Readers Speak Out: November 20, 2022

Inside out

A recent court decision ruled that the York Catholic District School Board cannot disqualify a non-Catholic student from running for the position of student trustee. 

It’s a terrible ruling for Ontario Catholics who have the denominational right to manage their schools and make their own policies. How else is Catholic identity to be protected? 

What is so disappointing is that the article quotes TCDSB teacher Paolo De Buono in support of the court decision. This teacher has an online petition to undermine the separate school system, and openly refuses to teach the religious program about the person, marriage and a family. 

There are secular forces that want to destroy the Catholic school system but sadly some of the harm is also coming from within.  

Lou Iacobelli 

Toronto

Shoulder blame

Recent Catholic Register articles could lead readers to a conclusion that the Catholic Church was the only Canadian institution involved in the Indian Residential School System. 

The system was established by the Canadian government, approved in London and served by a number of institutions and Christian churches: Protestant, Anglican and Catholic.  

The crimes committed against Indigenous people in Canada must be addressed by all Canadian institutions that were involved by being deaf, dumb and blind about them. Each should  be charged for the full damage it has done so the crimes committed will never be repeated again. 

Mile Pletikosa 

Scarborough, Ont.

UNDRIP deluge

I found the article “What the Doctrine of Discovery means for us today” in the Penance and Progress magazine very informative. 

Vatican repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery would be symbolic. It wouldn’t change the current land title system for Canada’s Indigenous peoples. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 created that when, ironically, the Protestant British adopted this Catholic legal principle after conquering Canada. The Proclamation also provided justification for the conquest. 

More important now is the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). It says: “Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned….” If this becomes Canadian law it will have major implications for the Indigenous and everyone else here. 

Claudio Ceolin 

Toronto