Ontario education minister says he can’t interfere in Catholic board’s Pride flag ban

TORONTO – Education Minister Paul Calandra has denied a request to overturn a Catholic school board’s decision not to fly the Pride flag because he cannot interfere in denominational issues, even in boards under supervision.

Trustees at the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board voted two years ago against allowing flags marking Pride and other events.

The board is now one of eight under provincial supervision for what Calandra has called financial mismanagement, and last fall Calandra directed it to change its flag policy to fly orange flags on National Day of Truth And Reconciliation.

Calandra said he would also like to see the board fly the Pride flag, but his hands are tied.

“I don’t think worlds collapse just because you raise a flag,” he said Wednesday at the legislature. 

“I think it is a show of respect. Having said that, they said it’s a denominational issue, so they’ll have to make that decision.”

The Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association asked Calandra to use his provincial supervision powers to direct that the board raise the flag.

But Calandra said in correspondence back to the Catholic teachers association, obtained by The Canadian Press, that he was able to make the direction on Every Child Matters and survivor flags last fall because they were not denominational matters. He cannot intervene under the constitution or Education Act in denominational rights.

What the board supervisor can do is direct trustees to hold a meeting to reconsider their decision, and Calandra has asked the supervisor to do that due to the importance of the issue.

The government recently passed a law sharply reducing the role of trustees, with the greatest limits being placed on English public school boards. 

The school board governance changes largely leave the role of trustees at French-language boards alone, and English Catholic trustees will still have a role when it comes to denominational issues.

Calandra said Wednesday that matters such as this one will likely come up again.

“I suspect over the next number of months, you’re going to be hearing … that a lot of issues are denominational issues,” he said. 

“They have the right to name a school, for instance, that’s a denominational issue. They have a right to a special education or curriculum, that’s denominational in nature. And they have the right to make those decisions on their own and not have it imposed on them by the ministry.”

Rene Jansen in de Wal, president of the teachers association, said Catholic teachers see inclusion, compassion and respect for human rights as central to their faith and publicly funded Catholic education.

“Many school boards proudly fly the Pride flag as a way to uphold Catholic social teaching and promote human dignity,” he wrote in a statement. 

“The minister’s response raises broader questions about how denominational rights are being interpreted and applied in publicly funded education.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 13, 2026.