by Christine Williams
His lawyer now warns that religious freedom is “essentially dead” under the Trudeau government.
In a sickening update in February — that should shake the conscience of every defender of human rights and freedoms in Canada — police in Ontario arrested 16-year-old Josh Alexander for attending class at his Catholic school, after he was suspended for protesting the allowance of males who identify as females to use girls’ bathrooms. I have been following the developments of this story from the beginning. See HERE and HERE for background. Thankfully, focus on the case isn’t going away, but is attracting increasing media attention across Canada, the U.S., and the UK.
To sum it up: Ontario student Josh Alexander was penalized with a 20-day suspension last year by his Catholic school “after he organized a walkout in protest of male students being permitted into the girls’ washroom.” In an interview around the time of Alexander’s initial suspension, the teen told LifeSiteNews that he believes, in accordance with Catholic teaching and the Bible, that there are only two sexes. Under the freedom of religion, Alexander has the guaranteed right to affirm this belief.
Or so we thought.
Liberty Coalition Canada (LCC) took up Josh’s case and sent a “Notice of Intention to Appeal Suspension” to Mary-Lise Rowat, Superintendent of Educational Services at Renfrew County Catholic District School Board. But Josh’s situation deteriorated, and fast. LifeSite news wrote in an update in February:
Alexander’s lawyer, James Kitchen, the chief litigator for Liberty Coalition Canada (LCC), told LifeSiteNews that Renfrew County Catholic District School Board won’t “permit him (Alexander) to attend school for the rest of the year because, according to them, Josh’s beliefs constitute ‘bullying of trans students.’”
What nonsense. Mind you, the school is bullying Josh over his religious rights and freedoms, while doing severe damage to what the school proclaims about honoring Catholic teachings.
In an update reported by Fox News, Kitchen stated that his client’s legal battle shows how freedom in the country is rapidly eroding. He further warned that Canadians “do not understand the gravity of the threat their government increasingly poses to religious freedom, which he said is ‘essentially dead’”. One of the first things Justin Trudeau did when he first became Prime Minister in 2015 was to shut down the Office of Religious Freedom.
Josh’s case also caught the attention of Elon Musk:
Kids were put in jail for this?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 25, 2023
I previously wrote to the Diocese of Pembroke, of which Josh’s school, St. Joseph’s Catholic High School, and the Renfrew County Catholic District, are a part. Below is an excerpt from that correspondence, where you’ll notice immediately how institutions are able to hide (unintentionally or not) behind bureaucratic red tape, even when in violation of their own stated values.
On Jan 16, 2023, at 8:13 PM,
Vicar General / Vicaire général <vg@pembrokediocese.com> wrote:Dear Ms. Williams,
Thank you very much for your email, to which Bishop Desrochers has asked me to reply on his behalf.
The Renfrew County District Catholic School Board is a separate corporation from the Diocese of Pembroke, and it is under the direction of a Board of Trustees. The diocese does not have jurisdiction over the internal life of the Board, nor does the Bishop have the authority to intervene in internal matters. He can, however, exercise moral suasion, and he is in regular contact with the Board’s leadership.
I thank you again for writing.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Michael Smith
Vicar General
and more….
On Jan 17, 2023, at 6:31 PM,
Vicar General / Vicaire général <vg@pembrokediocese.com> wrote:Thank you for your reply, Ms. Williams.
I am not party to Bishop Desrochers’ conversations with the Board’s leadership, but it can safely be said that the Bishop can be trusted to uphold Catholic teaching in a manner that is both clear and sensitive to others, especially the vulnerable.
In Christ,
Fr. Michael Smith
The full correspondence is HERE. From all appearances, the influence of Bishop Desrochers is questionable in a hierarchy that also appears to be corrupted at the highest levels and will only change with public opposition. Without any pushback, Canadians will lose more of their rights. So far, the Catholic faith, to all appearances, is of little importance at Josh’s school or within the diocese. Ethically, therefore, why is this school even being funded by taxpayers under a Separate School system, categorized as religious? The news broke last month that the Ontario government faces a legal challenge for funding Catholic schools; St. Joseph’s Catholic High School and the Renfrew District School Board makes the challenge easy. In an appropriately-titled report by the Christian Broadcasting Network: “Canadian Student Kicked Out of State-Funded Catholic School for Expressing Biblical Beliefs on Gender.”
Far too many people’s rights are being trampled unconstitutionally in the rush to adhere to woke ideology. In Josh’s case, he is a whipping boy for the intolerant in a multicultural country where its Prime Minister routinely hails the virtues of “tolerance” and “diversity.”
Josh’s school, St. Joseph’s Catholic School, boasts about its faith and its “atmosphere of trust” on its website:
After the egregious decision to suspend Josh until the end of the school year, Josh showed up to class anyway, in accordance with his rights and in defiance of the woke gods of his Catholic school. The result: the school called police to arrest him. Josh tweeted:
I have just been arrested and charged at my Catholic highschool for attending class after being excluded for indicating my intent to adhere to my religious beliefs. pic.twitter.com/vTkaSoTnFp
— Josh Alexander (@officialJosh_A) February 6, 2023
The cowards tried to hide the impact of the school’s actions:
“The entire class was dismissed while the staff handled my situation,” the boy continued. “Shortly after, Ontario Provincial Police arrived and asked me to leave. Once again, I respectfully declined and they arrested me.”
Josh is a courageous youngster who is bearing the burden for religious rights and freedoms in his country, a burden that adults should be carrying. His attorney told told LifeSiteNews “that Alexander’s decision to go back to school today was ‘an intelligent choice of a young man who knows what he is doing.’”
In a society that claims to abhor bullying, it is appalling that institutional bullying is now at play in the case of Josh Alexander and in full violation of Canada’s constitution.
Christine Douglass-Williams is Associate Editor of Frontpage, regular writer for Jihad Watch, a nine-time award-winning journalist, past Canadian government appointee to the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and the Office of Religious Freedom; author of "The Challenge of Modernizing Islam" and "Fired by the Canadian Government for Criticizing Islam".
Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/canada-catholic-student-suspended-then-arrested-for-opposing-gender-ideology/
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