News Features

A cartoon in a Christian group’s newsletter highlights its exasperation with the B.C. government’s handling of a high-profile human-rights complaint. The Canadian Alliance for Social Justice and Family Values Association stated in its September-October newsletter that its purpose is “to defend and to preserve parental and children’s rights”. One of its chief concerns is a settlement reached last April between the provincial government and a married Vancouver gay couple, Murray and Peter Corren.

The settlement granted the Correns the right to consult with Ministry of Education officials to ensure that the school curriculum respects different sexual orientations. In addition, the ministry must consult with groups identified by the Correns as having expertise in sexual orientation, homophobia, and other issues of inclusion and diversity. As part of the settlement, there will also be a new Grade 12 elective course next year on social justice.

The Canadian Alliance for Social Justice and Family Values Association described the agreement in its recent newsletter as “meritless, secretive, unilateral, one-sided” and “undemocratic”. The group has bought ads in three Chinese-language local papers condemning the settlement, and last August 800 members demonstrated outside the premier’s constituency office. They have also collected more than 17,000 names on petitions, according to spokesperson K-John Cheung.

In the recent newsletter, an illustration shows B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal using the petitions to fan the flames of a bonfire. Cheung told the Georgia Straight that the text mentions how Premier Gordon Campbell is cooking a chicken wing in a “politically correct” manner.

“I do believe we are coming close to our objectives,” Cheung said.

One goal is to ensure that Christian groups like his have an equal opportunity to influence the curriculum. He added that there should be a “balanced view” of homosexuality featuring the “pros and cons”. Real Women of Canada, the Catholic Civil Rights League, and Concerned Parents BC have joined the chorus of criticism.

“I do believe the pressure is having some impact,” Cheung said.

Peter Corren, a TransLink business analyst, told the Straight that he’s fed up with responding to his critics on the Christian right, adding that he has no interest in responding to their complaints. He said the settlement is a binding legal agreement. “You know, we’ve had death threats and abusive phone calls,” he said. “It’s not an informed target that we’re aiming at.”

He noted that some critics have claimed that the social-justice course will focus almost exclusively on gay and lesbian issues, when it will address the broader issue of citizenship, including the internment of Japanese Canadians, the Chinese head tax, and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Correns, who have been together for 35 years, have been described as a “childless couple” when they have an adopted adult son.

Murray Corren, a Coquitlam literacy-support teacher, told the Straight that it wouldn’t have been necessary to file a human-rights complaint had the previous NDP government responded to his concerns in the 1990s.

On August 26, 1996, Murray Corren (then known as Murray Warren) started the process by writing a letter to then–education minister Moe Sihota. Murray Corren said that at the time he wanted to know why sexual orientation and gender identity weren’t included in an appendix to curriculum documents. The same appendix listed gender equity and antiracism, ensuring that teachers were required to address these issues in classrooms.

Murray Corren also claimed that administrators ignored a requirement that students who opt out of classes achieve learning outcomes via an “alternate-delivery process”.

“Ultimately, the most frequent reason for parents to opt their children out of classes had to do with any discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity and same-sex parents,” Murray Corren said. “We felt it was extremely important for the ministry to delineate exactly where this policy applies and where it doesn’t.”

Murray Corren said he wouldn’t have filed a complaint in 1999 if then–NDP education minister Paul Ramsey had ordered the Surrey school board to allow books featuring same-sex parents. “The ministry did all sorts of manoeuvres,” Peter Corren said. “First of all, they said they weren’t subject to the Human Rights Code. Secondly, they said that the curriculum wasn’t a service customarily available to the public.”

Murray Corren quickly added: “If public education isn’t a service, I don’t know what is.”

Peter Corren said that the then–deputy education minister, Charles Ungerleider, eliminated the appendix, which was the source of the complaint. Then the B.C. Liberals took power and eliminated the B.C. Human Rights Commission, which was a party to the complaint.

Murray Corren said that all along, the couple had three demands of various NDP and B.C. Liberal education ministers: restore the appendix, include gender identity and same-sex families on the list, and clarify the alternative-delivery policy when students opted out of lessons. Both Correns emphasized that they were prepared to reach a settlement whenever the government was ready.

Finally this year, after they won a procedural victory at the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal (which is separate from the human rights commission), the government agreed to the settlement addressing discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered students. “In the end, it’s what Canada is all about,” Peter Corren said. “That whole issue of social justice and inclusion is a very important value that is treasured by most Canadians.”

Most Canadians perhaps, but not necessarily all who belong to organizations on the Christian right.