Catholic Civil Rights League.

The lay faithful are never to relinquish their participation in public life (John Paul II).

History

The Catholic Civil Rights League (CCRL) is a membership-driven, national lay Catholic organization established in 1985, and given permission to use the title "Catholic" by the late Cardinal Carter. The first president, vice-president, and chairman were Mr. Keith Cassidy, Mr. David Dooley, and Fr. Alphonse de Valk, C.S.B, respectively. In 1994, Professor Thomas Langan became president and Philip Horgan, LL.B., became vice-president. Both have held these positions until the present time. The League also has had an extensive volunteer board of directors that spans the country. In 2002, Most Rev. Robert B. Clune, D.D., accepted an invitation from the League executive to help guide the organization in the capacity of spiritual advisor.

The League's mandate from its inception was to be a voice for promotion and defence of Catholic beliefs in the government, courts, and media. The need for an organization such as the League was becoming apparent at that time, as evidence of anti-Catholic sentiment became more secular and subtle, yet none the less real.

Past Involvement

Over the past eighteen years, CCRL has devoted its energies to fulfilling its mandate. Outlined below are just some of the many issues the League has been involved in on behalf of its members.

The Parliament

Of special interest is the League's involvement, in 1996, in parliamentary issues such as Bill C-41, an act to ensure harsher sentences for hate crimes committed based on race, religion, or sexual orientation, and Bill C-33, an act amending the Human Rights Act to include "sexual orientation". Later came the referendum in Newfoundland to amend Term 17 of the Terms of Union between the province and Canada, to make all denominational schools "public schools" without the integration of faith in education. This was followed by a similar situation in the province of Quebec in 1997.

The League was very active in all of these cases. Members were mobilized to voice their protests. The League prepared and distributed press releases and briefs for presentation to the media and members of parliament.

The Courts

In 1997 the Supreme Court of British Columbia ruled that the British Columbia College of Teachers (BCCT) must grant accreditation to the Teacher Education Program at Trinity Western University. This court case marked the CCRL's first foray into the courts. As an intervener, the League played a pivotal role in convincing the court that the dignity of homosexual persons could not be reduced to a matter of sexual practices.

Later, in 2001, the CCRL presented arguments before the Supreme Court of British Columbia that the courts cannot change the definition of marriage. The result was positive as the decision of the BC Supreme Court was a clear affirmation of the fundamental cultural importance of the institution of marriage. Similar cases were presented before the courts in Quebec and Ontario, the results being very different from that of the BC court decision.

The Media

CCRL monitors the media outlets. The publicly funded CBC as well as privately-owned media outlets (such as CTV) have engaged in repeated defamatory anti-Catholic programming. The League has documented and written many letters of complaint to all the outlets. However, with the exception of a few small victories, the overall response has been one of disregard. For instance, the CBC's responses have been reduced to form letters from the executive.

Recent Developments

Recently, the most important challenge has been the protection of the current definition of marriage. This year, a Justice Committee was formed and travelled across Canada holding public hearings on the subject. The League successfully presented its brief on April 10.

We are also opposing legislation that would make speaking out against homosexual activity a hate crime (Bill C-250), and the assisted human reproduction bill that includes important prohibitions on activities such as human cloning. (Bill C-13).

Future Plans

The battle continues against same-sex "marriage." The League has intervened in the BC, Ontario, and Quebec cases, and was a leader in building the interfaith coalition to appeal to the Supreme Court. The appeal of the Ontario Supreme Court decision of June 10 to allow homosexual unions will continue to be uppermost on our list of issues to be addressed in the coming months.

In less than two years the League will be celebrating its 20th anniversary of inception.

Because the League is a membership-driven organization, we are always looking to broaden our membership base in order to carry out the workload before us. Currently, we have approximately 1200 individual and 100 institutional members. Our members are loyal and we are able to carry out our mandate thanks to their generosity.

For further information contact the head office of CCRL in Toronto 416-466-8244 or by e-mail [e-mail].