Let’s Make Sure We Are Heard!

Sandra Dunham

CFIC and partnering humanist groups were asked to write letters to the editor and to their local politicians as well as to Stephen Lecce (Minister of Education) and Doug Ford (Premier of Ontario) to demand that the public funding of Catholic schools be discontinued. We thank our late friend Isobel Taylor for ensuring she did all of the above. We now have to continue the fight and reveal the media’s reticence to publish the facts.

CFIC has frequently released stories that have been neglected by the media. Based on informal scans, including some completed by individuals with public relations and media backgrounds, we believe that the media generally is reluctant to cover stories promoting secularism. It is our job to continue to put these stories out and ensure that the mainstream media outlets understand that the push to have a more secular society is not coming from a small fringe group, but from a substantial portion of society. 

If you have not already done so, please help. Send your letters to the editor, call your local paper, and ask to be heard.

What follows is Isobel Taylor’s report about a letter she submitted to the Waterloo Region Record. 

___

The letter was published over my name but there were problems. 

• The title was changed to “Catholic schools shouldn’t receive public funds.” 
• My letter stated: “Separate school supporters pay only 8% of the system’s cost through their residential property taxes.” The letter was edited to state: “Catholic school supporters pay … ‘a minority of’ the system’s cost.” 
• The section “Non-RC Ontarians (74%) pay for a system which probably wouldn’t hire them and may refuse to admit their primary school children” was deleted.

I contacted the editors and stated that the edited heading implied an attack on Catholics. The phrase “a minority of” could be 49 percent, so exclusion of 8 percent was a drastic change in the message as was the omission of the reference to 74 percent of Ontarians. 

The editor’s response was that she couldn’t verify the 8 percent figure but if I shared the studies she would be happy to work on “an agreeable path forward.” 

I sent information provided by the Ministry of Education pursuant to a paid-for Freedom of Information Act request and indicated how the 8 percent was calculated. The chart indicated property taxes paid and operating revenues, and it included the Freedom of Information ID Number which would have made it easy to verify the data with the Ministry of Education. 

I also gave a link to the 2021 Census source of the 74 percent Ontario non-Catholics. I said the only agreeable path for me was either print my attached letter of correction or allow me to submit an article. 

The next response was to agree to disagree and to not make any changes without my consent if I ever submitted another letter. I replied that this was not a matter of disagreement: It was a matter of important facts being deleted and I would wait for the response of the other two editors copied on the email. 

But, the Editor-in-Chief replied: “Your letter was edited for length and clarity and factual presence. Letters to the editor are routinely edited. The issue of school funding is an important topic, as you identified, and your letter reflected that. The term Catholic is proper use and a proper noun and reflects the accurate terminology of the school system we have in Ontario. No correction is warranted on the 8 per cent figure. We could not independently verify that figure and Luisa has addressed this.”

I responded: 

• “The 8% figure is verifiable. The chart I provided came from the Ministry of Education. Whom do you suggest should ‘independently verify’ the information? Was the Ministry contacted to verify the data?” 
• “Of course the 8% can’t be verified with publicly available information. That is why, as I have stated, the data had to be obtained via Freedom of Information requests from the Ministry of Education.” 
• I cited their “Journalistic Standards” for accuracy and truth and that Letters to the Editor are edited for “clarity, style, and length.” … “My letter was 200 words long. It was not edited for clarity and style. The message was changed to seemingly hide the facts. Verification of the two numbers — 8% and 74% — has been provided and would have been provided pre-publication if requested.”

This certainly smacks of bias.