January 02, 2000

The Hon. Premier Mike Harris
Office of the Premier
Queen’s Park
Ontario Legislature
Toronto, Ontario
M7A 1A1

Dear Mr. Harris:

Re: Religious Accommodation in the Public Schools.

The recent adoption by the TDSB of equity policy implementation documents that promote homosexuality as a normal practice is of grave concern to us. It is particularly disturbing that the majority of Board trustees have deliberately chosen to utterly disregard the call of many thousands of Muslim parents and parents from other faith communities who clearly and strongly vocalized their rejection of these documents. It is very clear to us that in the name of stopping discrimination the Board Trustees have consciously chosen to discriminate against us, and are attempting to push us out of public schools.

We affirm that homosexuality is contradictory to of our religious beliefs, values and practices and that any attempt to normalize it in any form whatsoever is contradictory to our convictions. We insist on the right to protect our children from vices and sin that are clearly contrary to our religious convictions. We expect TDSB schools to respect our fundamental religious beliefs and to clearly and unambiguously inform us of any material, curricular and extra-curricular items, or social activities which in any way affirm the normalcy of homosexuality. We insist that the school has an obligation to inform us and obtain parental consent for our children's participation in any such activity before it is even contemplated, and provide acceptable educational alternatives to our children.

We as concerned parents also call in the strongest terms upon the school and the higher authorities to adopt and implement a comprehensive faith policy in which religious accommodation would be given equal priority, system-wide in the GTA.

We expect you to respect our religious convictions and look forward to your urgent attention to our concerns. Your cooperation in this matter is appreciated.

Respectfully,

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