Police called after anti-LGBTTQ+ group upends school board meeting

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
By: Maggie Macintosh Posted: 4:42 PM CDT Wednesday, Jun. 21, 2023

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Police were called to a Windsor Park school board meeting after a ruckus was raised by a group of people who made anti-LGBTTQ+ comments and demanded answers about a trustee’s recent suspension on Tuesday.

Elected officials in the Louis Riel School Division unanimously voted to discipline St. Boniface representative Francine Champagne earlier this month.

The rookie trustee was found to have breached internal policies on respecting human diversity and social media usage.

“The sexualization of our children in schools is all part of the agenda (insert angry face emoji),” she recently wrote on Facebook in one particular post linking to stopworldcontrol.com — a conspiracy theorist website.

More than two dozen of Champagne’s supporters showed up to the board’s latest public meeting before it was scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. to question her three-month suspension without pay. At least one person wore a Freedom Convoy 2022 T-shirt.

All individuals were allowed in the boardroom at 50 Monterey Rd., despite the LRSD’s ongoing request that anyone who wants to attend a virtual or in-person meeting register in advance. The majority of attendees showed up unannounced.

When division staffers realized they were overcapacity and raised the fire code issue, visitors began shouting in protest of anyone being kicked out. They made slurs, many of which were directed at trustee Ryan Palmquist.

Palmquist, who represents South St. Vital, has been subject to harassment since he came out as bisexual on social media — an act he said was in solidarity with the LRSD’s LGBTTQ+ community after his board colleague’s online activity was brought to light.

On Tuesday, attendees called him everything from “pedophile” to “groomer” to “f—-ing faggot.”

“There was a definite feeling that this situation could spiral even further out of control at any second,” Palmquist said, noting one individual made threatening throat-cutting gestures at him.

“This crowd was riled up and these people really, truly, honestly believe, I think, that children are being victimized in our schools and they are acting accordingly. They have been fed a diet of propaganda and vitriol by social media and that has detached them from reality.”

Amid the chaos, the board declared a brief recess, after which members reconvened with a shortened agenda of priority items that had to be addressed before the end of the 2022-23 school year.

When it came time for the standard 15-minute forum where trustees take questions, various participants took the mic to demand why Champagne was penalized for “expressing a point of view.”

Board chairwoman Sandy Nemeth told attendees that trustees determined the code of conduct had been breached and followed protocols in line with legal obligations set out in the Public Schools Act.

“(We) hold each other accountable, which all of us — Francine included — agreed to,” Nemeth said, noting all nine board members signed an oath of office when they assumed their positions for the 2022-26 term.

Trustees must “refrain from expressing opinions and/or sharing information through social media that would discredit, undermine or compromise the integrity of the board,” per LRSD policy.

Division documents state its facilities are inclusive environments wherein students, staff and visitors are expected to demonstrate respect for human rights.

Throughout the June 20 event, attendees heckled the board and senior administrators. “Wake up, you people!” someone shouted at one point.

One speaker — a 16-year-old who said she used to attend the LRSD before starting homeschooling during the pandemic — accused city schools of sexualizing students and confusing children about their gender, popular claims made by anti-LGBTTQ+ groups.

Wayne Sturby described himself as a former corrections officer in Headingley who was terminated because he refused to declare his COVID-19 vaccination status or submit to regular testing at the height of the public health crisis.

“I have seen nothing but abuses made by our provincial government, the civil service and I’ve seen what appears to me – what appears to me – may be a blatant abuse of power on the part of this school board, too,” Sturby said, after which the room erupted in applause.

Winnipeg police confirmed it received multiple reports and updates about disturbances at the site, the first of which came in around 6:30 p.m.

Const. Dani McKinnon said the dispatch unit asked the usual questions about risks and given there were no reports of assaults or injuries, officers did not immediately go to the scene.

Three police vehicles arrived around the time the meeting was abruptly adjourned after the question-and-answer session and tensions had largely simmered.

As far as Palmquist is concerned, the people who showed up pose a threat to students and division families at large.

“The way that they spoke to me in a public setting, the homophobic slurs they threw out my way — in a completely public meeting that was filmed and that they were filming — begs the question of what they might be capable of,” the trustee said.

As of Wednesday afternoon, roughly 750 people had signed an online petition calling for Champagne’s resignation. A mother with a child in the LRSD launched the appeal on Change.org last week.

Champagne did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Provincial legislation equips school boards with the power to censure, temporarily bar or suspend a member from their duties for up to three months if they breach a code of conduct.

A board can only declare a seat vacant due to a trustee death, resignation, disqualification, move to reside outside the division or failure to attend three consecutive regular meetings without authorization.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie