Funding for Catholic schools must continue: Del Duca

Catholic schools will face repercussions for “intolerant” actions like a recent anti-abortion poster contest in a Woodstock Grade 8 class if Liberals win Ontario’s June 2 election, party leader Steven Del Duca warns.

On the first official day of campaigning for the provincewide vote, Del Duca said a leaked U.S. Supreme Court opinion that would overturn the right to abortion there means pro-choice politicians everywhere must be vigilant.

While Catholic schools should not be stripped of public funding for anti-abortion or anti-LGBTQ actions, the next premier of Ontario needs to send strong signals that such activities are “not acceptable,” he added Wednesday.

“This is not the right time for us to have a decision about how we can further undermine or disrupt publicly funded education,” Del Duca told reporters in Etobicoke when asked about the possibility of withdrawing millions in public funding for Catholic schools or imposing other financial penalties. “One would have to hope it doesn’t have to come to that,” he added.

Del Duca said a number of Catholic boards have exhibited anti-abortion attitudes and intolerance toward LGBTQ issues, such as fighting gay-straight alliance clubs for students, in “far too many circumstances.”

Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford — who sought the support of evangelical Rev. Charles McVety of Canada Christian College to win the party leadership in 2018, and whose Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff has been vocal with his own anti-abortion views — is missing in action on calling out Catholic school boards, Del Duca said.

Last month, St. Patrick’s Catholic elementary school in Woodstock, Ont., had an assignment for Grade 8 students to make anti-abortion posters for marks and to submit for cash prizes in a contest run by the Oxford County Right- to- Life group.

Officials from the London District Catholic School Board said the assignment was part of the “sanctity of life” religion curriculum.

Such assignments are more troublesome in the wake of the Supreme Court leak, Del Duca said, pledging to “protect and enhance” access to safe abortions in Ontario.