Dear Editor,
Maybe most of you are unaware or maybe you don’t care, but this needs to be spoken about.
Bill 24: (An Act to Support Gay-Straight Alliances) has been the topic of many discussions. The point of this letter is not to get into the ins and outs of the bill, even though there are many things that could be said about it.
What needs to be addressed is David Eggen, Minister of Education’s enforcement of it. Meant to be a solution to bullying within schools it has now come to a stand-off between the NDP’s intolerance of religion and schools that cannot give up their religious beliefs.
Mr. Eggen, while claiming to promote tolerance, is now acting as an intolerant bully himself. Faith-based schools have tried very hard to create an environment that is safe and caring for all students and research has proven that parent-run schools actually outperform public schools in this aspect.
Faith-based schools have also tried very hard to work with Mr. Eggen to create policies that work for both parties, but to no avail. Mr. Eggen has slammed the door in the face of these schools.
Apparently he has a higher authority than God. So much so that he has said that if faith-based schools do not remove references in their policies to the Bible or to the God they believe in, they will lose funding and/or accreditation.
The NDP attacks the fundamental freedoms which are stated in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms; freedom of religion, thought, belief, expression, to name a few. The tolerance Mr. Eggen claims to promote he does not put into practice himself.
We are all equal before the law, we have equal protection and equal benefit without discrimination; also from the Charter. Since when is the NDP above the law? Since when is Canada, a democratic country, a place where one cannot practice their religion freely?
For those that believe religion has no place in education, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that; “Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.”
Maybe Mr. Eggen needs to review this document that also states that “Education shall be directed to…the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups…”
Let that sink in for a minute. But, maybe this quote resonates more with Mr. Eggen and the NDP’s line of thinking:
“The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom at a time, to erode their rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible reductions. In this way the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which those changes can be reversed.”
That is from Hitler by the way…
Grace Hovius