Cities across Canada rise up and join the freedom movement to support the trucker convoy.
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A Moving Report on the Truckers’ Freedom Convoy & Supportive Canadians Across the Country Demanding Their Freedom Back
Neither Facebook nor Twittter would let me post this report. The rotten SILICON VALLEY CENSORS
If you’re a Patriot or a Freedom Fighter, it’s hard not to feel emotional & proud as you watch this moving film of the Truckers’ Freedom Convoy & the outpouring of support from decent men, women & children from coast to coast demanding their freedom back! https://www.brighteon.com/735a6d98-1602-4f23-9924-048..
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Don’t miss these important dates! And Remember to bring two friends with you! PENTICTON EVENTS & INITIATIVES |
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Gooooo Truckers!!!! Amazing convoy of HOPE! Sunday, January 30th Penticton at 1:00 PM start and we will hit the streets with our signs after the speaker – We had 300 join us last week, let’s Hold the line!!! Keep showing up! To view the speakers from the World Wide Rally, go to https://youtu.be/teWikdfLxy4 You can also follow The Mad Watcher TV on many platforms. |
BRING FRIENDS!!. They will leave inspired! Other things available at this rally: |
– Come visit our literature table and get ideas on ways to defend yourself and hold the perpetrators accountable! Meet your local Action4Canada reps. Pick up the most recent editions of Druthers, Common Ground, and the special edition of Pandemic Papers. |
RALLY LOCATION
Meet in the parking lot at the NE corner of Main St and Warren Ave across from Tim Hortons. BRING TWO FRIENDS! Lots of extra parking at BCAA garage, the strip mall adjoining our regular parking area, Winners (across the street), or overflow mall parking opposite the Warren Avenue entrance to Cherry Lane Mall. | ||
Sign Making Event Thursday, February 3rd – 4 p.m. Come down, make a sign or two. We are so thankful we have signs for everyone at the Rally’s However we are GROWING, and we need more signs. Join us before the planning meeting, bring a dish to share and get creative. |
Planning Meeting Thursday, February 3rd – For those who already know the location, please carpool directly there. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Meeting start at 7:15. For those who do not know the location, please call 780-908-0309 before 5 p.m. on Thursday for directions. Finger food potluck. NO ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES PLEASE! Water, coffee, and tea will all be available. Agenda To be announced- If you wish to be on the agenda, please contact Mary Lou directly. KELOWNA EVENTS Weekly on Saturdays – Kelowna C.L.E.A.R. Rallies @ Stuart Park at the Bear 12:00 noon- Every Week! Show up January 26/22 at 11 am Media Rally in front of Castanet 455 Lawrence Ave Kelowna Your presence DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Please mark this on your calendars and BE THERE! |
OTHER INITIATIVES Prayer Day for Freedom – https://day4freedom.com/ |
Feel the Freedom! Mask Off Day.
Wednesday, February 2
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OLIVER Takes OFF with their 1st Rally!!!
Saturday, February 5 from 1 – 2 PM. Bring friends and signs, let’s support OLIVER
Location: In front of City Hall in Oliver If you are in a neighbouring community, join them, support them, WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER!! |
~ Mary Lou Gutscher
780-908-0309
Sean Corby is currently being investigated by his bosses after staff complained over critiques of woke culture that he posted on a forumByEwan Somerville22 January 2022 • 8:30pm
22 January 2022 • 12:00pm
Thoroughly modern man: singer Harry Styles at the Grammys in March 2021 CREDIT: Anthony Pham
In front of me are two books about men, and, curiously, it’s the one by a woman that is sympathetic and the one by a man that would consign my sex to the dustbin of history. It borders on a hate crime.
Patriarchy, according to Ivan Jablonka, a French historian, is immoral and artificial – something we’ve invented over the centuries to keep men on top. The problem with that thesis, he acknowledges, is that in primitive societies, too, male dominated female. To explain why something invented is perennial and universal, Jablonka tries to distinguish between biological sex (i.e. cavemen were more “robust” than women, so they took the lead in hunting) versus the cultural norms of gender, which he sees as an evolved effort to institutionalise the differences between men and women.
“Patriarchy proceeds from an interpretation of bodies: it transforms female biology into destiny, subjecting women to one function”, namely reproduction, and while women are expected to pop out babies or care for them, “men are at leisure to take over other spheres: the economy, war, power, and so on”. This order was threatened by the French Revolution, which by opening the door to universal rights allowed female equality to follow behind.Advertisement : 15 sec
Jablonka is obsessed with patriarchy the way others are with critical race theory or ancient UFOs – it explains almost everything – and in his reduction of all human experience to the battle between the sexes, the individual becomes depressingly powerless. Jane Austen’s clever female characters might know what they want, but they still want a man – “struggling within stifling gender norms” – and women who claw their way up the corporate ladder in the 21st century, by exhibiting “masculine norms” such as “leadership, competition, toughness”, become “accomplices of the patriarchy that reserves a place for them”. Women might think they’re winning, but they’re not.
And when men think they’re being moral, they’re actually doubling down on the system. Jablonka divides up male strategies for dominance into four categories: we lead by “ostentation”, a display of virility; by “control” or self-denial; by “sacrifice”, offering one’s life for a higher cause; and through the game of “ambiguity”, by integrating the feminine.
A drawing of early men learning to create fire CREDIT: Alamy
Sacrifice is “horrifying”, argues Jablonka, because it validates war and suicide. Yet critics will counter that it also encourages charity, modesty and martyrdom – just as virility can sometimes protect the weak. Indeed, if our natural state really is men clubbing each other over the head, perhaps patriarchal civilisation is a step up.
It also contains a space for joyous gender-bending (trans, drag, queer, etc.), though Jablonka believes men who soften their masculinity with eyeliner are often reasserting that while women are “tied to their sex”, men are free to be “armed or bejewelled, tearful or insensitive”. Again, it’s impossible to win. Even Harry Styles is a tool of the system. This book is so pessimistic that it’s hard to see on what basis men and women can ever progress peacefully; for one to advance, the other must retreat.
Far more hopeful, and better written, is philosopher Nina Power’s What Do Men Want? If you proceed on the assumption that masculinity is inherently toxic, she argues, you risk implying that most men are bad – and they’re not. “Far from possessing great power, men are frequently trapped in systems of other men’s making.” To be a man nowadays is “in great part, and at the risk of sounding dramatic, to suffer” – from comparatively high rates of suicide, homelessness and murder, and stereotyping.
Patriarchy might be part of the problem, as Jablonka also argues, by compelling men to live according to masculine codes that are as repressive to them as they are unfair to women, but declaring war on masculinity will only add to men’s sense of alienation, at a moment when aspects of culture and economics have moved in women’s favour. The new economy rewards brain; brawn is out of style. “It’s more fashionable to be a woman,” Fay Weldon is quoted as saying. “Women appear to be more powerful, at least among young men.”
Author, essayist and playwright Fay Weldon CREDIT: Heathcliff O’Malley
Nina Power suggests that, rather than dismissing the whole notion of masculinity, it might be better to recognise the reality of sex differences rooted in nature; encourage men to identify as part of a class, one that has severe problems and could do with more solidarity; and investigate those aspects of masculinity that are useful to us all, “to revisit old values and virtues” such as “honour, loyalty and courage… in the name of reconciliation”.
If Jablonka favours a Year Zero approach, Power is almost conservative, building a future upon the best of the past. The family “came to be seen by those on the left as traditional or oppressive. [But] the family can also be understood as a bastion of resistance against the outside world.” When life goes mad, mum and dad “bring you back down to earth with love and understanding”. Power deserves credit for trying to get into the heads of the men she quotes, even if boorish or chauvinist. She displays female empathy. Jablonka, more of a man than he might admit, does not.
An alternative view, alien to both writers yet held deeply by billions across the planet, is that sex is not an evolutionary accident, but designed for a purpose, and that our characteristics flow from a divine order. Male and female, according to the Bible, were meant for each other. Adam was incomplete, so God created Eve. And, yes, Eve then tempted man to eat the forbidden fruit, destroying our collective innocence, but, as the 18th-century monk Benito Feijóo argued, the fact that Adam fell for this scam only confirms man’s intellectual and moral weaknesses. I’d wager more men have enthusiastically replied to emails from Nigerian princes than women have.
Men are flawed, often in a very funny way. By peppering her book with humour, Power rehumanises the gender debate. Jablonka, deadly serious in his academic gobbledygook, descends into a woke self-parody that sounds suspiciously like mansplaining. At the end, he writes: “While I am a man in my body, heterosexual in my choices, a professor in my career, I feel uncomfortable in the masculine. I am not inclined to become a woman, but I gladly switch genders.” This is the kind of nonsense a man typically spouts in a misguided attempt to talk a feminist into bed.
A history of masculinity by Ivan Jablonka, tr Nathan Bracher (★ ) and What do men want? by Nina Power (★ ★ ★ ★ ) are published by Allen Lane at £25 and £18.99 respectively. To order these books from the Telegraph for £19.99 and £16.99, visit books.telegraph.co.uk or call 0844 871 1514
BBC makes ‘woke cuts’ to archives, including Dad’s Army
The broadcaster has purged a number of racist and misogynistic jokes as well as mentions of disgraced stars Jimmy Savile and Rolf HarrisByMax Stephens22 January 2022 • 1:32pm
Television Dad’s Army
The BBC has purged mentions of disgraced stars Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris along with a number of racist and misogynistic jokes used in several of its classic radio comedies.
An anonymous Radio 4 Extra listener discovered the BBC had been quietly editing repeats of shows over the past few years to be more in keeping with social mores, the Times reported.
Labelling them as “woke cuts,” the listener found edits had been made to old episodes of Dad’s Army, Steptoe and Son and I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again.
In some cases entire sketches had been removed.
For example, a repeat of a 1970 episode of I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again, starring John Cleese and Bill Oddie, had a joke about a scantily clad woman removed.
In the original broadcast, Cleese, impersonating a BBC spokesman, said: “We have noticed that it is possible to see right up to the girls’ knickers, owing to the shortness of their miniskirts, so we’ve asked the girls to drop them.”
The BBC also stripped a mention of the n-word from a 1972 episode of the Ronnie Barker sketch show Lines From My Grandfather’s Forehead.
A reference to African people being “cannibals” was also removed from a 1950 episode of Much Binding in the Marsh, a comedy set in a RAF station.
In a sketch from 1970, David Hatch adopted an Indian accent and was described as being “browned off”. The skit was removed.
Other deleted sketches included a spoof of Harris’s songs, titled Rolf Harris’s Dirty Songbook.
A spokesman for the BBC said: “Listeners enjoy a huge number of old comedies from the archives on 4 Extra and on occasion we edit some episodes so they’re suitable for broadcast today, including removing racially offensive language and stereotypes from decades ago, as the vast majority of our audience would expect.”
It is no surprise that American politicians and celebrities were taken in by a fake ‘racist and homo-phobic’ attackBORIS STARLING11 December 2021 • 10:00am
It was the perfect story for these atomised and fractious times. The victim was a gay black actor on a successful television show: his attackers were two white men who shouted racist and homophobic abuse referencing Donald Trump slogans, poured bleach on him and tied a noose around his neck. If ever you wanted an example of America’s ugly side, one both legitimised and enabled by Trump’s presidency, this was too good to be true.
Which, of course, is just what it turned out to be. That actor, Empire’s Jussie Smollett, was
George Orwell’s 1984 isn’t the only book that woke, European censors are coming for out of concern for the weak of heart and easily offended. No, in an even worse and darker move, the Finnish government’s top prosecutor just labeled Biblical quotations as “hate speech.
The comment came on January 24th, during the trial of two Christian Finns that are currently on trial for teaching the Biblical view on sex and marriage. Apparently, they have real faith, unlike the woke Catholics running Viterbo University.
As background, the trial is taking place because of a tweet; former Finnish interior minister Paivi Rasanen tweeted out a picture of a Biblical passage that describes homosexuality as a sin. As a result, she’s being prosecuted for “hate speech.
The Federalist reports this about the trial and the prosecutor’s comment that the Bible is hate speech:
In the trial’s opening arguments, which will resume on Feb. 14, Finnish prosecutors described quotations from the Bible as “hate speech.” Finland’s top prosecutor’s office essentially put the Bible on trial, an unprecedented move for a secular court, said Paul Coleman, a human rights lawyer with Alliance Defending Freedom International who is assisting in the Finns’ legal defense and was present during Monday’s trial.
“The prosecutor began the day by trying to explain that this case was not about beliefs and the Bible. She then, and I’m not kidding, she then proceeded to quote Old Testament Bible verses,” Coleman said in a phone interview with The Federalist after the trial concluded for the day. “Trial attorneys, Finnish trial attorneys who have been in and out of court every day for years, said they didn’t think the Bible had ever been read out like that in a prosecution.”
Never before has a Finnish court had to decide whether quoting the Bible is a crime. Human rights observers consider this case an important marker for whether Western governments’ persecution of citizens for their speech and beliefs increases.
Meanwhile, Coleman’s organization, the ADF, had this to say on Twitter about the defense’s argument:Christianity is the national religion in Finland, says Räsänen’s lawyer. The Bible verses in question are widely distributed in Finland. If Räsänen is found guilty for sharing them, it would appear to be a de facto criminalization of these verses.
The defence stresses that Räsänen has always emphasised the equal dignity of every human being.
The pamphlet which the Bishop and the parliamentarian are being tried for is a Christian text, published for a Church audience, with the aim is in the teaching of Christianity, the defence team
Similarly, Paivi Rasanen herself showed up at her trial carrying a Bible and proclaiming that she is “honored to be defending freedom of speech and religion“. She also said, “I hope that today it can become clear that I have no wish to offend any group of people, but this is a question of saving people for eternal life.”
As the trial will not resume until February 14th, it remains to be seen if the Bible and Christianity or woke ideology will win in Finland.
GO FUND ME Freezes Distribution of $4-Million in Funds for Truckers’ Protest When They Are Most Needed
This looks like elitist sabotage. The convoy is on its way. Saturday is the day. The funds thousands of Canadians have contributed — $4-million+ in 10 days1 — are needed now.
GO FUND ME Freezes Distribution of $4-Million in Funds for Truckers’ Protest When They Are Most Needed
GoFundMe has confirmed it is holding the funds in the freedom convoy fundraiser until a clear plan about how the funds will be spent is presented.
Hundreds of B.C. truckers took to the road Sunday kicking off what they called a “freedom convoy” to Ottawa in protest of the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers.
The GoFundMe, started by Tamara Lich in Medicine Hat, Alta., has already raised more than $4.5 million since Jan. 14 and while it appears people can still donate, GoFundMe said in a statement it is continuing to work directly with the organizer to gather information about how the funds will be distributed — the standard process to ensure the protection of all donors.
“Once a withdrawal plan is provided by the organizer, our team is on standby to safely and quickly deliver the funds,” the company said. Story continues below advertisement 3:35 ‘Freedom convoy’ of truckers opposing vaccine mandate rolls through Calgary ‘Freedom convoy’ of truckers opposing vaccine mandate rolls through Calgary
Read more: Trucks pass through Regina as ‘freedom convoy’ continues toward Ottawa
The convoy of truckers rolled through Regina Monday night and was greeted by supporters who braved the cold weather to welcome the truckers to town.
“A lot of people are trying to say that these type of things are done out of anger, but this is actually being done out of frustration towards the things the government is imposing upon Canadian citizens,” said a man named Trevor who spoke to Global News when the convoy passed through the Balgonie area. He declined to provide his full name due to the controversial nature of the story.
“The amount of trucks involved and the amount of people showing up here, this shows the frustrations of Canadians and it’s going to continue to grow.” Story continues below advertisement
The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) posted a statement this past weekend saying the vaccination rate among drivers in the country’s trucking industry closely mirrors that of the general public.
The U.S. also has a vaccine mandate for truckers seeking entry from Canada.
Meanwhile, the CTA also stated it “does not support and strongly disapproves of any protests on public roadways, highways and bridges.” 5:11 “Freedom Convoy” in protest of federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate “Freedom Convoy” in protest of federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate
As the trucking convoy continues to Ottawa, GoFundMe said it requires “that fundraisers be transparent about the flow of funds and have a clear plan for how those funds will be spent. In this case, we are in touch with the organizer to verify that information. Funds will be safely held until the organizer is able to provide the information to our team about how funds will be properly distributed.”
Independent Ontario MPP Roman Babar Runs Ads to Expose the COVID Lies, Failures & Misinformation of the Doug Ford Gov’t
Doug Ford tried to distract Ontarians from his own failures by offering us more crumbs in a sleight of hand. Instead of allowing restrictions to expire on January 26, he extended them to January 31 and announced a “slow and cautious opening”. Doug is not fooling anymore, instead he got caught trying to save himself politically.
By the Government’s measures, Ontario’s hospitals are in worse shape today than they were in October 2021. There is less hospital staff now than in March 2020. If Doug stuck to the illusion that we must lock down to protect hospital capacity, then he would not announce any reopening at this time. Instead, he knows where the wind is blowing and is trying to save his political career.
On Wednesday, the Minister of Health, Christine Elliott, threatened some Ontario’s Physicians for allegedly spreading vaccine misinformation. Understanding of the Covid vaccines is an evolving scientific matter. One could have been accused of misinformation by suggesting that the risk of the Astra Zeneca vaccine was too high due to the risk of blood clots before it was pulled from the market. One could have also been accused of misinformation for suggesting that that Moderna should not be offered to 18-24 year olds before it was no longer recommended by Public Health Ontario for that age group. Threatening professionals for expressing a professional opinion is a chill on speech to be expected of dictatorial regimes. This is an unprecedented territory.
The McDonald Laurier Institute concluded that “other nations managed to maintain hospitalization and death rates at levels comparable to Canada – but without the harsh restrictions and lockdowns.” Read about it in the National Post. We must continue to persuade our friends, family and neighbours that lockdowns caused significantly more harm than any benefit.
One of the greatest harms perpetrated by the Ford Government is the cancellation of elective surgeries. Even independent clinics outside of hospitals were ordered to cancel procedures involving nurses or anesthesiologists. That is despite the fact that the doctors and nurses employed by these clinics were not redirected to hospitals. The extent of Ontario’s healthcare mismanagement as well as the human toll resulting from it is astonishing.
My Constituency Association started an ad blitz. Here is a sample of an ad you could hear on several radio stations (YouTube). It will extend our ad blitz throughout Ontario, as it is imperative that our view point is heard on mainstream media. We ask you to support the ad blitz by donating to the Roman Baber Constituency Association.
Finally, we have reason to be hopeful as several jurisdictions around the world are coming to the conclusion that we must live with Covid. Please continue to share my social media messaging and do not be afraid to speak out about the harms of lockdowns, passports, and mandates. For two years, Ontario’s pandemic response wreaked havoc on Ontarians. But more people are changing their minds and the narrative may soon come to an end.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Roman Baber
The Internet Censors Chortle at Their Success With the EU We did it!!!! Hours ago, the EU Parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of the most ambitious regulation ever drafted to end the era of toxic social media. We’re still in shock. We were up against some of the most powerful corporations in the world. But we were louder. Donating in the thousands, flooding key decision-makers with messages, delivering powerful solutions in meetings, and publishing groundbreaking investigations showing the harms caused by Big Tech: the Avaaz community has helped shape history this week, together with other awesome groups out there fighting alongside us and brave lawmakers who decided to listen. We’re not done yet, but if EU lawmakers stand strong in further negotiations, this could be the first wave of a cascade of new laws all over the world that finally put people before platforms and their profits: whenever Facebook, Youtube or TikTok would harm our societies at scale – from making dangerous disinformation go viral to spreading harmful content to kids or misusing our personal data — our democracies would be able to ensure they take responsibility. Join the celebration by retweeting the Avaaz tweet here or posting on Facebook here |
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Social media has brought powerful innovation to our societies. But for too long they have been able to evolve with literally just one goal: maximizing their profit, even if that meant radicalizing our societies, delegitimizing science or a rise in teen depression. Now, thanks to this regulation which some have called a new constitution for the Internet, we can demand a future where technologies are shaped around common values, and protect our fundamental human rights, instead of exploiting our weaknesses. Also, with so much disillusionment around politics, this regulation has shown Europe at its best. With almost all the demands from citizens, experts and civic society organizations landing in some way in the text just voted including: Detoxify the algorithm— make the platforms take responsibility for the harms they cause to our societies, like the viral spread of dangerous disinformation; Big sanctions — Face fines up to 6% of their global income, yes we’re talking billions of dollars here, if they don’t fix their systems;Open the black box — Allow independent auditors, researchers and civic society to scrutinize their actions and uncover their wrongdoings;Stop surveillance ads — Ban the exploitation of children’s data, and our political beliefs or gender choices, to target us with ads. Join the celebration by retweeting the Avaaz tweet here or posting on Facebook here For over four years Avaaz has been on the forefront of the public push to force social media platforms to tackle the harms they create. From the EU, to the US, or Brazil, we have reported on disinformation and its scale, commissioning polls on its harmful effects, evaluating platforms’ efforts to tackle them, and identifying their failures. None of this would have been possible without the Avaaz membership. It was a huge shared effort. But it paid off. And now we’re making history. With deep excitement and determination, Luca, Sarah, Christoph, Joana, Nadia, Andy, Rosie, Luana, Camille, Barbara, Sam and the rest of the Avaaz team |
‘No dissent is allowed’: School board bars teacher from raising concerns over transgender books
‘I am not a transphobic person. It’s crazy that just because you ask a question, the first thing people do is call you that’
Tom Blackwell, NATIONAL POST,
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Jan 21, 2022 •
Carolyn Burjoski, bottom row left, was ejected from this Waterloo Region District School Board virtual meeting for expressing concerns over content in some board-approved school library books. Photo by Screen grab
An Ontario school board is facing charges of censorship this week after shutting down a teacher’s presentation to the group, saying her comments about books on transgender issues violated the province’s human rights code.
Carolyn Burjoski was discussing publications she said are available in the libraries of Kindergarten to grade six schools. She had begun to argue the books made it seem too simple and “cool” to medically transition to another gender when her presentation was cut short by the Waterloo Region District School Board’s chair.
Scott Piatkowski ruled she could not continue and the board eventually voted 5-4 to back up his decision. The fallout has continued since.
Though controversial and opposed by most transgender advocates, concerns have been voiced before — including by leading figures in the movement itself — that gender-dysphoric young people are sometimes pushed too aggressively into medical transition.
Piatkowski later told a local CTV station , however, that Burjoski’s comments were actually transphobic and “questioned the right to exist” of trans people. Meanwhile, the organization took down its recording of the meeting — a regular, public session of elected officials — and had YouTube remove another copy of the video for alleged copyright infringement.
And then the teacher was given what she calls a “stay-at-home order” and told not to communicate with colleagues or students, though she’s still being paid and is slated to retire soon. On Thursday, she says her union rep informed her the board had appointed an outside investigator to examine her actions.
We do need to have a conversation about the intersection of biology and gender
In her first interview on the affair, Burjoski said she was “flabbergasted” by what happened at the meeting and Piatkowski’s remarks afterward.
“I am not a transphobic person. It’s crazy that just because you ask a question, the first thing people do is call you that,” she said. “We do need to have a conversation about the intersection of biology and gender. We’re not having those conversations in our culture because, look what happened to me.”
She said the order to stay away from school was likely meant to make an example of her: “The message is clear: no dissent is allowed.”
Piatkowski declined to comment Thursday, saying he was already the target of organized online harassment and didn’t want to feed it further. He referred to two previous interviews with local media outlets.
The human rights code bars discrimination based on gender identity and other grounds in the areas of housing, employment and providing services.
Asked to explain how Burjoski’s comments violated the code, the chair told 570 News radio station that he would not repeat or respond to her remarks and “give them oxygen.”
But he said he stood by his decision, and that chairs of other boards in the province have told him they would have done the same thing.
“This person was speaking about transgender people in a way that was disrespectful, that would cause them to be attacked and I really needed to ensure it did not continue,” Piatkowski said. “I’m quite confident it was the right decision.”
He said Thursday he knew nothing about the board’s actions against Burjoski or removal of the video of the meeting.
Board spokesperson Eusis Dougan-McKenzie said Friday the video was not officially posted because of concerns about a possible human-rights code violation. In a statement, WDRSB said “we would like to express our deep regret for any harm caused to the transgender community” by Burjoski’s comments.
Two groups representing the LGBTQ community in Waterloo could not be reached for comment. Trans activists, however, often argue that statements questioning medical transition in any way can fuel transgender harassment, discrimination and violence.
“I’m not sorry that someone who opened the door to transphobic comments was stopped from keeping that door open,” Laura Mae Lindo, the NDP MPP for Kitchener Centre, commented on Twitter. “That’s not over-reach. Protect the most vulnerable. Uphold human rights. If you can’t do that, sit down.”
One Waterloo trustee who came to Burjoski’s defence on Monday, though, blasted the board’s decision and said he’s never seen a delegation silenced in that way before.
“It’s censoring presentations that the chair doesn’t agree with,” said long-time board member Mike Ramsay, who has served as chair three times himself. “As decision makers, we have to make informed decisions.… If we’re going to just take one point of view and say that’s sufficient, that’s wrong on so many fronts.”
Burjoski said she has worked for more than 20 years as a teacher of English as a second language, specializing in children who have immigrated from various countries affected by war and political unrest.
She appeared as a one-person public “delegation” in a session discussing the board’s controversial decision to conduct a system-wide removal of books it considered “harmful.”
Her comments focused on resources recommended by the board for a transgender awareness day. Trouble started when she turned to a book called The Other Boy by M.G. Hennessey and a scene that depicts a meeting between Shane, a transgender boy (born a girl), and a doctor. He voices excitement about starting on testosterone and when the physician says it would mean he likely wouldn’t be able to have children, he says, “It’s cool.”
If we’re going to just take one point of view and say that’s sufficient, that’s wrong
As Burjoski remarked that such books make it seem overly straightforward to take cross-sex hormones, Piatkowski interjected to warn she may be violating the code.
The teacher then went on to say the book was misleading “because it does not take into account how Shane might feel later in life about being infertile. This book makes very serious medical interventions seem like an easy cure for emotional and psychological distress.”
At that point, Piatkowski told her he was “ending the presentation.”
The widely used “affirmation” approach to children who identify as transgender has raised some concerns in several countries, and not just among obvious critics. Two leading psychologists in the transgender medical community, one of them a trans woman, complained in a recent article about sloppy and dangerous assessment of young people presenting as trans, with overly hasty resort to hormones.
Pam Buffone, whose parents group Canadian Gender Report highlights similar issues, said Burjoski raised legitimate questions about the appropriateness of school materials, as places like Finland restrict the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.
“If there’s a reason to hide this discussion from public scrutiny, then there’s really something wrong,” she said.
The freedom fighters are back!
This Saturday, January 22nd I will be at Queen’s Park in Toronto with Dr. Rochangné Kilian, lawyer Knia Singh, Greg Hill from Free2Fly, and independent MPP Randy Hillier.
I am excited to be back in Toronto to speak out against the corrupt political establishment and champion our rights and freedoms.
We will start with a rally at Queen’s Park, then march to CBC HQ where there will be additional speeches in neighbouring Simcoe Park. Later in the day, I will also be making an appearance at Port Credit Memorial Park in Mississauga.
Join me this weekend at Queen’s Park to make your voice heard!
Toronto
Where: Queen’s Park, by the King Edward VII Equestrian Statue
110 Wellesley St W, Toronto, ON M7A 1A2
When: Saturday, January 22 @ 12pm (Noon)
Mississauga
Where: Port Credit Memorial Park
40 Lakeshore Rd E, Mississauga, ON L5G 1S4
When: Saturday, January 22 @ 5pm
I hope to see you there!
Cheers,
-Max