Now Michael Del Grande, a trustee for the Toronto Catholic District School Board, is playing the persecuted Christian card, and is asking for prayers and shed-loads of cash for legal fees.
Back in November 2019, the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) decided to censure and impose sanctions on Del Grande who made homophobic comments at a public meeting, comparing LGBTQ issues to bestiality, paedophilia, cannibalism, vampirism and more.
Far-right Christian outlet LifeSite—a purveyor of fake news, anti-vaccine propaganda, wacky conspiracy theories and vicious homophobia—reported at the time that, as a result of his remarks, made in 2019, a “barrage of venom” was heaped on him.
The public harassment, defamation and flagellation of Trustee Michael Del Grande’s character and persona is a sorry spectacle unfolding before our very eyes.
Claiming that the decision by the board was “a tactic is to shut down anyone who supports traditional morality and faith,” De Grande has decided to seek a judicial review. A two-day hearing is due to be held in October this year.
In December 2019, Del Grand was handed a “pro-life, pro-family” award.
Fundraiser launched for Del Grande
LifeSite directs it readers to its “Stand with Mike” fund-raising page which seeks to raise thousands for Del Grande’s legal fees, and provides a background to the whole sorry sagaof a bigot who has failed to realise that words have consequences.
The page claims that Del Grande is a victim of Canada’s “power hungry LGBT lobby”, along with dissenting forces within the TCDSB.
They’ve been persecuting him for a straight year, with the help of anti-Christian mainstream media outlets … Michael has been forced to hire a very good lawyer to defend him against this attempt to remove him from the Board, and against other attacks that have been launched by LGBT activists via other avenues, hoping that something will stick, and force him to resign.
The page says Del Grande Michael is one of the few trustees on the TCDSB who adheres to, and defends the moral teaching of the Catholic Church in Toronto’s Catholic schools.
In November 2019, Del Grande put forward a motion to oppose the addition of the terms “gender identity” and “gender expression” as grounds for non-discrimination to the Toronto Catholic District School board’s official Code of Conduct.
Del Grande’s motion sought, through analogy and hyperbole, to demonstrate for his colleagues the slippery slope and incongruence of them voting to add these problematic, anti-Christian terms in a Catholic environment. The motion proposed adding other sinful sexual behaviours (such as pedophilia) to the Code of Conduct, to make it clear that if one sin cannot be normalized and promoted in a Catholic school, neither should others.
At the time of writing, Del Grand’s supporters had donated more than $111,000 (£71,013). But much more is apparently needed and he is now trying to get $125,000 or more.
The fundraiser says:
Numerous gay activists filed complaints against Del Grande, falsely implying that he accused homosexuals and transgenders of being pedophiles. He did no such thing. But the biased, pro-gay media spun his comments out of context, lied about them, and basically accused him of causing the suicides of LGBT-identifying youth everywhere.
LGBT+ protections
Del Grande, a former Toronto city councillor unleashed a barrage of homophobia toward the end of a six-hour meeting where trustees eventually voted to amend the board’s code of conduct to include broader protections for LGBTQ students.
He linked LGBTQ rights to a variety of offensive, and even criminal, sexual behaviours by suggesting an amendment asking for other terms to be added to that list, including bestiality, paedophilia, cannibalism, auto-erotic asphyxiation and “auto-vampirism.”
He said:
I’d like all these terms to be considered— after all, everybody’s concerned [that] the right terms are used, it’s important to have the terms.
The sanctions imposed on Del Grand require him to make a public apology, bar him from being elected to any representative position or role on the board for three months and require him to complete an equity training programme.
In January last year, Del Grande claimed that his health had been affected by the backlash he experienced after he put forward his hateful amendment, and was taking leave of absence for a year.
My own fundraiser
When I was editor of the atheist magazine, The Freethinker, established in 1881, I would regularly report on the antics of imbeciles such as Del Grande. But in a shocking move at the beginning of 2022, the magazine’s board of management had a change of direction, and decided it had no stomach for aggressive attacks of religious.
So they summarily sacked me after I had worked tirelessly for 24 years to expose the stupidity of religious beliefs, and the harm that they do. Soon after they launched a ghastly new website, badly designed and filled with anodyne items that are of no interest whatsoever to true freethinkers.
That sacking left me in dire financial straits, and I was compelled to launch a fundraiser of my own. I know things are tough for most people right now, but any help you can give would be greatly appreciated, as I soon stand to losing the home that I love in Spain.
If you support the Pink Triangle Trust’s mission to promote humanism, fight bigotry and fund LGBT groups, you can make a donation by clicking this link. If you wish to report any typos or errors, please email freethinkered@aol.com.
The Author
