TORONTO – Catholic leaders will learn to accept the fact students can form clubs at school and call them gay-straight alliances, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Tuesday as the Liberal government’s anti-bullying legislation passed third and final reading.

Thomas Cardinal Collins, Archbishop of Toronto, accused the Liberals of infringing on religious freedom by amending their bill to say all schools must allow students to use the word “gay” in a club name.

Catholic trustees complained the legislation will force them to accept student clubs that go against their faith, and at least one priest called McGuinty a “puny politician” during last Sunday’s sermon.

“First of all, I’ve been called a lot worse … outside and inside the home,” McGuinty told reporters.

“There is a lot of common ground here and there are values that transcend any one faith.”

Catholic schools will accept the changes to the Education Act as required by law, added McGuinty.

“I am convinced that once we have this in place that Catholic schools, Catholic teachers, Catholic principals, Catholic parents will understand its true significance,” he said.

“It’s about building a stronger, more cohesive society where we all accept that … discrimination against children on the basis of whatever, including their sexual orientation, is no longer acceptable.”

The NDP voted with the minority government, but the Conservatives opposed the Accepting Schools Act, saying the province has no business telling schools they must allow students to form clubs called gay-straight alliances.

“Our position is that principals run the schools with the parents and school boards, not students,” said PC Leader Tim Hudak.

“Our economy is heading backwards, our province is bankrupt (and) you folks are asking questions about names of student clubs.”

The New Democrats said they too believed the Catholic school system would quickly learn to adopt the changes in the bill.

“There are lot of people from the Catholic community, including the union that represents the teachers, that support the legislation in the way that it passed today,” said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

“We just have to make sure that the implementation happens and that kids are able to combat bullying of all kinds in their schools.”

The Tories said the debate about gay-straight alliances overshadowed the bullying issue, and was an intentional effort by the Liberals to trigger a debate about funding Catholic schools in Ontario.

“I can only suppose that must have been quite deliberate on the part of the Liberals to open up that whole debate, because we’re very clearly heading in that direction,” said Christine Elliott, the Tories’ deputy leader.

“It is a concern. We learned very clearly in the 2007 election that’s something that people feel very strongly about, and I don’t think we want to have another debate on religion in schools.”

Former Conservative leader John Tory was trounced in the 2007 campaign after proposing the province fund schools of other faiths to put them on an equal footing with Catholics in Ontario.

The Liberals insisted they have no intention of reopening the debate about funding Catholic schools.

The Green Party of Ontario, which has no elected members, is the only party calling for the abolition of separate schools, saying the province can’t afford to keep funding two public school systems.

The legislation was not really about bullying in the end, but was an attempt to make the Tories look homophobic, said Elliott.

“It’s about trying to wedge us for their own political purposes and I think that’s a great shame,” she said.

The issue of protecting kids transcends partisan politics, said McGuinty, who stopped short of accusing the Tories of homophobia for voting against the bill.

The Conservatives opposition to the anti-bullying bill “has everything to do with the fact that we’re going to be talking about gay-straight alliances in Ontario high schools,” added McGuinty.

“I think they’re missing an opportunity to take a stand on behalf of our generation to say to all and sundry discrimination against people based on sexual orientation is not honoured in Ontario,” he said.

The New Democrats pushed to have the Liberal bill amended to make sure students could use the word “gay” in the name of their anti-homophobia clubs.

“We were proud to stand up for a bill that’s going to actually do what it needs to do, which is give those kids the clubs that they need to provide supports, so they don’t end up isolated and feeling lost and doing drastic things,” said Horwath.