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Public School Board Rejects Prime Minister’s Campaign Stop While Catholic Board Permits It

By Terry Vanderheyden

CORNWALL, December 9, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An Eastern Ontario public school board denied “persistent” requests by Prime Minister Paul Martin’s campaign team to make a stop at one of their high schools, while the Catholic board welcomed the pro-abortion, pro-gay “marriage” PM with open arms, as reported by LifeSiteNews.com Friday: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/dec/05120207.html.

Upper Canada District School Board said it “politely declined” Martin’s request to visit Cornwall Collegiate and Vocational School Thursday; Martin instead visited Cornwall’s St. Joseph's Catholic Secondary School, where he also gave a live televised nationwide address through CBC Newsworld.

While the public board sensibly has a firm policy expressly banning any politically partisan event from its schools, the Catholic board had no problem granting Martin, a dissident Catholic, a perfect photo op with school children whooping wildly, and waving flags for the Leader of the Liberal Party. 

The public board said that had Martin requested a visit outside of his campaign, he would have been welcome. On the other hand, because Martin is Prime Minister, the Catholic board felt it was a “chance of a lifetime” for schoolchildren to meet a world leader. The Catholic board said it would not, however, allow a visit from Steven Harper or Jack Layton because they are not world leaders.

Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario chairman Ron Eamer denied that the Prime Minister’s visit was simply a publicity-seeking campaign stunt. Eamer justified his decision to accept the PM but not allow Layton or Harper: “Whichever one of them might become prime minister, we’d more than welcome them as prime minister,” he said, according to a Brockville Recorder and Times report.

Commenting Friday, Mary Ellen Douglas, President of Campaign Life Coalition Ontario told LifeSiteNews.com, “It’s bad enough that the school would allow a partisan political campaign stop at their instruction. However, a Catholic school accepting a visit from a pro-abortion politician who just forced same-sex ‘marriage’ on the country is beyond the pale.”

Local bishop Paul-André Durocher, asked by LifeSiteNews.com about his impression of the school’s allowance of Martin in light of a widely reported USCCB document that warned that pro-abortion politicians should not be honoured by the Catholic community and Catholic institutions, responded, “I’m not aware of that document.”

To RESPECTFULLY express concerns:

Most Rev. Paul-André Durocher
admin@alexandria-cornwall.ca
220, ch. Montréal Rd., C.P. / Box 1388,
Cornwall ON K6H 5V4
Telephone / Téléphone (613) 933-1138; Fax / Télécopieur (613) 937-4931

The Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario Eastern Region Education Centre 835 Campbell Street Cornwall, Ontario K6H 7B7 Telephone: (613) 933-1720 Toll-free: 1-800-267-7136 Fax: (613) 933-7966 (613) 258-7757 Fax: (613) 258-5067 E-Mail: ann.perron@cdsbeo.on.ca

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