quote:

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When Catholic teachers from across Ontario gather at the Westin Harbour Castle next week for their annual general meeting, they'll be facing standard resolutions about union dues and collective bargaining – plus a controversial motion to endorse same-sex marriage. Just one week after the Pope declared that gay nuptials degrade marriage and called on authorities to stop approving them, Resolution 151 has stirred up a hornet's nest.

The motion, put forward by the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association's human rights committee, asks OECTA to "communicate with the federal government its support for the passing of the legislation changing the definition of marriage to allow for same-sex unions."

An official in the OECTA provincial office says that although members of the human rights committee are chosen by the executive, the resolution does not necessarily reflect the views of the executive as a whole. She says that social justice activists have always had a strong presence in the association, and support for same-sex marriage is merely a contemporary example of their traditional concerns. "This is in the same spirit," she says.

James Ryan, a member of the provincial executive and of the human rights committee, acknowledges that the resolution – which is not guaranteed to actually hit the floor – makes some people uncomfortable. "There's probably a rural-urban split. But it's certainly within the mandate of the human rights committee to deal with issues like that."

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[ 08 March 2004: Message edited by: Skye ]

Hell, half of Cornwall's NDP supporters were from the 2001 grad class -- a year before me.