Pride flag banned from being displayed inside public Catholic schools in Peel Region

A rainbow flag flies at Toronto City Hall in Toronto on Tuesday, May 31, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Eduardo Lima

After prohibiting the Pride flag from being flown outside, trustees with a publicly funded Catholic school board west of Toronto have also banned the display of the flag, which is a symbol of the 2SLGBTQ+ community, inside schools.

During Tuesday night’s Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board (DPCDSB) meeting, all but one trustee approved a motion to amend the flag policy, allowing only the Canadian flag, provincial and territorial flags and the board’s flag to be displayed inside schools and other board facilities.

Before Tuesday, other flags could be displayed inside DPCDSB buildings during observance periods. In the case of the rainbow flag, it could be displayed during Pride month.

The indoor ban even applies to French flags, which now cannot be displayed in a French class.

This is not the first time the board’s policy has been up for debate. The contentious issue has drawn people with opposing views, including pro-life groups, to attend and speak at several board meetings.

RELATED: GTA school board upholds policy that prohibits flying the Pride flag

Trustee Brea Corbet, who voted against the motion, said it would make their policy “even more regressive” and “more oppressive.”

“It would promote exclusion, it would promote more bullying, it would more negatively impact our school climates. Our children need to feel safe, they need to feel accepted, they need to feel loved every day in our Catholic schools,” Corbet told her fellow trustees before the vote.

Corbet reminded her fellow trustees that under the Education Act, they had the responsibility to enact policies that must promote student achievement, a positive school environment that is accepting of all students and the prevention of bullying.

“This would be very, very harmful because if we believe that Jesus created all of us in his own image and likeness, that includes all of us,” she said.

Student trustee Raheem White asked school officials if approving the changes would be susceptible to an Ontario Human Rights Commission complaint.

The director of education said she would not speculate on what-ifs. Instead, she emphasized that the policy would not deter the board’s commitment “to foster a shared sense of belonging for all students.”

“We’re committed to creating spaces where everyone feels safe, respected, and valued through ongoing dialogue, support services, and educational initiatives that reflect diverse initiatives,” the director said.

The board also approved a separate change to the flag policy passed by the by-law committee last week, which sees the DPCSDB’s flag as the only one flown at schools and facilities with three flagpoles. According to the board, 145 of its 151 schools only have one flagpole.

Trustee Corbet moved a motion during last week’s committee meeting to let other flags be flown on the third flagpole during observance periods but did not get support.

At the start of the meeting, several people with opposing views of the policy delegated during Tuesday’s board meeting. They included former Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne and a representative from the Archdiocese of Toronto.

Wynne, who is lesbian and was also an education minister during her time at Queen’s Park, said the DPCDSB, like all other school boards, has a legal obligation to promote an environment that is free from harassment and discrimination.

“Every time a Catholic school board demonstrates that it is choosing to move away from the policies of inclusion and equity that have been a hallmark of publicly funded education in Ontario, it raises the very real question of why we, as a society that has demonstrated that we value the beautiful diversity of this country, would continue to support that institution,” said Wynne, who was also a school trustee.

She added: “While we are talking tonight about a flag being flown for a few weeks a year in front of one school board office, I think we know that we’re talking about much more than that… We’re talking about whether we’re willing to declare openly that this school board in 2025 is a safe place for everyone, one where everyone belongs, even in the face of loud, angry, and sometimes powerful voices.”

Father Marcin Serwin, speaking on behalf of Cardinal Frank Leo, the archbishop of Toronto, said the cross is the “unchanging and pivotal” symbol of the Christian faith.

“The absolutely absurd suggestion that unless one embraces secular symbols, one cannot be inclusive or accepting is simply not true and therefore not Catholic. Where there are cases of injustice, we must address them and ensure that we lead by example to bring those hurt and those at fault to understand the meaning of the cross and the call to the love that the cross demands of us. This needs to be the central effort in our Catholic schools to make them more Christ like,” Serwin told the trustees.

“We also recognize that there are times when the Presentation of Catholic teachings clashes with the views held in society.”

Bailey Clyne, the Indigenous student trustee, also put forward a motion on Tuesday that would have permitted the flag of Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and Every Child Matters flown on the third flagpole during National Indigenous History Month in June and National Day of Reconciliation. That was defeated too.