A battle brewing for months will take centre stage at a school board meeting Tuesday night over Halton’s controversial policy banning financial support to charities that don’t align with Catholic values.

The Halton Catholic District School board of trustees meeting, usually held at its office in Burlington, has been moved to Oakville’s Holy Trinity Catholic Secondary School to accommodate a larger crowd.

The board of trustees reapproved a motion last month that bans any financial donations to organizations that “publicly support, either directly or indirectly,” abortion, contraception, sterilization, euthanasia or embryonic stem cell research.

The motion was introduced in January and moved by Oakville trustee Helena Karabela.

In an email sent to parents on March 5, Director of Education Paula Dawson wrote that “you have probably noticed that our school board has been receiving a great deal of media coverage over the past week in regard to a motion recently passed by the board of trustees.”

The board compiled a list of charities that received donations from board schools in the past, and “are now 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 includes the Halton Women’s Place, Sick Kids and the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation.

“We know that fundraising at the school level is an integral part of the educational experience for our students,” Dawson said in the email. “We will continue to encourage students and staff to participate in fundraising efforts in accordance with the board decision.”

A representative from Campaign Life Coalition’s youth division will be present at Tuesday’s meeting. Jack Fonseca, a spokesperson for the organization, said people who dissent the motion should leave for the public school system, particularly if they disagree with Catholic teachings.

“It’s a very strong, pro-life motion, and the Catholic Church is pro-life, which means by extension, Catholic schools must be pro-life,” he said. “That’s not a negotiable point.”

The motion has stirred controversy, with community members and parents writing to the board to express their dismay with the motion.

An online petition to overturn the motion has garnered about 21,000 signatures.

Lindsay Walls, a parent and Oakville resident, said the motion is deeply conflicting to the point she and her husband are indecisive as to whether to continue to support the Catholic board, adding that it’s “behind the times.”

“We know that there’s a very divided community here, which behooves everyone to reach out and get the wider opinion,” she said.

“They didn’t consult anyone. They had no formalized process to speak with the students. They had no formalized process to tell the parents or the ratepayers what was going on. I feel that this is their own agenda.”

Other Catholic school boards in the GTA have not followed the Halton school board’s lead.

Toronto Catholic District School Board spokesperson John Yan said in an email to the Star that it does not outline restrictions and “there are no plans to change the policy.”

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He added that all fundraising activities are “related to charitable, humanitarian, educational, or service activities consistent with the tenets of Catholicism.”

The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

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