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th ei fp .c a Th e IF P -H al to n H ill s | T hu rs da y, M ar ch 29 ,2 01 8 | 6 The Georgetown Independent & Free Press, published every Thursday, is a division of the Metroland Media Group Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Torstar Corpora- tion. The Metroland family of newspapers is comprised of more than 80 community publications across Ontario. The Independent & Free Press is a member of the National NewsMedia Council. Complainants are urged to bring their concerns to the attention of the newspaper and, if not satisfied, write The National NewsMedia Council, Suite 200, 890 Yonge St., Toronto, ON M4W 2H2. Phone: 416-340-1981 Web: www.mediacouncil.ca newsroom@theifp.ca IndependentAndFreePress @IFP_11 ABOUT US The Independent & Free Press 280 Guelph Street, Unit 77 Georgetown, ON L7G 4B1 Phone: 905-873-0301 Classifieds: 905-234-1016 Fax: 905-873-0398 Letters to the editor All letters must be fewer than 200 words and include your name and telephone number for verification purposes. We reserve the right to edit, condense or reject letters. Delivery For all delivery inquiries, please e-mail lpolar@miltoncanadiancham- pion.com or call 905-234-1019. CONTACT US Publisher Kelly Montague General Manager Steve Foreman Retail Advertising Manager Cindi Campbell Regional Managing Editor Chris Vernon Regional Managing Digital Editor Robyn Wilkinson Distribution Representative Iouliana Polar Classified/Real Estate Kristie Pells Regional Production Manager Manuel Garcia Production Shelli Harrison WHO WE ARE OPINION The Halton Catholic District School Board is way off base with its ban on donations to charities that may fall foul of its interpretation of religious doctrine. The board's trustees are getting a lot of pushback on their decision, and rightly so. Some 21,000 people have signed an online petition against it. Students are speaking out and the leader of the board's teachers union calls the ban "needlessly divisive." Even the chair of the board, Diane Rabenda, has made it clear she personally disagrees with it. Nonetheless, the trustees are forging ahead with this ill-advised measure. Adopted in late February, it bans fundraising or donations for non-profits and charities that "directly or indirectly" support abor- tion, contraception, sterilization, euthanasia or em- bryonic stem-cell research. The ban is so broad that it may catch many main- stream charitable groups in its net - including the likes of the United Way, the Canadian Cancer Society (which currently isn't funding stem-cell research but has in the past and could in the future), women's shel- ters, the Red Cross, UNICEF and even Toronto's Sick- Kids Hospital. The board and its 33,000 students raise about $12 million a year. No wonder one of the students protesting this deci- sion, 17-year-old Ben Sabourin, told a board meeting Tuesday evening: "I will not stand here and be told by this board that I am any less of a Catholic for helping sick children and cancer patients." The trustees who voted for the ban should ask them- selves a few questions. They should wonder, for example, why none of On- tario's 28 other English Catholic school boards (or the seven French Catholic ones, for that matter) have felt it necessary to adopt such a prohibition. They should wonder about the wisdom of adopting a ban so comprehensive that it would prohibit dona- tions to an organization that even "indirectly" sup- ports contraception or stem-cell research. Umbrella groups like the United Way may well be swept up in it simply because one of the organizations they fund is involved in something as innocuous as family plan- ning. Beyond all that, a publicly funded school board should not be trying to ban charitable giving on the basis of a few trustees' strict interpretation of reli- gious doctrine. Aside from being wrong, it will only fuel opposition to the whole idea of separate Catholic boards. The Halton Catholic board has been down this rocky road before, and it has always led to a dead end. The board refused for five years to allow girls to receive the HPV vaccine in school, arguing it sent a "mixed message on chastity." And it tried to ban "gay- straight alliances" until protests forced it to change its mind. This is another wrong-headed decision. The board should re-think it without delay. Catholic board misses the mark Do Catholics not have a right to make a choice? Do the pundits who be- lieve the Halton Catholic District School Board is out of line with its pro-life mo- tion not see the irony in their opposition? Does not pro-choice mean freedom to choose? Is the Halton board not free to choose what it believes is the right choice: protection of the unborn? Do Catholics not con- tribute to the public purse and have the right to allo- cate their proportional contributions to promote positions they believe con- form to Church teaching? Do they not have the right to choose to direct their charitable donations to or- ganizations that support Catholic principles? Or do we live in a totali- tarian state, where one seg- ment of society gets to dic- tate what happens to the public funding provided by Catholics? Do we live in a society where pro-choice really means no choice at all? Are the opponents to this issue attempting to deny Catho- lics their constitutional freedom to choose? Peter Swirzon It's time to pull the plug on Facebook The drop in stock mar- ket prices is now being at- tributed to Facebook's val- ue or lack of value. Why is my retirement fund taking a drop because of Facebook which is de- signed to keep you in con- tact with people you don't know or don't want to and show you ads for products you didn't know you need- ed? There should not have been a surprise that a com- pany such as data firm Cambridge Analytica was a user of Facebook that col- lected, collated and consid- ered and potentially cor- rupted the political system. It's time to face the truth and turn Facebook off so that we can live our own lives and not an online one. Dennis Fitzgerald Writer raps HCDSB fundraising decision I am absolutely appalled by the most recent decision made by the trustees of the Halton Catholic District School Board to ban fund- raising for charities that indirectly violate Catholic values. This ban could include organizations such as Sick- Kids, Me to We, and even the Terry Fox Run. I support the petition started by the students and hopefully the parents. However, there is more that we can do to demon- strate our displeasure. Right now I have the pa- perwork in front of me and although we have been long supporters of this school board, with our own children attending Catho- lic schools, we are sadly on the verge of withdrawing our financial support as we cannot in good conscience tacitly condone this. We are waiing and watching the board's re- sponse to the growing backlash of this very un- wise and narrow thinking motion. Marika Costa • EDITORIAL • • LETTERS & COMMENTARY •