The Halton Catholic District School Board recently made the disappointing decision to not fly the Pride Flag this June.
The motion presented by Trustee Brenda Agnew during the April 26th Special Board Meeting was fraught with procedural delay tactics by Trustees opposed. When the motion was finally presented, it was immediately amended to take out the spirit of the motion (flying the Pride flag at all HCDSB schools) and to focus instead on educator training and social media promotion of Pride month.
This is in stark contrast to other boards who chose, for the first time ever, to raise the Pride Flag, including Thunder Bay, Toronto, Dufferin-Peel, Wellington, Durham, and Waterloo Catholic School Boards.
Of note is that the Waterloo CDSB Director of Education, Director Notten, made the operative decision to fly the Pride Flag without a vote from her board’s Trustees, starting in June 2021. This same choice has been presented to Director Daly, the Director of Education for HCDSB, by the Halton Parent Allies, as well as numerous other HCDSB stakeholders.
An open letter to Director Daly, signed by 1,264 individuals (69% of whom are current parents, students, and staff of HCDSB and an additional 16% past students), requested he makes the operative decision to raise the Pride Flag.
In his reply, Director Daly states that to fly the flag would go against the “spirit and intent” of the amended motion, which was passed by the HCDSB Board of Trustees and that the Board requires time to gain a “shared understanding” of what the Pride Flag symbolizes.
This is a demonstration of the ingrained discrimination within the Halton Catholic District School board and possibly Catholic school boards at large.
In a year veiled in loss and isolation, the HCDSB Trustees and Director have a distinct opportunity to show inclusion and openness to all their school communities. Instead, they have chosen fear, hidden behind the “Catholic lens”.
We will not be so bold as to debate scripture or the most important of Christian morals as suggested by some Trustees during a recent meeting, but we will remind the Trustees that the motto of HCDSB is “Achieving. Believing. Belonging.”
The message sent to the 2SLBGTQ+ community when a group in authority states that they need to “share” in the understanding of a Flag which is the international symbol of inclusion for those within this community, is that they do not choose to understand that group, and would like them to meld and squeeze themselves to fit into the norms of this majority group.
But with every cloud, there is a silver lining. The lining of this dark cloud that now hangs over the HCDSB is that groups such as Halton Parent Allies have come together to raise awareness and support for the 2SLBGTQ+ community. While our request may have been to raise the Pride Flag has been denied, this has caused a cacophony of rainbows to erupt.
On May 18th, about 50 parents, students (past and present), and other HCDSB stakeholders demonstrated outside the board office with flags and signs and were met with visible community support. Just days later, the grounds of the HCDSB Head Office were covered in more than 600 miniature Pride flags.
While Mr. Daly and Patrick Murphy, the Chair of the Board, may not be willing to listen to their community (Mr. Murphy has made a recent decision that no new delegations are to be made on the Pride Flag, despite the previous precedent for this action while Mr. Daly has further instructed his schools to explicitly not fly the flag,) the community refuses to be silenced.
June 1st will come, and while we will not see Pride Flags waving in the skies where they belong, we will see support pouring out from our educators, our administrators, and our community at large who continue to dedicate themselves to supporting all of our students and ensuring that our students know that love is love.
If you wish to support Pride recognition at HCDSB, please email [email protected]
