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11 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,F ebruary 24,2022 insidehalton.com Conservation Halton is proud to support our communities by providing access to nature through the pandemic. During the past two years, many families have visited our parks to support their mental and physical health. Although we are always happy to have new visitors at the parks, Conservation Halton had to quickly adapt to this increased visitation. In April 2020, we introduced our award-winning reservation system, which allows us to manage the number of visitors in our parks, prevent crowding to ensure the health and safety of our community, reduce the impact that visitors have on our natural areas, and keep in touch with visitors about park conditions and trail closures. Reserve your visit to a Conservation Halton Park at parkvisit.ca Ying Yang Chartered Professional Accountant Member of Canadian Tax Foundation (647) 989-1276 Oakville Office: (289) 291-3924 Toronto Offiffice: (647) 255-8049 yy@yangaccounting.ca For an affordable solution to your Business and Individual tax difficulties … Make an Appointment Today for a Free Confidential Consultation CRACRACRACRA PPPPrroblobleems?ms? Individual, Corporati &on & Trust Payrayroll, HST includiudingng Overseas & O& Offffshorshore Tax Issueax Issues Yang Tang Tang Tang ax Resolsolution A trustee made a fairly short-lived attempt to bring back a controversial policy from the past. Oakville trustee Helena Karabela put forth an amendment at the Feb. 15 board meeting to change the Halton Catholic District School Board's (HCDSB) policy around school fund- raising activities. The ultimately-defeated amendment stated that no school fundraising efforts could be directed to an orga- nization that supports ad- vocacy, programs, financ- ing or material support for abortion, euthanasia or hu- man embryonic stem cell research. Charities that could be included under that label include Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, as well as the Canadian Cancer Soci- ety and Halton Women's Place. The direction was simi- lar to a controversial amendment from 2018 also supported by Karabela and was widely known as the Sanctity of Life policy. "If we say we uphold the tenets of the Catholic faith on sacredness of life, we need to make sure that we are not giving money, not even one dollar, to any char- ity or non-profit that does not uphold the sacredness of life. If we did, then we would be in danger of fund- ing and promoting evil ac- tions," said Karabela. In 2018, the similar Sanc- tity of Life motion led to stu- dent protests, a court case against the board, months of debate and even condem- nation from a former educa- tion minister before it was ultimately quashed by trustees later that year. That motion generated attention for the HCDSB throughout the province and is widely credited as be- ing key to the turnover seen at the board table between the current term and the previous one. Karabela is the only trustee from that term who was re-elected. "All life is beautiful. It is wrong to kill a human per- son. It is wrong to prevent human life from being born. It is wrong to experiment on a human person in their earliest stage of develop- ment, and it is wrong to as- sist a vulnerable or sick el- derly person with suicide. It is for these important rea- sons that I am amending this policy to include the statement as a guiding prin- ciple," said Karabela. The amendment to add the principle was strongly opposed by the majority of trustees at the table. Oppo- nents labelled the move as an attempt to get attention, said it was a thoroughly de- bated topic that the commu- nity already said they didn't want, and was an overreach to attempt to control what students did with their charitable donations. Oakville trustee Nancy Guzzo said she would never agree to something like this and the fundraising policy is written to give school communities the latitude to put their support where they choose. "Frankly, I am quite dis- appointed that this is mak- ing an appearance here and that this was done specifi- cally here at the board meeting and not at policy to grandstand. And it is ex- tremely disappointing, and I would never, ever support anything like this," Guzzo. In a statement following the meeting, Karabela said she was not at the previous policy meeting and bring- ing forward the amendment at the board meeting is part of normal procedure. Other trustees connect- ed their opposition to the amendment with personal experiences. Burlington trustee Bren- da Agnew said her son had been supported by organi- zations that this policy would forbid the students from donating to. "His life and the life of others like him are no less important than anyone else's. And if we're not able to support the research and initiatives that keep some kids like my son alive and thriving, it's something that I don't want to have a part of," said Agnew. Karabela, Tim O'Brien and Vincent Iantomasi vot- ed in favour of adding the sacredness of life wording. Agnew, Guzzo, Patrick Murphy, Peter DeRosa and Janet O'Hearn-Czarnota voted against the addition. SANCTITY OF LIFE WILL REMAIN OUT OF CATHOLIC BOARD POLICY HELENA KARABELA HCDSB photo ROLAND CILLIERS rcilliers@metroland.com NEWS "If we say we uphold the tenets of the Catholic faith on sacredness of life, we need to make sure that we are not giving money, not even one dollar, to any charity or non-profit that does not uphold the sacredness of life." - trustee Helena Karabela