In a precedent setting complaint, a prominent Toronto lawyer has filed a formal complaint under the Human Rights Code to the Ontario Human Rights Commission against Human Rights Commissioner Keith Norton, Toronto Free Press has discovered.
In a July 17 letter to Ali Ahmad at the Commission, Joseph Y. Adler, of the law firm Kronis Rotsztain Margles Cappel vowed to "pursue this complaint with the utmost vigor" and was looking forward to having his complaint addressed "at your earliest possible opportunity."
In the media, Norton has portrayed private religious schools as breeders of hatred and discrimination.
Adler, who has worked for the Ontario Human Rights Commission, says he is one of "several thousand Ontarians…who have been similarly offended" by Commissioner Keith Norton’s remarks.
Norton is on the public record for stating that the Education Tax Credit (ETC) would create "an educational apartheid that breeds hatred and discrimination."
"The Commissioner has clearly overstepped his bounds and has offended several minority religious groups in one fell swoop," Adler wrote. "Instead of promoting an environment of religious tolerance and co-existence for which his office is responsible for doing, he has contributed to the very thing he wishes to avoid. That is, his damaging comments have the potential to create, if they have not already created, serious divisions in Ontario’s society. The Commissioner’s lack of sensitivity in this regard is truly troubling and inexcusable."
Controversy and objections by teachers’ unions, among others, followed the Education Tax Credit when it was announced under the former premiership of Mike Harris. The tax credit, seen by supporters like Adler as "a small but meaningful overture on the part of the Tory government to address (the) longstanding inequity through Ontario’s funding of Roman Catholic schools," would give $3,500 per student to parents who move their youngsters from public to private schools.
Conventional wisdom has it that the Ernie Eves-led Progressive Conservatives, who postponed the tax credit in last month’s budget, want to kill it altogether. Rather than risking public outcry, they have created the red herring of an "educational apartheid breeding hate and discrimination."
In his public condemnation of private schools, Norton recently cited a case in which the head of a Toronto private school was alleged to have associated with international terrorists. In the Commissioner’s scenario, maybe everything was fine at the school. But perhaps it wasn’t. "If public funds are to be used in any way, directly or indirectly, to fund such schools, there ought to be some accountability and some scrutiny."
But parents and religious school supporters of various denomination, who believe that Norton, a former education minister and long-time party hack has never been known for aggressive remarks in the past, feel they are being centred out.
"It’s overkill. If Norton is dead set against the tax credit and the Tories want to renege on it, there is a more honorable way to fight it than to brand a segment of society as racists," said one.
Some Tory MPPs are said to be secretly seething.
"Section 13 of the Code prohibits a person from publishing or causing the publication of any information that is intended by the person to `incite the infringement of a right’ under the code. I respectfully submit that Mr. Norton has attempted through his remarks to the public to incite Ontarians to discriminate against religious minorities and to breach the provisions of the Code," Adler wrote in his letter to the Commission.
Norton and company have provoked the anger of Dr. Charles McVety, President of Canada Christian College and School of Graduate Theological Studies and President of the Evangelical Association, who says private religious schools "do not deserve to be characterized as promoters of "apartheid, racism, terrorism or hate."
At the outset of the leadership campaign, Eves expressed his full support and commitment to implementing the tax credit–in writing, McVety said.
"Within two months, he glibly broke his written commitment. We trusted his word and he promptly breached our trust."
Spokesmen in the religious community say there is only "one tiny light at the end of this black tunnel",
"By leaning so far left, Eves is trying to get re-elected in Ontario’s next election. He won’t. McGuinty will. Eves has no staying power and will return to the public sector, leaving the Tory leadership available for someone more faithful to conservative values," said one.
Eves, who since becoming Premier in April, has distanced himself from Mike Harris’ policies by raising tobacco taxes and canceling the privatization of Hydro One, is also feeling the wrath of the secular community.
The National Citizens’ Coalition, one of Canada’s leading Conservative organizations is urging its members to withhold financial support from the Ontario Conservatives because the party has moved too far to the left under Eves.
The NCC is distributing a mass mailing to its 12,000 members in Ontario, calling on them to defer donations to the party, much as Eves deferred promised tax cuts in last month’s provincial budget.
"Dear Premier Eves: Since you broke your promise and deferred my tax cut, I am going to defer my contribution to the Ontario PC party. And I will defer my contribution until you start acting like a real conservative," say NCC postcards now being forwarded to the Premier at Queen’s Park.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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