Social justice activist disqualified as adjudicator in Ontario Catholic teacher disciplinary hearing

Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) Discipline Committee Judge Anthony Jeethan has been removed from a discipline case for their support of social justice. .The hearing is against Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) Trustee Mike Del Grande for his Catholic beliefs on abortion and gender identity. .“The good news however, is that Del Grande’s lawyer, Dr. Charles Lugosi, skillfully proved that an average person who is considering the nature of the complaint against Del Grande, together with Mr. Jeethan’s writings, could perceive ‘a reasonable apprehension of bias’ and that the judge would likely find it difficult to be impartial,” said Campaign Life Coalition director of political operations Jack Fonseca in a blog post. .The OCT began a hearing for professional misconduct against Del Grande in November after he criticized abortion and gender ideology. .He berated a student trustee after she insulted an anti-abortion movie. He commented on the slippery slope the TCDSB could go down if it added gender identity and gender expression protections to its code of conduct. .OCT lawyer Danielle Miller said it is not about Del Grande expressing his views on these subjects as an elected official or a Catholic, but about “the way in which he voiced his opposition.”.The blog post said Lugosi introduced a motion stating Jeethan’s presence on the OCT Discipline Committee represented a reasonable apprehension of bias and a conflict of interest. .Jeethan describes themself as a queer person of colour. They emphasized they use they/them/theirs pronouns. .The judge said they are a sexual minority activist, have experienced homophobic bullying, and do not trust school administration. They want the nature of education to be political. .Fonseca said Del Grande is “on trial by the College of Teachers with the vindictive aim of stripping him of his teacher’s license.”.The blog post said Lugosi’s arguments were so convincing Miller ended up concurring Jeethan was a social justice activist. After her concession, it said they recused themself from the OCT Discipline Committee. .Fonseca said the recusal is a small victory, but one worth celebrating. He added people can “reasonably expect that Jeethan’s removal will lessen the overall hostility of the panel towards Trustee Del Grande’s Christian beliefs about transgender ideology.”.The blog post went on to say sexual minority activists have become accustomed to bullying Christians as they please and getting away with it. It said this recusal is rare. .The blog post asked people to pray for Lugosi to succeed in persuading the remaining judges Del Grande was within his rights to defend Catholic teaching, it has no right to regulate his speech, and he is not guilty of professional misconduct. .“Mike is sacrificing his time, reputation and even his health to stand up for Christian moral teaching when it would be much easier to bend the knee, apologize to the LGBT mob, and get them off his back,” said Fonseca. .“But Mike knows that bending the knee to these gay supremacists will only embolden them to go after others who dare to defend Christian moral teaching from assault by secular humanist ideologies.”