Opposing views on Pride Flag will be heard by Catholic Trustees on Tuesday

By Pepper Parr

January 16th, 2022

BURLINGTON,, ON

The debate on flying the Pride flag at Catholic schools in the Halton Region will be heard by the Halton District Catholic \school Board on Tuesday.

The Gazette has chosen two delegations that reflect strongly held position on the issues.

Both should be heard.

The Rainer Noack and Veronica Touhey delegations follow.

Chairperson of the board, board members, delegates, families – it is an honour to have been asked to
support this evening’s delegation. My name is Rainer Noack and I worked for the Halton Catholic District School Board from 1989 to 2006 where I taught both Dramatic Arts for Grades 10 to OAC, and English for Grades 9 and 10. I was a passionate, popular, and distinctive educator in my field. I spearheaded the entry of the Halton Catholic District school Board into the Ontario Drama Festival (formerly known as the Sears Drama Festival).

Rainer Noack

I am here to support Lauren MacDonald and her team in their efforts to ensure that the Halton Catholic District School Board will raise the Pride Flag in the future, as a demonstration of equality and solidarity for all human beings. The Catholic tradition teaches that human dignity can be protected by a healing community and can be achieved only if human rights are protected and responsibilities are met.

Therefore, every person has a fundamental right to life, and to those things required for our human
dignity. I believe that in order to set students up for success and to become healthy contributing members of society, they need to have models. As educators, we are on the front line of helping children every day, and it is indeed some of those teachers and forward thinking leaders that have allowed many Catholic schools to become safe spaces, and recognize that there are many forms of diversity that need respect.Refusal to raise the flag is a blatant signal to further marginalized people demonstrating fear and xenophobia. The parliament of Canada on July 20, 2005 enacted the Civil Marriage Act, which legalized same-sex marriage in Canada; fourth country to do so. 2005 was the year I married my husband, thus for the first time, acknowledging my sexuality societally. In June 2006, my husband and I, along with many others, including members of the Toronto police force, carried the Pride Flag down Yonge street. A portion of this flag is now displayed in the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa.

During my tenure with the school board, I was there for students who were struggling to accept their
identity. I was there to witness students driven to suicide through a lack of acceptance. Statistics have shown that those attending a Catholic school have a substantial increase in the odds of attempting suicide or suicide risk by the age of 15 and self-harm by the age of 19.
The Supreme Court does not try to hide the fact that it will shed no tears if Catholic schools vanish from the scene while they continue to receive public funding and continue to enforce outdated rules of the Bible and continue to believe in supremacy of the Papacy. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees a set of human rights enforced by judicial review of legislation. Many Catholic school boards have begun to reconsider the conflict between Catholic beliefs and Human Rights.

Trying to change attitudes is brave and progressive, and I am grateful to be able to share my views here today. As teachers, we promote healthy lifestyles and attitudes and our daily business is prevention intervention. Our experience has taught us that it takes a lesson repeated over and over to truly change an attitude. The best way to teach is by example, and therefore it is the responsibility of adults to model the kind of beliefs, behaviours, and attitudes that will make a better world.

The world needs to examine its conscience. Now, more than ever, is the time to give hope to disenchanted youth. The media advertises that research funding is being designated for youth to reduce violence and mental health issues. This work is as well as wasted if a definite message is not sent by our school boards.

We must be more progressive.

Today’s children will become tomorrow’s patrons, employees, and entrepreneurs. We owe it to them to
help them to feel that we each have a fundamental right to freedom.

Thank you

LIFT HIGH THE CROSS, RAISE NOT THE ‘PRIDE’ FLAG
My name is Veronica Touhey and I address this board as a parent who sends my children to
Catholic schools with the good faith and understanding that they will be taught the magisterial
teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

I know that flying the “pride” flag over Catholic schools and administrative buildings violates
these teachings.

It would deeply sadden me to see that flag raised by schools of the HCDSB.

Some believe that the raising of the “pride” flag is necessary to stop bullying and discrimination,
and while these are always good intentions in themselves, the act of raising that flag over
Catholic schools will undermine the mission of Catholic education and the mission of the Halton
Catholic District School Board.

The mission statement of the HCDSB states that the Board is “…dedicated to providing
excellence in Catholic education by developing Christ-centred individuals enabled to transform
society.”

Flying the “pride” flag will not help the board to achieve these crucial objectives. It will, in fact, betray this mission.

Many who advocate for the raising of the flag assert that it will make the schools it flies over
more welcoming, inclusive, and supportive of people.

That only proves that our hearts, and our wishful thinking, can deceive us.

The “pride” flag is a lie.

The flag isn’t about inclusion, diversity, and acceptance, but about conformity, exclusion and
intolerance. The “pride” flag is in fact a giant red flag of warning for anyone concerned about
traditional values and the freedom to live by them.

The “pride” flag is a symbol of mortal sin. It’s no coincidence that “pride” is both the name of
that flag, and the name of one of the seven deadly sins. In fact, pride was the cause of the
Original Sin committed by Adam and Eve, and it is considered the source of all the other deadly
sins.

The Catholic Church can never condone mortal sin, and the “pride” flag is a symbol of mortal
sin.

There are those who will say that secular institutions fly that flag, and so our Catholic schools
should follow along and do the same. But it has never been the mandate of the Catholic Church
to follow the fashions of the world.

Quite the opposite is true.

The Catholic Church is charged to lead the world to Christ.

We should be leading the world by doing what the HCDSB mission statement claims it is here to
do, by “developing Christ-centred individuals enabled to transform society”.

To transform society away from sinful ways and toward Jesus Christ.
Secular institutions that fly the “pride” flag have no mandate to defend the teachings of the
Catholic, or of any other Faith. But this board does!

The Faith we express is that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus
Christ, not to condemn the world, but to save it. We know that God is love, and that He
demonstrated this love by dying on the Cross.

The “pride” flag is a mere worldly symbol. The Cross represents the very heart of the Church
and its values, which transcend all symbols.

We do not need any flag, for we have the Cross!

The Cross demonstrates and reminds us of the love God has for all people, no matter who they
are. It tells us that God desires to gather us all to Himself as one family in Christ.

The Cross is our sign of true love and of mercy, of eternal life. It is a bold declaration of hope in
a world full of sorrows. That is the hope we must nurture, a hope in the Lord as our strength.
Symbols such as that “pride” flag will come and go, but as St. Paul tells us, “Jesus Christ is the
same yesterday today and forever.”

We teach our children the marks of the Church, which we recite each time we say the Creed.
The marks of the Church remind us that the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church must
speak with a single voice and reject all that is not in keeping with it.

That “pride” flag is not in keeping with our Faith.

Our children are watching us. What will we teach them now?

Thank you for your time and for allowing me to address the Board.

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