A Catholic's response to flying pride flags at our Catholic schools

From a conversation that a citizen had with a trustee running for Catholic school trustee. The trustee asked Barbara for her thoughts after she contacted him on the pride flag flying at our Catholic Schools. Here is her response:

As for my thoughts, I believe that the only flag that should be flown is the Canadian flag (the Ontario and Ottawa flags would be fine as well). None of those raise any contentious, social or political issues that people have such strong opinions about (for and against) and I think everyone will agree that it is good to be proud of our country, our province and our city. That way, all students and staff would feel included. The problem with the Pride flag is that it celebrates behaviours that are against the Catholic faith, also against the Islamic faith as I understand it. Especially concerning to me and many people (not just religious people but also some atheists and women's rights activists) is the promotion of transgenderism, which has been shown to be so harmful for so many young people. 

As a practicing Catholic, I adhere to the Christian teaching that we are all created in God's image. Therefore, we all have inherent dignity, no matter whether we identify as gay, straight, trans, black, white, or whatever. No one should be discriminated against, and to me, we treat everyone respectfully when we don't single out one particular aspect (e.g. gender/sexuality) and make it the basis of a flag. A Pride flag inherently excludes anyone who adheres to Catholic/Christian teachings on sexuality and I think Islamic teaching as well. We have been called bigots, anti-gay, anti-woman, etc. I'm an adult, and I find it difficult to face this discrimination... I can only imagine how a Catholic /Christian (or Muslim) child must feel when they see that their school is celebrating behaviours that go against their strongly held religious convictions. Children should not be made to feel ashamed of their religious beliefs, and that is what ends up happening when "Pride" is celebrated.

As we are discussing Catholic schools here, if any other flag were to be flown, it would make sense to fly one that sends the message that we are all children of God (no matter our sex, gender, race, ethnicity, etc.) That is where our identity comes from. That is where our dignity lies. As far as I know, all major religions have some form of the "golden rule" about doing unto others as we would like to have others do unto us. Or as we heard in today's Gospel reading, to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, and to love our neighbour as ourselves. Were we to adhere to this simple teaching, our families, communities, and the world, would no doubt be better off.

Thank you for listening.

Wishing you the very best, 

Barbara M

Trustee Cindy Simpson supports pride ideology in Catholic schools

My correspondence with Ottawa Catholic school board trustee Cindy Simpson. Every year the Ottawa Catholic School Board flies the pride flag.

----------------------

On Oct 3, 2026, at 3:51 PM, Patricia Maloney <maloneyp64@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Cindy,

Can you please tell me what your position is on flying the PRIDE flag at our Catholic schools in June?

Thank you.

Patricia Maloney

----------------------

On Sat, Oct 3, 2026 at 4:08 PM Cindy Simpson <cinsimp24@gmail.com> wrote:

Patricia
I voted in favor of flying the pride flag in June to ensure all of our families attending our schools feel safe and welcome.
Cindy Simpson
Vice Chair
OCSB

----------------------

Dear Cindy,

It is the school's job to make students feel safe and welcome, but flying the pride flag is simply virtue signaling and does nothing to make anyone safe and welcome, especially for people who do not buy into the ideology symbolized by this flag. For them, they can and do feel negatively triggered by this symbol.

Since we are Catholics, flying a Sacred Heart of Jesus, or a pro-life flag would be far more appropriate. 

It is a shame that our Catholic schools have bent a knee to this divisive ideology. It is very sad indeed.

Patricia Maloney

Finance committee parrots pro-abortion advocates' disinformation

Dear members of the Finance Committee,

I have a question for all of you regarding Recommendation 65 of your RECOMMENDATIONS OF THESTANDING COMMITTEE ON FINANCE FOR THE 2026 BUDGET:

"... Budget 2026 should also introduce amendments to the Income Tax Act to require greater transparency from anti-abortion pregnancy centres in order to mitigate harm to clients and prevent the misuse of charitable status."

I understand from the extensive research I have done on Pregnancy Care Centres, including numerous Access to Information requests I submitted, that the government of Canada bases these allegations of "harm to clients" and "the misuse of charitable status" on the say-so of the Abortion Rights coalition of Canada. (Note that none of these ATIPs I received revealed any evidence of these allegations outside of ARCC's allegations). 

In other words, it appears that the government of Canada is biased and is basing important decisions that affect these charities on a group whose mission is, to repeatedly attack and libel these charities. ARCC has attacked these centres since at least since 2009 where Joyce Arthur (executive director of both groups) received $27,400 in government funding to kick off her initial blitzkrieg on these centres (using Arthur's previous organization the Pro-choice-Action Network). I, and others, have repeatedly rebutted these false claims (see links below). 

Have any of you actually investigated and researched these centres yourself to corroborate that these centres harm clients and misuse their charitable status?

Because if you have not, and are taking ARCC's word for these allegations, with all due respect, you are agreeing to something very serious and not based on the truth.

I have a second question for you. I noticed that absent from your recommendations are recommendations from three Christian charities on the same subject. Why are their recommendations not included when you do include the scurrilous recommendations from ARCC? This looks like anti-Christian discrimination.

As ARPA stated in their submission to the committee:

"Previous calls to revoke the charitable tax status of pregnancy care centres ignore the benefits that these centres provide to women. At root, calls to revoke their charitable status are ideologically motivated attempts to marginalize a pro-life view with which they disagree." (emphasis added)

Here are the two extensively researched reports refuting the two "studies" Abortion Rights Coalition wrote attacking Pregnancy Care Centres:

(From Pregnancy Care Canada. Note that this rebuttal is based on the Pro-Choice Action Network's report which is the previous name for the Abortion Rights Coalition and headed by the same person) :
Crisis Pregnancy Centres In British Columbia A Respectful Rebuttal to a Disrespectful Report
My rebuttal to a subsequent ARCC report on these centres.
ABORTION RIGHTS COALITION OF CANADA DECEITFUL ON CRISIS PREGNANCY CENTRES

Here are the three recommendations from the three Christian charities that you chose not to include in your recommendations, in favour of ARCC's ideologically motivated attempt to marginalize a pro-life view with which they disagree. 

ARPA
https://arpacanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2026-Federal-Budget-Consultation.pdf

Christian Legal Fellowship

https://www.christianlegalfellowship.org/blog/2026charityupdate

Canadian Centre for Christian Charities    

https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/451/FINA/Brief/BR14102560/br-external/CanadianCentreForChristianCharities-e.pdf

A recent example of Joyce Arthur's ongoing witch hunt against these clinics where she recycles her untruths about these centres. Just have a look at the title of her article:

Unregulated pregnancy centres cause lasting harms—we need transparency UPCs cause harm through deception, disinformation, and other traumatizing strategies meant to turn people away from abortion

I look forward to hearing back from the committee soon with answers to my questions.

Sincerely,

Patricia Maloney 

Ottawa

Ottawa spends thousands to "wrap" buses in Pride colours

Ottawa spent $79,189.27 over four years to wrap its buses in Pride colours. In 2023 and 2024, they wrapped one bus a year. Then in 2025 and 2026 they wrapped two buses each year. Does this mean that next year they will wrap four buses? Maybe a whole fleet of buses?

This for a bus system that ended 2025 with a deficit of $52 million.

Mona Fortier -- vote for Bill C-218

I just emailed and called my MP Mona Fortier's office on the hill to ask her to vote for Bill-C-218, a bill to stop Medical homicide (MAID) this week. 

Her voice mail announcement was only in French. Hmmm...I thought that the government of Canada was officially bilingual? And she's an MP. Not a good example of official bilingualism.

Official Languages Act: Passed in 1969 under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, this federal law requires federal departments, agencies, and Crown corporations to offer services in both English and French.