Mar 17, 2014

Recent Developments: OCSB and Free the Children

Over the past week, an October 1, 2013 letter written by Marc Kielburger of Free the Children (FTC) to Mark Mullan, the former Chairperson of the Ottawa Catholic School Board (OCSB), was made public by LifeSiteNews. This letter was FTC's response to a September 24th, 2013 board meeting delegation brought by Parents as First Educators (PAFE). The OCSB provided a written response to this parental delegation on October 8, 2013. The board's response made reference to written communication from FTC, but the Kielburger letter (Oct 1) itself was not enclosed.

The OCSB has informed Concerned Catholic Parents of Ottawa (CCPO) that their intent was to enclose the Kielburger letter with the board's October 8th written response. Furthermore, they regret that a technical error on their part has led LifeSiteNews to suggest that the board made a deliberate decision to keep the Kielburger letter from concerned parents. 

CCPO accepts the board's explanation of events and going forward is only interested in engaging in discussions that relate directly to transparency surrounding the activities FTC engages in and their definition of “reproductive health”.

In addition to the existing questions that remain unanswered, the contents of the now public Kielburger letter has raised new ones. Specifically, questions surrounding the stocking and providing of contraceptives in FTC's Baraka Health Clinic. 
 

Parents should know that dialogue with the OCSB is better now than it has been since questions surrounding FTC were first raised in 2011. This improvement began shortly after we received the board's response to our second delegation; it should be noted that this was well before the LifeSiteNews story broke last week. This should give parents hope that we will begin to see greater transparency from both the board and FTC going forward. We will continue to keep you informed of any new information as it becomes available.

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