On May 14, 2012, the Pan-Orthodox Association of Greater Hamilton and the Eastern Orthodox Clergy made a presentation before the Sanding Committee hearing on Bill 13. Father Geoffrey Korzg, Dean of Ontario for the Orthodox Church in America, and General Secretary of the Pan-Orthodox Association of Greater Hamilton made the presentation. With him were Father William Makarenko, former Chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada; and President of the Pan-Orthodox Association of Greater Hamilton; Father John Koulouras of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Toronto and President of the Eastern Orthodox Clergy Fellowship of Toronto; and Father Alexei Vassiouchkine, of Christ the Saviour Russian Orthodox Cathedral, in Toronto.
The Orthodox Clergy Associations represents
Eastern Orthodox churches from around the Golden Horseshoe, with about one
quarter million faithful, almost all of which live in
urban ridings. Orthodox Christian communities across Ontario draw their members from a wide variety of cultural and linguistic
groups, from Greece to Russia, North and Central Africa, the
Middle East, Ukraine, Romania, and the Far East, as well as a
wide variety of other cultures.
Fr. Korzg makes a very convincing, logical
and moral argument against the passing of Bill13. With permission, we shares the entire speech with our readers. We hope you
do read the
whole talk to get a better understanding of why so many different
religious and
non-religious groups, as well as families, individuals and politicians
believe that Bill 13 is misguided and would make for an unjust law.
Here's the speech:
I believe the Members of the Committee
would agree that it is widely
accepted that bullying is a genuine problem for students in Ontario schools. In
every study one can find, a majority of students – often a vast majority –
report being victims of some type of bullying.
Yet the official data on the targets of
bullying and violence paints a very different picture than the
one we see in the preamble to Bill 13.
The preamble of the bill takes pains to
outline each and every type of
sexual self-identification that can be identified as a reason
for being bullied. It does not elaborate in such a way, however,
about particular racial or cultural groups, nor about particular
faith groups who may suffer targeted bullying. The emphasis
of the preamble to Bill 13 certainly seems to reflect a preoccupation
with bullying based on sexual self-identity.
In contrast to the proposed bill,
Statistics Canada in their 2011 Report on
Hate Crimes, indicates that bullying against religious groups
is more than twice as common as bullying against self-identified
gays and lesbians.
Statisitcs Canada further reported that
the largest increase was in attacks
directed against people of traditional faiths, which increased 55
per cent over two years.
Racially-motivated bullying was reported
to be even more frequent than all other types of
attacks. In fact, in 2009, Statistics Canada reports that three
Ontario cities – Ottawa,
Toronto, and Kitchener-Waterloo –
accounted for most of the increase in
incidents of such attacks across Canada.
We must ask, why then does Bill 13 make
repeated, special mention of LGBT anti-bullying
initiatives, when such incidents represent
only a fraction of the reality of bullying in Ontario schools?
In our communities, one can already see
the impact in schools of
initiatives and attitudes which have taken their cue from the introduction
of Bill 13.
For example:
- The Hamilton-Wentworth District School
Board anti-bullying resource
documents denigrate the traditional Christian view of sexual
morality as “homophobic”;
- In the same board, as part of the
anti-bullying initiatives inspired by Bill 13, staff have already
received talking points to counter
parents who object based on their faith to LGBT-framed anti-bullying
initiatives;
– The Toronto Catholic District School
Board caved under pressure from its own staff to reject
Roman Catholic teachings, and to
adopt a number of anti-Catholic initiatives, in anticipation
of the guidelines proposed under Bill 13.
Anyone who has walked through the halls
of an Ontario secondary school over the last year has
also seen the graphically pro-homosexualist
posters being used in the name of combating bullying.
Yet it is just this kind of material –
the kind that emphasizes again and again the sexualization of
young people – which is our concern
when it comes to the impact of Bill 13. We have already seen anti-bullying
initiatives in local schools adopting
strategies that have grown directly out of gay activism.
In schools from Niagara to Hamilton to
Kitchener to Toronto, pink
t-shirt days, “gay alliances”, and sticker and poster campaigns
designating “gay friendly” classrooms are already underway,
and Bill 13 enshrines them in law.
Where I live, we have
even seen one local elementary school host a crossdressing day
to oppose bullying against students who are confused about their
gender. All these initiatives have the very clear side effect
– perhaps intended - of putting a spotlight on those who do not subscribe
to their agenda, and to undermine the teachings from home,
church, mosque, synagogue or temple that might teach something
different about how we understand sexual identity.
By adding section 303.1 (d) – the
establishment of Gay-Straight Alliance
clubs (GSAs) – the proposed Bill 13 rejects the traditional
approach to human sexuality, marriage, and modesty around
sexual issues that is held by virtually every traditional culture
around the world.
It suggests that the views of one
culture - a tiny, urban, liberal, white,
elite subgroup of North American culture - are somehow entitled
to trump the views and faith of almost every other faith and
culture that make up our province.
In these short buy critical sections,
Bill 13 reflects a very
myopic, elitist, western-centered view
of the world, and seems to be
ideologically committed to imposing its own narrow doctrines
on virtually every other cultural and religious group outside
its own small circle.
Further, and perhaps most importantly,
the establishment of
Gay-Straight Alliance clubs is an
important part of the strategy to shift
the centre of influence for struggling students away from the
guidance of families and faith groups, to the counsel of same-age
teen peers.
What does such a step say to the family
with traditional faith and beliefs regarding sexual lifestyles? Let
me be clear: GSAs are not designed to combat bullying. They are designed to
provide emotional support and affirmation for
a variety of sexual lifestyles that contradict the path of virtually
every traditional faith, including Orthodox Christianity.
As clergy, we must regularly deal with
spiritual and personal counseling. As parents, it is truly
frightening to us to imagine that our
tax-funded schools would provide a forum in which the teachings
of traditional faiths are undermined, and faith-based efforts
to counsel our young faithful are contradicted in a public school
by staff or guest speakers.
Just a few months ago in a secondary
school in Dundas, Ontario, a woman who
identified herself as a lesbian rabbi was brought in
by school staff as a featured speaker at a school-wide anti-bullying assembly.
Her purpose was not simply to speak out against bullying.
in general, or even to speak against the
bullying of self-identified gay students:
her message was to attack the Old Testament – the scripture sacred
to Christians and Jews – as an outdated, absurd document, and
to tell students not to accept the beliefs of anyone who would follow it.
Members of the committee: Bill 13
emboldens this kind of antireligious attack,
and this is the reason that any anti-bullying bill anti-religious attack,
and this is the reason that any anti-bullying bill passed by this Legislature
must not include any emphasis on one group
over another, lest these small references be used as a hammer
against people of faith.
Our task as spiritual leaders is to
guide our faithful into lives that fully reflect the millennia-old
teachings of our faith. Why on earth would Members vote for a
bill that would collide head-on with
these efforts? Why would you undermine us?
As Orthodox Christians, most of our
faithful come from places, which
experienced anti-religious persecution, within living memory.
I heard just the other day the story of a 94-year old Serbian
Orthodox woman living in our community, who during the
Second World War hid in a cave in a concentration camp in Yugoslavia,
while fascist soldiers searched outside, waiting for their
chance to force her to deny her Orthodox Christian faith –or die.
You see, her faith was a the problem for
that government, just as it has been
for Orthodox Christians living under the Ottoman Turks,
or the Communists, or countless other regimes. As
priests of the Orthodox Church, we beg Members: do not make
our faith a target in Ontario’s public schools under Bill
13. Again, let me be clear: Orthodox Christians and others know how
it feels to be targets. Any true and faithful Orthodox
Christian would be the person most
willing to stand up to protect the physical and emotional
safety of a self-identified gay student.
This is simply Christian mercy - but it is not agreement. With
the provisions of Bill 13 allowing our faith and the traditional
faiths of other to be labeled “homophobic” and “bigoted”,
Ontario schools would actually undermine the positive
contribution to our school communities of people of traditional
faith and values. How can this be a positive contribution
to humanizing and civilizing our schools?
Most of the Orthodox Christian faithful
in Ontario comes from immigrant
families, many of whom do not speak English, and most
of whom are unlikely to speak up about this issue. They are
working families, who will not write letters, nor will they call
their MPP or school trustee.
But one thing they will do - almost
invariably - is vote.
Please ask yourselves:
What will you say to families of
traditional faith who discover their 14-year-old has been part of a GSA
for months, without parental
approval?
What will you say to constituents who
are concerned that Bill 13 and
related regulations offer no exclusion for families who do
not want their kids involved in GSA clubs, or from related curriculum
in class?
What will you say to a voter whose child
has rejected their faith and
community, because something they learned in a school club
dramatically shifted their sense of faith and values – against
their family?
What will you say to faith leaders who
must provide a variety of contrary
worldviews in their local high school Christian club – but
who would never be otherwise invited to share their story in a
public high school, because this bill labels them “homophobic”?
Should Bill 13 pass with the inclusion
of these inequitable sections favoring LGBT activism, Members
will also be faced with the
question of how they will answer these concerns at the doors,
when they are circulated through the ethnic and religious media
in the months ahead.
Let me urge the Members: whatever bill
you pass, please ensure it makes no
distinction between the type of victim, or the type of club
that would support them. You have a good model in Bill 14,
and I pray you will take this opportunity to unite Ontario students,
not to divide them.
