---

     

Toronto Catholic Board Switches Aid To Women's Fundraising From Halloween to Pro-Life Week

Re-instating Halloween fundraiser for pro-abortion UNICEF is no longer considered

TORONTO, May 8, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Toronto Catholic District School Board’s Human Resources, Program and Religious Affairs Committee last night resolved to allow the crisis pregnancy agency, Aid To Women, to continue to fundraise through Board schools.

The evening’s agenda included discussions and voting in response to a Committee of the Whole Board report recommending “that the TCDSB inform schools of the recommended charities for Halloween fundraising as included in correspondence from the Archdiocese of Toronto and the CCCB, namely, the Holy Childhood Association and Development and Peace.” The omission of any mention of Aid to Women implied the removal of the pregnancy help agency from the list.

Aid to Women has received critically-needed funding from its Halloween box program through the Board’s schools. At last night’s meeting it was noted that students raised $10,000 for Aid to Women last year whereas the other two agencies received only a total of $1400.

The current controversy began in response to a letter to all Toronto Archdiocese school boards from Suzanne Scorsone, Archdiocesan Director of Communications. The letter recommended that the various school boards within the large archdiocese follow the second of two options recommended by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) in 1999 namely, that in place of UNICEF, they authorize fundraising for the Holy Childhood Association and Development and Peace. Aid to Women was likely not also mentioned since only the Toronto Board has been including that agency along with the other two. The CCCB and the archdiocese did not explicitly exclude approval of additional agencies in general, nor did they recommend against Aid to Women.

Board staff said rescinding approval of Aid to Women was implicit in the letter and that they were only recommending what was requested by the Cardinal and the bishops.

Trustee Michael Del Grande disagreed, noting that the Board has supported Aid to Women for the past six years. He moved that the report be amended to add Aid to Women to the list.

Later, it was determined there would likely not be sufficient votes to pass Del Grande’s amendment. Only trustee Poplawski was outspoken in her opposition, but she eventually supported Trustee Joshua Colle’s compromise solution to the problem.

Colle recommended that Board staff develop a plan for schools to raise money for Aid to Women every Respect for Life week instead of on Halloween.

The motion was passed and all parties appeared to be satisfied with the outcome.

At the beginning of the meeting, three speakers made presentations to the committee in support of Aid to Women. Dick Cochrane, president of Aid to Women, noted that the board had not notified Aid to Women of the misleading letter from Catholics For a Free Choice. As well, he expressed concern that no one from the Board had warned him about concerns relating to a possible change in Aid to Women’s status with the board. Mr. Cochrane reported that since 1988 Aid to Women has saved nearly 1000 babies and their mothers from abortion. Canada’s renowned pro-life evangelist, Fr. Ted Colleton, and prominent pro-life lawyer, Angela Costigan, also spoke and urged the Board to continue its support for Aid to Women.

Interestingly, no one spoke in favour of re-approving UNICEF. It appears it is now firmly accepted in the archdiocese and the Toronto Catholic Board that financial support for the UN organization from Catholic institutions is inappropriate.

See also
PRO-ABORTION GROUPS PRESSURE TORONTO CATHOLIC BOARD TO RESCIND BAN ON UNICEF BOXES
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/may/03050605.html

 Back to Top

---

SHARE THIS STORY: E-mail  Print  Newsvine  Digg  Reddit  Del.icio.us  Facebook

---

---

MORE NEWS: LifeSiteNews.com Home Page  Last 10 Days   Archives   Special Reports

Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.