by Patrick B. Craine
MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, March 30, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - At an equity conference next month, Ontario’s Dufferin-Peel Catholic school board will feature several homosexual activists including one gay magazine reporter who covered the 2010 Toronto Pride Parade, with video showing him gleefully interviewing various Pride participants, including men dressed in sado-masochistic thongs.
At one point in the video, the reporter lies down on the street as a man in drag simulates a sex act on him. “This is the best Pride present ever. I’m having a great Pride week,” says Michael Pihach, a reporter with Xtra!, “Canada’s gay and lesbian newspaper.”
“I can’t believe that the school board would bring such people to a conference. I don’t understand it,” said Francis Rodrigues, a concerned local Catholic in Dufferin-Peel. “I mean, it’s common sense. We’re entrusting our children to these people and this is what they do.”
Pihach will deliver a workshop at the board’s ‘(In)equity Conference: Hope for All’, which is aimed at Roman Catholic educators. The event takes place April 16th from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at St. Marguerite D’Youville Secondary School. A student panel from the high school will participate.
Les Storey, principal of equity, diversity, and inclusive education for the Catholic board, emphasized that it’s a conference for adults. “It’s looking at making sure that our adults are aware of what the issues are when it comes to same-sex orientation,” he told LifeSiteNews.
Asked if there were speakers faithful to Church teaching that could have addressed the issue instead, he said the homosexual speakers will share about their experiences of discrimination. “We’re still maintaining being faithful to the Church’s teachings,” he said. “It’s definitely a Catholic-focused type of day. ... This is just one piece of the day.”
Asked if any speakers will explain this Church teaching, Storey said, “People coming into the conference for the most part will be Catholic educators. So they would be aware of what the Church’s teachings are. This is just to get an awareness level in terms of making sure we deal with all forms of discrimination.”
“I think it’s a scandal, pure and simple,” said Rodrigues. “I think that the bishops must intervene and try to save what’s left of the schools,” he added.
The event is being headlined by Matthew Boger, an openly homosexual activist who uses his friendship with a former neo-Nazi, who had previously beat him to near death, in order to promote acceptance of homosexuality. Boger works at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.
There’s also a workshop by Chris D’Souza, one of the government’s key equity trainers, who has advocated same-sex “marriage” and has made it a key point in his presentations to Catholics that “equity” involves accepting the homosexual lifestyle itself. D’Souza is the former equity officer for the Dufferin-Peel Catholic school board.
D’Souza, who’s spoken in over a dozen Ontario Catholic boards, was scheduled to speak at an equity symposium for the Toronto Catholic board last week, but evidence suggests the board cancelled the event due to complaints over his involvement.
Another workshop features Letecia Rose, director of education for the Harmony Movement, which combats “heterosexism” as part of its mission to promote diversity education.
Michael Pihach is the son of David Pihach, the administrator for student success at the Niagara Catholic school board, who delivers a talk called “Michael’s story” that makes it seem as though the Catholic system was at fault for Michael being beaten up regularly at school.
The conference comes as the school board has faced a campaign by homosexual activists in the last two weeks after one of their principals denied a student’s request to launch a gay-straight alliance. The board had initially supported the principal’s recommendation that the student work with Courage, which is a Catholic ministry that offers a spiritual support system to men and women struggling with same-sex attractions, promoting chastity and the development of an integrated sexuality.
In response, NDP education critic Rosario Marchese called on Premier Dalton McGuinty to force GSAs into the Catholic boards, and the homosexual lobby group Egale denounced the board and the authentically-Catholic group Courage in a March 22 open letter to the Ontario government.
The board then published their own open letter Tuesday emphasizing their commitment to implement the government’s equity and inclusive education strategy in a manner that accords with Catholic teaching.
The letter confirms the board’s commitment to not allow GSAs, promoting broader-based equity clubs instead. “The name of this group must be respectful of, and in alignment with, our Catholic perspective,” they write. “This group, like all others in our schools, will be moderated by a faculty advisor and will include a Catholic perspective as part of its discussions.”
However, the letter also states, “We are proud of our ongoing commitment to equity and inclusive education” and it includes as one example of their work the April 16th conference featuring gay activists.
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