The Halton Catholic District School Board’s ban on donations to charities that don’t align with Catholic values spurred contentious testimony from community members on both sides of the debate Tuesday night.

Speaking to board members in the first hour of a marathon meeting in Oakville’s Holy Trinity Catholic Secondary School gymnasium, student Ben Sabourin, 17, told trustees he was “shocked, saddened and disappointed” when he found out about the motion.

“I will not stand here and be told by this board that I am any less of a Catholic for helping sick children and cancer patients,” Sabourin said.

School board trustees last month reapproved a motion that bans financial donations to charities and non-profits that “publicly support, either directly or indirectly,” abortion, contraception, sterilization, euthanasia or embryonic stem cell research.

Sabourin asked the board to revise the motion to remove the word “indirectly” to better clarify the policy.

The board heard nearly three hours of testimony Tuesday night from parents, students and community members. The crowd of 200 was large enough that the meeting, usually held at the school board’s office in Burlington, had to be moved to a gymnasium, where attendees filed the bleachers.

Controversy has marred the motion since it was first introduced in January and moved by Oakville trustee Helena Karabela.

“With this motion to ban donations to charities that support abortion, we are making sure the Catholic schools are walking the talk,” Karabela said in a statement to the Star last month. “The church teaches that abortion is the killing of an unborn human being.”

The board last month sent parents a list of charities that had received donations from board schools in the past, saying it was “in the process of determining which charitable organizations may continue to receive donations from our schools in light of this new board decision.”

The list of 100 charities and non-profits included the Halton Women’s Place, the Hospital for Sick Children and the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation.

In the weeks since the policy was approved by the board, an online petition to overturn the motion has garnered more than 21,000 signatures.

Nineteen delegates — speaking individually but also in groups — were set to address the board Tuesday night.

Marie-Claire Bissonnette, head of the Campaign Life Coalition Youth branch, told the board that the policy was “a brave and principled stance for the truth in a society that more often than not wishes to remain ignorant of the most grievous trespasses against that truth.”

Calling the policy a “pro-life motion,” Bissonnette said that “we cannot in good conscience support the raising of funds for social causes which, under the guise of human rights, bring harm to these innocent lives.”

Bissonnette added that the ban on charitable support to organizations that don’t align with Catholic values should be adopted by “every Catholic school board in Canada.”

Gillian Kantor, a parent in the school board, told trustees she supported the motion “to prioritize the values of our faith in our charitable giving” after wondering why and how charitable organizations were selected when donation requests came home with her children.

Kantor said that “charities are good … but for some of them, the byproduct is bad.

“Their research uses embryonic stem cells, they support contraception and abortion as ways of aiding women, or they fight for a system that sees the elderly and vulnerable at risk of termination of life.”

Such action “strongly opposes” the teachings of the Catholic Church, Kantor said. “It should offend us; in fact, it’s not just offensive – it is destructive.”

Students, most often addressing the meeting in groups with their peers, tended to speak in opposition to the ban.

Deelan Sabido, 16, said his peers raise thousands of dollars for causes that may be banned, like the cancer fundraiser Relay for Life. “Now we’re being told that we may not even be able to do that because the Canadian Cancer Society may not be on the list of allowed charities,” he said.

Sabido, 16, addressed the board alongside two classmates from Jean Vanier Catholic Secondary School in Milton, representing students who disagree with the motion. At Jean Vanier, 819 students have signed a petition against the ban.

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Margaret Manangan, a 17-year-old student at Bishop Reding Catholic Secondary School in Milton, said school board members make “an incredible amount of financial contributions every single year,” which go towards local and international organizations.

“Following the passing of this motion, concerns have been raised due to the fact that there was a lack of consultation with us who account for millions of dollars in financial donations, through the schools and school events,” Manangan said.

Manangan asked the board for “more transparency” and an opportunity for the community to provide feedback on the motion.

Halton Catholic District School Board trustees also planned to discuss incorporating the motion’s requirements into the long-standing fundraising policy and submitting that updated policy for stakeholder input at the meeting. The results of that discussion were not available by press time.