May 12
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CHP: Ontario’s Bullying Anti-Bullying Bill 13
CHP Communiqué Vol 19, No 20, May 15, 2012
Ontario’s Bullying Anti-Bullying Bill 13
By Jim Hnatiuk, Leader of the Christian Heritage Party
Our candidate for CHP Hamilton Mountain, Jim Enos, unashamedly and very ably represented CHP Canada by preparing and presenting strong arguments to the Ontario Standing Committee on Bill 13, the “Anti-Bullying Bill.” This Communiqué captures the essence of his arguments, which clearly explain how the Anti-Bullying Bill actually is bullying Christians. Jim said:
It has been said that, “The world is divided not so much by geographic boundaries as by religious and cultural traditions, by people’s most deeply held beliefs—worldviews.”
As a biblically founded Christian organization, the Christian Heritage Party of Canada believes that there is a transcendent God who existed before the world existed and who has revealed an absolute and unchanging standard of right and wrong, based ultimately on His holy character.
Others believe that nature is all there is, there is no transcendent source of moral truth and that mankind is left to construct morality based on polls, political strength, and so on.
The important question then arises—can these opposing worldviews live side by side in harmony?
I believe that the Anti-Bullying Bill, Bill 13, is perhaps mankind’s attempt to, in a partial way, cause opposing worldviews to live peacefully side by side by instituting measures to reduce schoolyard bullying. Prevention of bullying of all persons in society is certainly an honourable ideal; Bill 13 however does not accomplish this…
Having served for the full two-year tenure on the Sexual Orientation Steering Committee for the Equity [in Education] Policy of my local public school board, my experience was that when we presented positions (along with the evidence on which they were based), we were unfairly ignored, shut down, and negatively labelled. We maintain that our positions were neither biased nor prejudiced.
The children and families who share our views are today labelled within the Equity Policy as homophobic and heterosexist despite the fact that our position is based on solid evidence, not on bias or prejudice. We are targeted and bullied by equity policies for our evidence-based worldview.
In Canada today, when a church declines to rent its facilities to a same-sex union event it is persecuted and prosecuted by a Human Rights Commission, however, when the state declines to rent publicly-funded facilities to a church then Bill 13 permits this in the name of bullying prevention. State worldview trumps church worldview.
Protection of all people from intimidation for any reason is an honourable goal. However:
- Sheltering any worldview from public scrutiny, discussion, dialogue or debate is restrictive of freedom of thought and expression.
- State worldviews which penalize peaceful and rational thought and dismiss medical and scientific evidence as discrimination are representative of a totalitarian state.
- State efforts to free society from transcending moral standards and penalize those who adhere to those moral standards are wicked at the root and reminiscent of the persecution of Christians in Roman days, when believers were thrown to the lions for the crime of not acknowledging Caesar as Lord.
Bill 13 is guilty of all three offenses above and thus is not acceptable in a free and democratic society.
Instead, legislative efforts to reduce or eliminate bullying should:
- Replace Bill 13 with a bill designed to protect all students and peoples and groups from bullying.
- Recognize that while all people deserve protection from bullying, no worldview should be sheltered from public scrutiny, discussion, dialogue or debate.
In closing, I offer the following quote from Chief Justice McLachlin (S.C.C.) in Chamberlain v. Surrey School District #36:
As my colleague points out, the demand for tolerance cannot be interpreted as the demand to approve of another person’s beliefs or practices. When we ask people to be tolerant of others, we do not ask them to abandon their personal convictions.
We look forward to a Bullying Prevention Bill which does not demand that our families approve of another person’s beliefs or practices; a Bill which does not ask us to abandon our own personal convictions.
To receive the full version of Jim Enos’ address contact our national office at [email protected]
Our thanks go out to Jim Enos for preparing and presenting to the Ontario Legislatures Committee on behalf of CHP Canada. While we recognise that education is a provincial matter, CHP Canada is concerned about the assault on our freedoms and equalities by legislation purportedly designed to protect Canadians but which in reality creates systemic approval of a violation of equality, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech.
Where our God-given rights and freedoms are violated, as in this type of legislation, CHP Canada calls on our federal government to fulfill its governmental mandate of protecting all Canadians from legislative violations of our Charter guaranteed rights.
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