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TORONTO - On the heels of a $2-million budget surplus, the Toronto Catholic District School Board should soon be out of supervision, provincially appointed supervisor Richard Alway announced at the board's inaugural meeting Dec. 8.

Alway said having a balanced budget is one of the steps that will kick-start the return of decision-making powers to the elected members of the board, which has been under provincial supervision since 2009. He added that he would soon be submitting a report to Ontario's education minister to recommend that local powers to be restored to the board. This could happen as early as January, he said.

TORONTO - A new teachers’ group for openly gay teachers has been created to provide a “safe environment” to discuss homophobia, said the group’s founder.

Durham District School Board kindergarten teacher Lauren Chapple started Proud Rainbow Voices last May. The 155-member group of openly gay teachers includes five Catholic school teachers, she said.

TORONTO - Ontario’s Catholic schools won’t be forced to hire non-Catholic or gay teachers as part of the government’s new equity strategy, said an education ministry spokesperson.

Next year is the final phase of government’s equity strategy which asks boards to update or establish equitable hiring and promotion practices. Gary Wheeler told The Register that the government’s strategy “is to be implemented within the context of denominational rights.”

OTTAWA - Ruth Lobo’s commitment to the pro-life cause is a deeply personal one that began 23 years ago in her native India.

All Lobo knows about her birth mother is that she was 19, most likely poor and “most likely ostracized by her family for being pregnant.” She sought shelter in a Bangalore convent that provided help for single mothers. She looked after Lobo for three months before giving her up to a woman who would become her adoptive aunt.

OTTAWA - Lia Mills and Rebecca Richmond never suspected they would one day be at the forefront of the pro-life movement.

But circumstances have conspired to make it so.

The two recently shared their stories at the International Pro-life Conference held in Ottawa.

For Mills, her step into the breech came when she gave a speech on abortion to her seventh grade Toronto class two years ago. It was recorded and uploaded to YouTube where it has gone viral. Richmond, on the other hand, merely intended to bake cookies to support her university pro-life group. She never thought she would become the group’s leader and eventually the executive director of the National Campus Life Network, mentoring leaders across the country.

TORONTO - Provincial supervision of the Toronto Catholic District School Board is likely to end in January, according to supervisor Richard Alway.

The board and its trustees are turning over a new leaf with a mix of incumbent and new trustees elected in this past October's election, said Alway. He said the new group is “very anxious to work together and build a positive relationship amongst themselves, between the board of trustees and staff leadership.”

TORONTO - For people struggling with Alzheimer’s Disease, the experience can be painful, bewildering and frightening.

But the journey can also be one filled with hope when we apply Catholic values like the inherent human dignity of all and justice for the most vulnerable, said leading Catholic bioethicist Dr. Bill Sullivan at the annual Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute lecture on Nov. 24.

More than 100 people came to hear Sullivan deliver his talk “Ethical and Loving Care of Persons Living with Progressive Cognitive Impairments and Their Families.” The lecture took place at the University of St. Michael’s College.

TORONTO - Diane Vautour likes to bring history to life. And for doing so on a daily basis at Toronto’s Loretto College High School, she was awarded a Governor General’s Award for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History at a ceremony at Rideau Hall on Nov. 19.

“Teaching at an all-girls’ school, I want to emphasize women’s history, from a women’s point of view,” Vautour, 32, told The Register.

“It’s not just an add-on or an extra page in a textbook.”

TORONTO - Ontario Catholic schools will not be required under the province’s controversial equity and inclusive education strategy to maintain gay support clubs, according to a ministry spokesman.

Gary Wheeler said in an e-mail that the province’s new equity policy, which has sparked concern from Ontario bishops and Catholic educators, has “flexibility” that will permit Catholic boards to operate “within the context of denominational rights of Roman Catholics.”

TORONTO - Promoting the option for the poor and working for justice go hand-in-hand with the Gospel values that students are learning at Catholic schools, says Jenny Cafiso, director of Canadian Jesuits International.

And the United Nations, a forum of diverse nations, beliefs and ideas, is precisely the place where Catholics should be making their voices heard on behalf of the marginalized, she said.