Canadian Catholic School Board Attacked For Voting Against Pride Flag

CV NEWS FEED // Pro-LGBTQ agitators shouted down members of a Catholic school board in York, Canada after they vote against flying a rainbow “Pride” flag during the month of June.

The motion to hoist a Pride flag at the York Catholic Education Center was defeated in a 6-4 vote at a recent school board meeting. In a video from the meeting, several attendees are heard shouting “Shame!” after the motion failed to pass. One attendee calls out, “Shame on you, the people who didn’t put their hands up! Shame on your hatred!”

Global News Canada reported that York Catholic District School Board’s chair, Frank Alexander, said he voted against the motion because his “faith guides him.” 

Alexander added that he became a Catholic school trustee “to ensure that the York Catholic District School Board remains Catholic. It is what parents send their children to your Catholic schools expect.”

A local LGBTQ group, Pflag York Region, reacted to the vote by asking York Catholic schools to protest the decision by raising their own “pride” flags in “an act of defiance against the Board of Trustees.” The group also expressed that it would consider labeling the school board as an “unsafe” space.

LGBTQ agitators had also demonstrated against school district leadership at a meeting in April when the motion was officially filed by students and faculty. Activists shouted “shame” and several had to be removed by security. 

Similarly, at the February board meeting, several parents expressed concerns that teachers had received “safe space” stickers to display in classrooms. Following the meeting, a district student and faculty petition accused these parents of promoting “homophobia, transphobia, and sexism” and proposed raising a “pride” flag in response. The school district said the stickers would be optional for teachers to display.