Peel Catholic School board’s ongoing Pride flag ban underscores divide between students and parents

For 18-year-old Blace Senra, the experience as a student in Peel’s Catholic school system was “far from exceptional”.

“Most days I dreaded going to school because of the hostile and petty environment that surrounded me for simply being myself,” the former student, who identifies as a transgender and queer man, told Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board (DPCDSB) officials during last week’s board meeting. 

The vote last week by the DPCDSB trustees, to uphold a longstanding ban against flying the Pride flag at the board’s schools, came months after a similar decision in the summer, as the issue seems destined to simmer until decision makers in Peel realize how out of step they are with Canadian values and other school boards including most of the major Catholic ones in the GTA.

Speaking on behalf of what Senra said were the thousands of 2SLGBTQ students within the school board, the recent graduate continued. “If it weren’t for the open support system of a few incredible staff and board members, I likely wouldn't be standing as a graduate before you today.”

Senra’s painful remarks were layered with a troubling reality. While many students in Peel’s Catholic school board have pushed for progressive policies around 2SLGBTQ representation, parents and the trustees who have displayed loyalty to them over the young learners they are supposed to support, have taken positions out of touch with Canadian values.

While support for the Pride flag transcends generations, many Parents in Peel’s Catholic School community are out of step with Canadian values.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Many parents have represented divergent views from students and have demanded the DPCDSB follow them. Last year Campaign Life Coalition "thanked God for the victory at the Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board" when trustees voted 6-3 against flying the "transgender and homosexual Pride flag" at schools. In June, the group released a statement when the issue had been debated at the board: "Trustees had previously voted 9-2 at the committee level in favour of flying the 'Pride' flag. Then, CLC and other pro-family groups became involved, encouraging parents to lobby their trustees to vote against the motion. Faithful parents and ratepayers lobbied the board and, at CLC’s encouragement, delegated at last night’s board meeting, showing up in unprecedented numbers."

The candid admission of parents pressuring trustees to go against their own initial vote and ignoring the will of thousands of students and the policies of governments across the country, has raised questions about why taxpayers should continue to fund public Catholic boards that seem to operate as private organizations. 

A 2021 study conducted by Egale, a national human rights organization supporting 2SLGBTQ people, found 62 percent of 2SLGBTQ respondents feel unsafe at school, compared to 11 percent of cisgender heterosexual students, and 64 percent of all participants reported hearing homophobic comments daily or weekly at school. The report also revealed “2SLGBTQ students attending Catholic schools reported greater incidents of harassment, especially in relation to sexual and/or gender identity and were less likely to disclose these occurrences to school staff” and 35 percent of students in the Catholic system reported experiencing harassment based on their perceived sexual orientation.  

Last week there was a clear divide in the room between the Peel Catholic board’s three student trustees and those elected by voters, save for one. 

During what was a broiling debate at the January 28 board meeting with nearly 200 people in attendance, trustees, elected to represent students within the board, scaled back a policy that will now ban the display of all flags (with the exception of the Maple Leaf, Ontario’s provincial flag and the one that displays the board’s logo and title) within its schools and DPCDSB facilities. 

As student trustee Raheem White bluntly stated during the meeting, “it's the opposite of what we have committed to do as a board,” adding, “we’re effectively rejecting communities.”

“[W]e had an opportunity to reject hate and in my opinion we chose to embrace it. The Pride flag does not represent sex. It doesn't represent a fornicative or debaucherous payload. It's red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, indigo for serenity and violet for spirit.”

The amended motion was passed with trustees Darryl Brian D'Souza, Anisha Thomas, Paula Dametto-Giovannozzi — the mover of the amended motion — Luz del Rosario, Shawn Xaviour, Bruno Iannicca, Stefano Pascucci, Thomas Thomas, and Mario Pascucci in favour. Trustee Brea Corbet, and student trustees White, Bailey Clyne and Jia Sharma were opposed, though the student trustees' votes do not count. Trustee Herman Viloria was absent. 

White told The Pointer he “unequivocally support[s] raising the pride flag” and that “raising the flag would have been an outward display of the fact DPCDSB welcomes all in our schools.”

The January 28 Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board meeting drew nearly 200 people.

(Paige Peacock/The Pointer) 

The decision came following a January 21 policies review committee meeting that included a minor policy change clarifying which flags can be flown at buildings with three flagpoles. The agenda item instead sparked debate among members of the public who spoke passionately both in support of and in opposition to flying the Pride flag inside and outside schools and other buildings within the board. 

Clyne, an Indigenous student trustee, also put forward a request during the meeting to permit the flag of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and Every Child Matters to be flown on the third flagpole during National Indigenous History Month in June and National Day of Reconciliation. It was ultimately defeated. 

Jennifer Cazabon, chair of St. Marcellinus Catholic Secondary School and representative on the Central Committee for Catholic School Councils, told The Pointer, “there is a complete and utter lack of acceptance of multiple marginalized groups” at the Dufferin-Peel Catholic board. She pointed to the disconnect between the student trustees’ support for revising the flag protocol and the board’s official trustees’ decision to ignore them. 

“[I]t shows that they're not listening to the student trustees who were elected there by their peers through a process to be a voice of the students at the board. It was completely and utterly ignored, which is shameful to say the least.”

Cazabon said students are now going to shift from feeling isolated to targeted. 

“The bullying and the isolation all under the premise of Catholic values has already been rampant, but now that you have 10 out of 11 trustees standing and basically saying ‘nope, the cross is enough. The Canadian flag is enough. We don't need this outward sign of recognition', it's going to tell these kids further that they don't matter and they're not seen.”

For at least a half-decade, the divide between students and parents within Peel's Catholic education community has defined the issue of flying the Pride flag. In 2021, after the DPCDSB issued a Pride Month protocol making clear that schools with only one flag pole could not raise the Pride flag next to the Maple Leaf. Dymtro Basmat, a youth activist at the time who had attended Peel schools, questioned  how boards in the region that promoted "equality and inclusion in Ontario" could "ignore such a diverse group of students in our community.”

Lee Iskander went to a Mississauga Catholic School about 15 years ago and a decade later was quoted in a local paper about his experiences as a student, when the DPCDSB would not allow him and his peers to form a Gay Straight Alliance group, because the name was not generic enough. They would only be approved with a "non LGBTQ+ name". He said it "seems like the board is trying to limit the visibility in queer and trans life, which is really disappointing."

While the Dufferin-Peel Catholic board has remained a beacon of anti-progressive policies, several school boards in Ontario’s Catholic system have opted to raise the Pride flag during the month of June to signal support for 2SLGBTQ students, including Catholic schools in Guelph, Halton, Hamilton, Peterborough, Toronto, Thunder Bay and Wellington County.

As more boards across the province, including many in the Catholic system, introduced progressive, student-centred policies, DPCDSB remained a hold out. In 2023 a student-led petition on Change.org stated of the local board that, "Unfortunately, students and staff are facing an increase in incidences of homophobia and transphobia, such as being targets for the use of inappropriate and offensive language, the destruction of initiatives being created by school-led equity clubs, and much more. This hate has a significant impact on our ability to learn and teach, thrive, be ourselves, and takes a significant toll on our mental health."

Ahead of last week’s decision, YouthLine, one of Ontario's largest advocacy groups devoted to supporting 2SLGBTQ+ youth, issued a plea on behalf of its clients.  

"Since 1994, YouthLine's flagship program is a peer support helpline for young people under 30. Based on this decades-long expertise, we know that queer and trans youth are increasingly having to negotiate whether school is a safe place for them to be who they are. Mental health and isolation are the top issues on the helpline and youth frequently share with us that they face homophobia and transphobia at school.

Acknowledging Pride Month is one way that DPCDSB can show 2SLGBTQ+ students that it cares about their safety and is working towards creating a more inclusive environment. Flying the Pride flag, a symbol of equality and inclusion, would serve as a powerful reminder that queer and trans students are not alone and that they are in fact recognized and welcomed in DPCDSB schools."

Trustees at the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board voted to ban all flags other than the Canadian, Ontario and board flags in a 9-1 vote.

(Paige Peacock/The Pointer) 

Harini Sivalingam, director of the equality program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, told The Pointer that choosing not to fly flags like the Pride or Every Child Matter flags can create an unsafe and exclusionary environment for communities who are very vulnerable and marginalized. It is especially alarming, she said, to see a public school board continuing in this direction. She highlighted that these are not just symbols, they have real impacts on the lived experiences and realities of 2SLGBTQ students that enter school spaces. 

“It impacts and limits expression. More importantly and more alarmingly, it sends a message of exclusion for members of those communities and that is something that is deeply troubling when we want to foster inclusion in our society and we want to ensure the safety and well being of groups that are often targeted with violence, harassment, discrimination based on protected groups like sexual orientation, gender identity and expression,” Sivalingam said.  

“We’ve actually seen an increase in hate incidents over the past several years that have targeted 2SLGBTQIA+ communities. So policies like this don’t help and they actually contribute to the increased hostility towards vulnerable and marginalized communities like the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.” 

Peel police reported that in 2023, there was an 88 percent increase in reported hate crimes based on sexual orientation, a trend over the past few years. The report attributed the surge in part to an increase in protests and misinformation surrounding the 2SLGBTQ community. Toronto police have also reported that these communities were the most frequently targeted group for assault occurrences in 2023.

These numbers are consistent with national statistics which show that in 2023 hate crimes targeting sexual orientation increased 69 percent from the previous year, a number Egale reported was “alarming but unsurprising” given ongoing trends. 

“We want to respect religious freedoms and that’s something that’s really important but when it's a publicly funded institution we need to ensure that all communities feel that their rights and dignity is respected,” Sivalingam said. 

Trustee Brea Corbet, who during a January 21 meeting said the current policy has “caused significant harm” to the 2SLGBTQ community, reiterated again last week that the motion, as amended by Dametto-Giovannozzi, would disproportionately impact marginalized communities, such as Indigenous and 2SLGBTQ students, calling it “very, very harmful.”

“I’m very concerned about this policy… and the proposed changes will negatively impact the mental health and well being of our students and staff. You’re going to make them feel more isolated, you’re going to make them feel more alone.,” Corbet said. “I am Catholic and unapologetically supportive of our 2SLGBTQIA+ students, families and staff,” she added, in what appeared to be a reference aimed at Dametto-Giovannozzi, who described herself in the meeting a week prior as “unapologetically Catholic.”

Recognizing that the board is “in a position of privilege, power and positions of authority to amend” the policy, Corbet put forward a motion requesting that the board’s flag protocol “allow additional flags in support of particular observances to be flown on the third flag pole and removed when the observance ends.” It added that “where such flags are displayed inside Dufferin-Peel buildings in support of particular observances they are not removed” and that any request to fly or display additional flags would require approval from the director of education or a designate. No one seconded the motion so it failed. 

Corbet also highlighted that the amended policy goes against the requirements set in the Education Act. Section 169.1 states that every board shall “promote student achievement and well-being” and “promote a positive school climate that is inclusive and accepting of all pupils, including pupils of any race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status or disability,” while also promoting the prevention of bullying. It is also not consistent with the Accepting Schools Act which outlines the same policies. 

“[We] as a Catholic school board have a moral, ethical and a legal responsibility to ensure our polices are grounded in antidiscrimination, rooted in anti-oppression and uphold the human rights of all,” she told trustees. “That’s our responsibility as a Catholic school board and it's also the expectation of the ministry of education in our governance role as elected trustees.

“That would make this policy even more regressive, even more oppressive. It would promote exclusion, it would promote more bullying. It would more negatively impact our school climates. Our children need to feel safe, they need to feel accepted, they need to feel loved everyday in our Catholic schools, every single day.”

Rhaya Clyne, who graduated from Loyola Catholic Secondary School in Mississauga, delegated on the same issue two years ago. “Many 2SLGBTQ+ students continue to be targets for bullying and harm through offensive language, and the destruction of initiatives being carried out by student-led equity clubs.” Clyne continued in front of trustees. “June is also the month for the sacred heart of Jesus, a month about the pure love Christ has for all of us in humanity. It would be incredibly impactful to truly embody the sacred heart and show our love to a community often forgotten.”

Julia Bertola also attended DPCDSB schools and previously addressed the board’s Pride flag policy. “At this moment, I do not feel accepted by that community. It might seem like such a small thing, but that visual representation can do so much to help a kid.”

Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @mcpaigepeacock 

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