislation outside one of Premier Dalton McGuinty’s constituency offices.

“We are not here as a group of gay bashers,” Brownrigg told the small crowd that had been harangued by a small group of counter-protestors who chanted “Hey hey! Ho! Ho! Homophobia ‘s got to go!” or “Racist, Sexist, Anti-Gay, Born-again Bigots, Go away!” They wore signs that said, “Jesus had two dads and he turned out okay.”

“We do care about protecting students, gay and straight, from bullying, and the Catholic Church along with along other churches fully supports legislation that will do that,” Brownrigg said over the din. “In fact, the bullies are the McGuinty Liberals who have slapped Catholcis in the face by insisting on the Gay Straight Alliance as a name and framework for anti-bullying clubs in Ontario schools through Bill 13, the Accepting Schools Act. Bill 13 is a Trojan Horse.”

Brownrigg quoted from the Guidelines of the Equity and inclusive Education documents that will, she said, “codify in law some concepts, definitions and activities that are not anti-bullying but rather anti-Catholic, anti-religious rights, anti-parental rights and anti-conscience rights.”

Though much of the public focus has been on the Bill’s mandated gay-straight alliances (GSAs), Brownrigg warned the policies behind the push for Bill 13 say “a child’s gender may be different from birth-assigned sex,” and that “gender is socially constructed.”

“On page 29 the Guidelines assert that it is wrong and harmful to have only traditional gender identities ‘accepted’ and ‘reinforced’ in schools and at home,” she said.

The Guidelines also introduce “the disputed theory heterosexism,” she said. “The government has defined this as ‘the assumption that everyone is or should be heterosexual and that heterosexuality is the only normal, natural sexual orientation.”

Brownrigg pointed out that view is not only anti-Catholic but anti- Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Hindu. “This definition labels all of us as carrying a false and discriminatory belief,” she said.

“This is just a small sample of the content in Bill 13, The Accepting Schools Act,” she said. “It will change the culture in Ontario classrooms by drastically sexualizing it.”

The Bill will introduce concepts such as “two-spirited, intersexed, queer and questioning” to the classrooms, and confuse children, she said. Though GSAs are for high schools, the Bill will affect all age groups.

“If Bill 13 were about anti-bullying, Catholic would support it,” she said. Brownrigg said Bill 14 would accomplish the anti-bullying objectives without jeopardizing parental and religious rights.