Leonard Baak, "Public schools are not allowed to discriminate", Sault Star, Jul 4, 2007.
 
Reprinted with the permission of the author.
 
Public schools are not allowed to discriminate
 
Re: Respect Catholic rights, June 29, 2007.
 
If letter writer Sister Leila Greco was indeed told that she was ineligible to sit on a public school council because she was a practising Catholic, then she really should identify the school in question, as the event was a clear transgression of Ontario law and a violation of her equality rights under the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
 
This incomplete accusation must be verified or proven false so that it can be corrected or dismissed as groundless.
 
The fact is, public schools in Ontario are not allowed to discriminate on the basis of religion in any area, be that in the admission of students, the hiring and promotion of staff, or in volunteer positions.
 
Only Ontario's publicly funded Catholic schools enjoy constitutional license to discriminate in these areas.
 
Anyone facing such discrimination in the public school system has the law to protect them. That includes all Catholics.
 
Non-Catholics facing similar discrimination in the Catholic school system, on the other hand, are simply out of luck.
 
Leonard Baak
President, Education Equality in Ontario
Ottawa, Ont.
 

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