I agree with Graham Timms that the ill-considered comment of the chair of the Wellington Catholic District School Board, about gay students being at risk if they speak out, constitutes a starting point for a discussion on the merits of supporting just one, publicly funded school system for all students in the province of Ontario (Tribune letters Feb. 7). Such a discussion is, I believe, overdue.
Those with a long memory will perhaps remember the strange way in which funding for separate schools was suddenly extended by former Premier Bill Davis during his final days in office. There was, as I recall, no discussion in the legislature at all, just a fait accompli statement from Davis that funding would be immediately extended. I cannot help wondering what pressures might have been exerted, and by whom, to force such a sudden alteration in course by a premier who was stepping down from office. To the best of my knowledge that certainly was not a democratic decision.
As Timms points out, other provinces  have gone to one universal public school system, and we in Ontario might be well-advised to do the same. In today’s world, surely we would do better to celebrate our common humanity rather than to highlight our differences, be they religious or otherwise.
Eric Balkind
Guelph