Heather Stilwell
Encyclopedia
Heather Stilwell was a political activist and former school trustee in Surrey, British Columbia
. A staunch Roman Catholic, she was well-known for her opinions opposing homosexuality
, abortion
, and sex education
.
She and her husband Bill were involved in the creation of the Christian Heritage Party
in 1984 after a dozen or so people discussed the concept of such a party, which was registered with Elections Canada
in June 1986.
From April 1993 to March 1994 she was the interim leader of the party and ran in the 1993 federal election
in the riding of Surrey—White Rock—South Langley
. One of the most contentious policies of the Christian Heritage Party Policy is Section 6.4.3. which states: "Concerning the welfare of this Nation's citizens, we favour recriminalizing in the Criminal Code of Canada
the murder of pre-born children
, sexual deviancy
, and pornography
." She entered the leadership race for the CHP at the 1994 convention, but withdrew and instead ran for the party presidency.
Heather Stilwell was also executive vice-president and leader of the socially conservative
BC Family Coalition Party which later merged into the British Columbia Unity Party
. Stilwell ran unsuccessfully in the 2001 provincial election
, as a candidate in the riding of Surrey-Panorama Ridge
.
She was former national board member and Western Regional Coordinator for the pro-life
group Campaign Life, which strongly opposed what she referred to as "special rights for homosexuals
".
She was former President of the Alliance for Life, a national pro-life group based in Winnipeg, Manitoba and one-time President of the Surrey-Delta Pro-Life Association, the Pro-life Society of British Columbia, the Surrey-Delta Alliance For Life and the federal (Canadian) Alliance for Life. She was a member of the socially conservative lobby group REAL Women of Canada
.
As co-founder of the publicly funded Surrey Traditional School in 1994, Stilwell played a key role in objecting to library
book
s that offended her Christian beliefs. These books were temporarily banned as they dealt with topics such as Halloween
, the Wicca
religion
and native-Indian spirituality
. After pressure from the public, the school board allowed these books back into the library.
Stilwell went on to become a member and eventual chair of the Surrey School Board
. She voted to ban sex education and condom machine
s in Surrey schools. In 1997 she also voted, along with the majority of the school board, that three books dealing with families where both parents were of the same sex not be included as optional learning resources. These books were requested by a kindergarten
teacher
to teach his pupils about diversity and tolerance
.
A legal battle to overturn the decision to ban the three books went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada
, where the school board's decision was overturned in 2002.
The judgement in the case cited the need for families headed by same-sex couples to be respected. Chief Justice
Beverley McLachlin
dismissed the board's concerns that children would be confused or misled by classroom information about same-sex parents. She pointed out that the children of same-sex parents
are rubbing shoulders with children from more traditional families and wrote: "Tolerance
is always age-appropriate, children cannot learn unless they are exposed to views that differ from those they are taught at home." The legal fees ended up costing Surrey taxpayers over $1,200,000.
Stilwell ran as an independent candidate for the School Board in the Surrey municipal election held Nov 19, 2005, and won re-election.
In May 2007 Stilwell proposed a motion to ensure that if the film An Inconvenient Truth
, about global warming
, were used as a resource in the Surrey School District, other resources which give an opposing view would also be used. This motion was unanimously passed by other members of the Board of Education. An article on the CBC website has quoted her on An Inconvenient Truth: "I think there is climate change, there's no question about that. Whether what Al Gore says about it is the truth, I have questions."
. She died from the cancer on December 4, 2010, aged 66.
Surrey, British Columbia
Surrey is a city in the province of British Columbia, Canada. It is a member municipality of Metro Vancouver, the governing body of the Greater Vancouver Regional District...
. A staunch Roman Catholic, she was well-known for her opinions opposing homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
, abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
, and sex education
Sex education
Sex education refers to formal programs of instruction on a wide range of issues relating to human sexuality, including human sexual anatomy, sexual reproduction, sexual intercourse, reproductive health, emotional relations, reproductive rights and responsibilities, abstinence, contraception, and...
.
She and her husband Bill were involved in the creation of the Christian Heritage Party
Christian Heritage Party of Canada
The Christian Heritage Party of Canada, also referred to as CHP Canada, is a federal political party that advocates that Canada be governed according to Biblical principles...
in 1984 after a dozen or so people discussed the concept of such a party, which was registered with Elections Canada
Elections Canada
Elections Canada is an independent, non-partisan agency reporting directly to the Parliament of Canada. Its ongoing responsibility is to ensure that Canadians can exercise their choices in federal elections and referenda through an open and impartial process...
in June 1986.
From April 1993 to March 1994 she was the interim leader of the party and ran in the 1993 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1993
The Canadian federal election of 1993 was held on October 25 of that year to elect members to the Canadian House of Commons of the 35th Parliament of Canada. Fourteen parties competed for the 295 seats in the House at that time...
in the riding of Surrey—White Rock—South Langley
Surrey—White Rock—South Langley
Surrey—White Rock—South Langley was a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1988 to 1997.- Geography :...
. One of the most contentious policies of the Christian Heritage Party Policy is Section 6.4.3. which states: "Concerning the welfare of this Nation's citizens, we favour recriminalizing in the Criminal Code of Canada
Criminal Code of Canada
The Criminal Code or Code criminel is a law that codifies most criminal offences and procedures in Canada. Its official long title is "An Act respecting the criminal law"...
the murder of pre-born children
Abortion in Canada
Abortion in Canada is not limited by the law . While some non-legal obstacles exist, Canada is one of only a few nations with no legal restrictions on abortion. Regulations and accessibility vary between provinces....
, sexual deviancy
Human sexual behavior
Human sexual activities or human sexual practices or human sexual behavior refers to the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts from time to time, and for a wide variety of reasons...
, and pornography
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
." She entered the leadership race for the CHP at the 1994 convention, but withdrew and instead ran for the party presidency.
Heather Stilwell was also executive vice-president and leader of the socially conservative
Social conservatism
Social Conservatism is primarily a political, and usually morally influenced, ideology that focuses on the preservation of what are seen as traditional values. Social conservatism is a form of authoritarianism often associated with the position that the federal government should have a greater role...
BC Family Coalition Party which later merged into the British Columbia Unity Party
British Columbia Unity Party
The British Columbia Unity Party was a political party in British Columbia, Canada. The party was founded as an attempted union of five conservative parties: the Reform Party of British Columbia, the British Columbia Social Credit Party, the British Columbia Conservative Party, the British Columbia...
. Stilwell ran unsuccessfully in the 2001 provincial election
British Columbia general election, 2001
The British Columbia general election of 2001 was the 37th provincial election in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The election was called on April 18, 2001, and held on May 16, 2001...
, as a candidate in the riding of Surrey-Panorama Ridge
Surrey-Panorama Ridge
Surrey-Panorama Ridge was a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada from 2001 to 2009.- Demographics :-1999 Redistribution:Surrey-Panorama Ridge was created from*the southern half of Surrey-Newton...
.
She was former national board member and Western Regional Coordinator for the pro-life
Pro-life
Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...
group Campaign Life, which strongly opposed what she referred to as "special rights for homosexuals
Special rights
Special rights is a term originally used by libertarians to refer to laws granting rights to one or more groups which are not extended to other groups...
".
She was former President of the Alliance for Life, a national pro-life group based in Winnipeg, Manitoba and one-time President of the Surrey-Delta Pro-Life Association, the Pro-life Society of British Columbia, the Surrey-Delta Alliance For Life and the federal (Canadian) Alliance for Life. She was a member of the socially conservative lobby group REAL Women of Canada
REAL Women of Canada
REAL Women of Canada is a socially conservative lobby group in Canada. The organization was founded in 1983.REAL stands for "Realistic, Equal, Active, for Life". The group believes that the nuclear family is the most important unit in Canadian society, and that the fragmentation of the Canadian...
.
As co-founder of the publicly funded Surrey Traditional School in 1994, Stilwell played a key role in objecting to library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
book
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
s that offended her Christian beliefs. These books were temporarily banned as they dealt with topics such as Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
, the Wicca
Wicca
Wicca , is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica."...
religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
and native-Indian spirituality
Spirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
. After pressure from the public, the school board allowed these books back into the library.
Stilwell went on to become a member and eventual chair of the Surrey School Board
School District 36 Surrey
School District 36 Surrey operates schools in Surrey, White Rock, and Barnston Island, British Columbia. It is the largest school district in British Columbia with 66,100 students during the 2005/2006 school year. District 36 includes 99 elementary schools, 20 secondary schools, and 6 learning...
. She voted to ban sex education and condom machine
Condom machine
A condom machine is a vending machine for the sale of condoms. Condom machines are often placed in public toilets, subway stations and airports as a public health measure to promote safe sex. Many pharmacies also keep one outside, for after-hours access...
s in Surrey schools. In 1997 she also voted, along with the majority of the school board, that three books dealing with families where both parents were of the same sex not be included as optional learning resources. These books were requested by a kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
to teach his pupils about diversity and tolerance
Toleration
Toleration is "the practice of deliberately allowing or permitting a thing of which one disapproves. One can meaningfully speak of tolerating, ie of allowing or permitting, only if one is in a position to disallow”. It has also been defined as "to bear or endure" or "to nourish, sustain or preserve"...
.
A legal battle to overturn the decision to ban the three books went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
, where the school board's decision was overturned in 2002.
The judgement in the case cited the need for families headed by same-sex couples to be respected. Chief Justice
Chief Justice
The Chief Justice in many countries is the name for the presiding member of a Supreme Court in Commonwealth or other countries with an Anglo-Saxon justice system based on English common law, such as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the Court of Final Appeal of...
Beverley McLachlin
Beverley McLachlin
Beverley McLachlin, PC is the Chief Justice of Canada, the first woman to hold this position. She also serves as a Deputy of the Governor General of Canada.-Early life:...
dismissed the board's concerns that children would be confused or misled by classroom information about same-sex parents. She pointed out that the children of same-sex parents
Same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
are rubbing shoulders with children from more traditional families and wrote: "Tolerance
Toleration
Toleration is "the practice of deliberately allowing or permitting a thing of which one disapproves. One can meaningfully speak of tolerating, ie of allowing or permitting, only if one is in a position to disallow”. It has also been defined as "to bear or endure" or "to nourish, sustain or preserve"...
is always age-appropriate, children cannot learn unless they are exposed to views that differ from those they are taught at home." The legal fees ended up costing Surrey taxpayers over $1,200,000.
Stilwell ran as an independent candidate for the School Board in the Surrey municipal election held Nov 19, 2005, and won re-election.
In May 2007 Stilwell proposed a motion to ensure that if the film An Inconvenient Truth
An Inconvenient Truth
An Inconvenient Truth is a 2006 documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim about former United States Vice President Al Gore's campaign to educate citizens about global warming via a comprehensive slide show that, by his own estimate, he has given more than a thousand times.Premiering at the...
, about global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
, were used as a resource in the Surrey School District, other resources which give an opposing view would also be used. This motion was unanimously passed by other members of the Board of Education. An article on the CBC website has quoted her on An Inconvenient Truth: "I think there is climate change, there's no question about that. Whether what Al Gore says about it is the truth, I have questions."
Death
In 2008, she resigned from the school board when she was diagnosed with breast cancerBreast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
. She died from the cancer on December 4, 2010, aged 66.
| Election | Division | Party | Votes | % | Place | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 federal Canadian federal election, 1993 The Canadian federal election of 1993 was held on October 25 of that year to elect members to the Canadian House of Commons of the 35th Parliament of Canada. Fourteen parties competed for the 295 seats in the House at that time... |
Surrey—White Rock—South Langley Surrey—White Rock—South Langley Surrey—White Rock—South Langley was a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1988 to 1997.- Geography :... |
CHP | 871 | 1.2% | 6/12 | Val Meredith Val Meredith Valerie Meredith was a member of the Canadian House of Commons from 1993 to 2004. She was a realtor by career.... Reform Reform Party of Canada The Reform Party of Canada was a Canadian federal political party that existed from 1987 to 2000. It was originally founded as a Western Canada-based protest party, but attempted to expand eastward in the 1990s. It viewed itself as a populist party.... |
External links
- Heather Stilwell's website; accessed November 7, 2009