![\"Mike](\"https:\/\/smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital\/nationalpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image1.jpeg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&h=216&sig=2vWPrVpFRSiz9BVsIS8z9Q\")
Nineteen months ago, Mike Ramsay \u2014 a school trustee and former police officer who also happens to be Black \u2014 was in a board meeting when he came to the defence of a teacher he had never met. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The cost to him so far: being called a white supremacist; being shunned; being censured by his school board; being banned from meetings; enduring a lengthy court battle; and, last month, facing the threat of another disciplinary hearing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ramsay is another victim of the weaponization of disciplinary hearings against those accused of heresy, of not toeing the party line on gender identity or racial politics, or for simply objecting to what is being taught to children in schools. Or for tweeting something some people find objectionable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most high-profile victim of the tyranny of the bureaucracy is Jordan Peterson, who recently lost a court battle against the College of Psychologists of Ontario. Peterson has been ordered<\/a> by the college to undergo \u201ccoaching\u201d for some tweets that the college found to be unbecoming a psychologist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a>Incredibly, in Peterson\u2019s case, he hasn\u2019t been found guilty of anything, there\u2019s been no disciplinary hearing, it is simply punishment by fiat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This weaponization of codes of conduct is happening across Canada and is felt by many people who do not enjoy Peterson\u2019s high profile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nurse Amy Hamm<\/a> is facing disciplinary action for believing in biology and liking a \u201cI (heart) J.K. Rowling\u201d billboard.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Chanel Pfahl, then a teacher in Barrie, Ont., faced action<\/a> because of a Facebook post that opposed indoctrinating children with critical race theory. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jim McMurtry, a teacher of 40 years with a master\u2019s degree in the history of education, was fired<\/a> by the Abbotsford School District for pointing out that most children in Indian residential schools died from tuberculosis and other diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Mike Ramsay, his troubles came out of the blue during a meeting of Ontario\u2019s Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) in January 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Carolyn Burjoski, an English teacher with 20 years\u2019 experience, was giving a presentation regarding her concerns about some of the reading material in elementary school libraries. Some books were being culled \u2014 like Dr. Seuss \u2014 while new books on diversity were being added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She highlighted two new books, \u201cRick\u201d by Alex Gina, where a young boy is encouraged to question his sexuality and eventually declares he is asexual, and \u201cThe Other Boy\u201d by M.G. Hennessy, where a female teen later identifies as a boy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSome of the books make it seem simple, even cool, to take puberty blockers and opposite sex hormones,\u201d she told the board. But elementary students are just children. \u201cLet them grow up in their own time and stop pressuring them to be sexual so soon,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She was eventually shut down by then-chairmen Scott Piatkowski over concerns she was breaching Ontario\u2019s human rights code. Ramsay tried to defend Burjoski and wanted her presentation to continue but was overruled by a 5-4 vote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A month later, Ramsay faced a code of conduct complaint. The actual complaint and the WRDSB\u2019s actions would have remained secret because of a confidentiality clause, but once Ramsay launched a legal action the documents became public. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What was he accused of? \u201cHe disagrees with actions being taken by the WRDSB,\u201d according to the complaint, and was not upholding decisions made by the board. <\/p>\n\n\n\n His Twitter account was scoured. He was accused of retweeting a newspaper article, written by a colleague, that was critical of the board. He retweeted someone who called the WRDSB a \u201cfarce,\u201d and in another tweet indicated that he agreed with a comment about the \u201cwoke war on critics.\u201d He was guilty, according to the complaint, of tweeting or retweeting comments that \u201camplify harm\u201d and \u201csow doubt.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n He was accused of signing a petition that urged Ontario\u2019s educational authorities to keep woke politics and policies out of schools. He didn\u2019t write the petition, he just signed it, and for that has faced persecution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTheir interpretation of what constitutes a breach (of the code of conduct) in my mind is anything they don\u2019t like that I\u2019m saying. That\u2019s the only criteria I think they\u2019re using,\u201d Ramsay said in an interview. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe primary focus nowadays right across our province, and in fact across our country, is to be teaching kids that one group based on their colour are the oppressors; and one group based on their racial background or colour are the oppressed. I don\u2019t agree with that. I don\u2019t believe that is a way forward and it runs contrary to the dream espoused by Martin Luther King. We have a group on the radical left who want to fight battles that have already been won.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In July 2022, he was informed that he had breached of the board\u2019s code of conduct by refusing to accept the decisions of the chair and the board, by accusing fellow trustees of unlawful conduct and by disclosing confidential information. He was censured and banned from meetings until September. He has launched a judicial review of that finding and is awaiting a decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ramsay has been elected nine times as a trustee and has served continually since 2000. His aim is to \u201cbring the parent voice to the board table, to bring the concerns of parents.\u201d The code of conduct, he said, \u201cis being used as a weapon to shut down dissenting voices. (And) that\u2019s right across Canada. It\u2019s part of this identity politics that in my mind is pretty dangerous.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is a severe cost\u201d to fighting, Ramsay said. \u201cYou get shunned. You know how ridiculous it got? I\u2019m Black, but I was called a white supremacist.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ramsay said he was often reminded of the words of a Crown prosecutor: if you knew what something was going to cost in advance, maybe you would negotiate the price. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ramsay has an outlook on some matters that is now considered old fashioned and subject not just to ridicule, but to disciplinary action: he believes in a democratic society where people should be able to voice dissenting opinions; he believes children should be taught about history \u2014 the good and the bad; and he believes parents should have a voice at school board meetings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While being shunned by some, he has also had many people approach him offering support. Last year, as his troubles began, a stranger reached out offering kindness and compassion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That stranger was Richard <\/a>Bilkszto<\/a>, a principal with the Toronto District School Board who was facing his own ordeal. Bilkszto had opposed some racial teachings during a diversity, equity and inclusion training session and ended up being bullied and facing an insinuation that he was a white supremacist, according to a lawsuit.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bilkszto said, \u201cI have an idea what you\u2019re going through. You have my support,\u201d according to Ramsay. The pair established a telephone and online relationship and in May, Ramsay and Bilkszto met for lunch. It was their first and last meeting. Last month, Richard Bilkszto killed himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes there\u2019s a cost to fighting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The tyranny of the bureaucracy and the weaponization of codes of conduct Mike Ramsay is another victim of the weaponization of disciplinary hearings against those accused of heresy Author of the article: Michael Higgins Published Aug 28, 2023 \u2022 Last … Continue reading