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Prom Fight Not Over
by Jack Siu
365Gay.com Newscenter

(May 11, Toronto) Marc Hall arrived with his boyfriend Jean-Paul Dumond to applause from his fellow students Friday night at the Trillium Trails Banquet Centre, northeast of Toronto. Just hours earlier an Ontario Superior Court Judge said the 17 year old could not be barred from bringing his same-sex date to the high school prom.

Wearing tuxedos and arriving in a limousine the couple strolled into the building holding hands.

Marc had been told by the principal of Monsignor John Pereyma Catholic Secondary School, in the Toronto suburb of Oshawa, that the Catholic Church could not permit a same-sex date at the prom.

The Durham Region Catholic School Board backed the teacher and Hall decided to go to court.

Justice Robert MacKinnon issued a restraining order Friday afternoon, preventing the school board from refusing to admit Hall and Dumond to the dance.

The board said that it would abide by the decision but vowed to appeal. The board said the ruling was "bad law" and violated the Catholic school system's right to practice it's religion.

Justice MacKinnon in his judgement accused the board of attempting to hide behind Constitutional rights granted the Catholic religion when Canada was founded.

His ruling said in part: " If individuals in Canada were permitted to simply assert that their religious beliefs require them to discriminate against homosexuals, without objective scrutiny, there would be no protection at all from discrimination for gays and lesbians in Canada because everyone who wished to discriminate against them could make that assertion."

The ruling went on to say: "The record before me is rife with the effects of historic and continuing discrimination against gays. The evidence in this record clearly demonstrates the impact of stigmatization on gay men in terms of denial of self, personal rejection, discrimination and exposure to violence.

"The cultural and social significance of a high school Prom is well-established. Being excluded from it constitutes a serious and irreparable injury to Mr. Hall as well as a serious affront to his dignity."

The ruling was closely watched by other conservative religious groups which operate schools across Canada. It is expected that several will seek intervener status to support the Catholic board when the appeal is heard.

"We will take it all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada if we have to," Hall's lawyer David Corbett said Friday night. "When Marc began this fight he said he wanted to be sure no other student had to go through that he endured."

Corbett, Canada's most famous civil rights lawyer is not charging for his work on the case.

The suit pitted the country's two most significant pieces of legislation against one another; the Constitution which guarantees the government will not intervene or influence the right of Catholics to their own Separate School System, and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which guarantees the civil rights of the individual.

Justice MacKinnon considered both issues in his deliberations.

"There are stark positions at each end of the spectrum on this issue. It is one of the distinguishing strengths of Canada as a nation that we value tolerance and respect for others.

"All of us have fundamental rights including expression, association and religion. Sometimes, as in this case, our individual rights bump into those of our neighbours and of our institutions. When that occurs we, as individuals and as institutions, must acknowledge the duties that accompany our rights.

" Mr. Hall has a duty to accord to others who do not share his orientation the respect that they, with their religious values and beliefs, are due. Conversely, for the reasons I have given, the Principal and the Board have a duty to accord to Mr. Hall the respect that he is due as he attends the Prom with his date, his classmates and their dates."

At a news conference following the ruling, Mary Ann Martin, chair of the school board, said that even though Marc would be going to the prom, the board's position on gay students has not changed and that the board will appeal.

Sitting in front of a statue of Jesus, and under a portrait of the Pope, Martin said that if gay or lesbian students kiss, hold hands or dance on school property, they could be suspended or expelled.

Marc's parents have been supportive of him throughout the long ordeal. "I am so very proud of him," said Emily Hall. "He has opened the doors for other gay students."

Today, Hall will be honoured at a rally in Toronto's Gay Village sponsored in part by PFLAG.

Posted 12:35 am, May 11, 2002
©365Gay.com Ltd® 2002

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(May 10, Toronto) A judge has ruled that 17 year old Toronto teen, Marc Hall, can take his boyfriend to the prom.

Superior Court Justice Robert MacKinnon ruled just after 2:00 p.m. that a section of the Canadian Constitution that gives certain protections to the Roman Catholic school system does not mean the schools can do whatever they want in name of religion.

Marc was at home preparing to go to court this afternoon to hear the ruling when his lawyer, David Corbett, called him with the news.

"He's going to the prom, and JP will be with him," Corbett said. JP is Jean-Paul Dumond, Marc's 20 year old boyfriend.

Marc already had his blue tuxedo laid out on the bed. His hair had been dyed a matching blue earlier in the week, and a limousine to take them to the prom was ordered days ago, just in case.

When he was buying his prom tickets earlier this year, Marc was told by the principal of Monsignor John Pereyma Catholic Secondary School, in the Toronto suburb of Oshawa, that the Catholic Church could not permit a same-sex date at the prom.

The Durham Region Catholic School Board backed the teacher and Hall decided to go to court.

John Fisher, the Executive Director of national GLBT rights group EGALE said the decision "has signalled that when institutions accept public funds they accept to follow public regulation. One of the most important of these regulations is the requirement of non-discrimination (Ontario Human Rights Code & the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms).

During two days of hearings, Corbett compared Hall to American civil rights activist Rosa Parks.

"Rosa Parks chose to get on a bus in Alabama, knowing she might be discriminated against. She could have left her community and moved to the North where she would not have faced that problem.

"But she was part of her community in the South, and when she was told that as a person of colour she had to sit at the back of the bus, she refused, because she knew that what she was being asked to do was morally and legally wrong."

But, Catholic school board lawyer Peter Lauwers attempted to paint a far different picture. "He's a bad example from a Catholic perspective and what he wants to do is not consistent with teachings of the church."

Saturday afternoon a victory celebration will be held in Cawthra Park in Toronto's gay village.