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In Canada, the struggle will have to be at the grassroots level, and unfortunately against the organizations that many of us once called home.
Politics: Federal, Provincial, Local
“Ultimately this will be won or lost based on real politics, and elections at the Municipal, Provincial and Federal levels. While it is helpful overall to have not-woke people at City hall, the thrust of municipal elections for schools is done through the school board elections. More on this below.
Realistically, given the current slate of political parties, left, right or centre, the only prospects for pushback against woke ideology will come from the right- that means conservative and populist parties. The NDP has been predominantly identity politics focused since the 1990s, and has gone almost completely woke – they are no longer the voice of the working class. The Green Party, once a refuge for the not-woke left, submitted rapidly over the past few years. The Liberals have generally succumbed, especially with the current Prime Minister, and while there may be many members who do not like woke ideology they feel their hands are tied. Even the conservative parties are questionable with little support in Ontario from the pretend populist Doug Ford, – some are wavering elsewhere. Only the populist parties (People’s Party, UCP, Sask United Party, New Blue, Ontario Party and now CAQ) have shown reliability in opposing wokeism.
It is a tough pill to swallow for those of us who have traditionally been left to support right wing parties, but it is now no longer possible to expect the woke movement to simply fall out of fashion. The only way to save the left is to punish it. Across the English speaking world, every party not on the right is culturally incapable of pushing back against wokeism.”
As always, definitions are important. This is what ‘woke’ actually is, as opposed to what is members claim it to be:
The chronically fragile have been working overtime in Canada as of late (thanks to the National Post for the article). Apparently respecting the material reality we all share can get you in trouble with the authorities as Josh Alexander found out.
“That Canada is becoming less tolerant comes as no surprise, but even so a Catholic high school getting one of their 16-year-old students arrested is a bit of a shock, especially when the heart of the issue is his religious beliefs.
Josh Alexander was arrested by police Monday afternoon for breaching an exclusion order, but the real crime that the student is being punished for is upholding his Catholic beliefs and doing so in what some would no doubt think is a defiant and troublesome manner.”
Stating the factual reality of our existence in some circumstances is a crime. Let that sink in for a bit.
Josh, a Christian, believes there are only two genders, that people can’t switch genders, and that male students shouldn’t use girls’ washrooms. But expressing those views in a classroom discussion on gender at St. Joseph’s Catholic High School in Renfrew, Ont., got him suspended.
“I got suspended for comments made during a class discussion,” said Josh in an interview. “It was about male students using female washrooms, gender dysphoria and male breastfeeding. Everyone was sharing their opinions on it, any student who wanted to was participating, including the teacher
“I said there were only two genders and you were born either a male or a female and that got me into trouble. And then I said that gender doesn’t trump biology.”
Nothing unreasonable been stated so far. My quibble would be that using ‘gender’ instead of ‘sex’ when discussing these issues already concedes too much to ground to the gender ideologues.
Gender is the set of the prescribed stereotypes society has for members of the male and female sex classes. Like most stereotypes, gender is usually quite unhelpful and toxic when it comes to humans flourishing within society. So, gender = (usually negative) sex stereotypes.
““Freedom once taken for granted is lost,” the Grade 11 student added. “Freedom of religion is probably one of our most important freedoms so I’m not going to surrender it in the face of persecution.
“It just goes to show how little freedom of expression we have in our country.”
James Kitchen, a lawyer from the Liberty Defense Fund which is representing Josh, said in a statement that the student was told he could only return to school “if he agreed not to use the ‘dead name’ of any transgender student and agreed to exclude himself from his two afternoon classes because those classes are attended by two transgender students who disapprove of Josh’s religious beliefs.””
Another person cannot attend class because they disapprove of someone’s religious beliefs? This is in a Catholic School for heaven’s sake! It would seem that the new gender-religion has replaced the old religion but has turned back the dial to when it wasn’t socially acceptable to criticize religious belief. As an Atheist, I find this juxtaposition both perplexing and ironic.
There are no beliefs in a free society that should be beyond reproach. This includes transgender ideology and its unfounded (and completely risible) beliefs of a gendered soul, being born in the wrong body, humans can change sex et cetera. Different religion – same bullshit.
“Josh said he had never “dead named” anyone, that is referred to their previous name before transitioning.
“Compelling Josh to utter falsehoods regarding gender contrary to his beliefs and segregating him from classes are repugnant manifestations of religious discrimination,” said Kitchen.
Matters escalated when Josh was later served with an exclusion order.
On Monday, when he tried to go school, the cops were called and he got arrested.
“I walked into one of my classes. I sat down and everyone looked pretty surprised to see me there. Within two minutes the vice-principal was in the classroom asking me to leave,” Josh said.
He left the class and “almost immediately I was met with the police.” Josh was put in the back of a cruiser, driven off property and later released and charged with trespassing.”
Speaking the truth should not be a crime.
“But is that the society we want to become? Arresting 16-year-old kids for turning up at school when they’ve been suspended for their religious beliefs? Was there no other way? Could the school not have tried harder to find a solution? Was calling the police really the only option?
It appears we are now so intolerant that we cannot stand people defending their religious beliefs in a classroom at a supposedly religious school.
Josh doesn’t appear to be a shrinking violet. He obviously holds strong beliefs and is passionate about them.”
I have opposed organized religions for most of my adult life and I have never once felt threatened by my opponents. Nor have I had faced possibly severe social repercussions for stating my (decidedly untoward) views on religion. Gender ideology here in Canada though, seems to be the unquestionable religion of choice , and it demands utter obedience and compliance with its diktats.
Christianity and Islam once held this special status. Fuck that. I am not going back to not being able to criticize a self appointed sacred caste within Canadian society. Gender bullshit stinks just as bad as religious bullshit.
“According to its website, St Joseph’s works to promote “education within a framework of a Catholic Christian environment.”
It adds, “We truly believe in the enhancement of the spiritual, moral, and emotional well-being of those belonging to our community.”Kitchen, Josh’s lawyer, would disagree.
“Under the guise of ‘safety’, as that term has been revised by woke gender activists now pervasive in public institutions, Josh has been penalized for expressing his Christian beliefs regarding gender and modesty, beliefs which also happen to align with both objective truth and actual safety,” he said in a statement. “Josh not only has a right to express himself during class discussions and through public forums, he also has a right not to be discriminated against by his school for his sincere religious beliefs. Being suspended and excluded from attending classes is the height of discrimination.”
The activist Left or Woke have twisted the language. It is what they do. How does excluding someone = an inclusive learning environment. A brief detour on what they’ve done to the language:
Yeah. So, being inclusive is actually being ‘exclusive’ and encouraging the erosion of free speech and thought in society.
“The board said on human rights issues, it takes its guidance from the policies issued by the Ontario Human Rights (OHR) Commission and directives issued by the Ministry of Education.
Its washroom practices follow the OHR guidelines that state that trans people “have the right to access these facilities based on their lived gender identity.”
Do Catholics at a religious school have the right to access the facility based on their lived religious identity? The OHR is huffing gasoline on this issue. The idea that somehow ‘gender identity’ trumps material reality is a completely foolish and wrong headed notion. Facilities in the above statement refers to bathrooms – so if a boy ‘feels’ like a girl he can use the girls bathroom. No problems (other than the destruction of female only spaces and female boundaries) there, right?
The new transgender religion, like the old traditional religions are steeped in the hatred of women and seek to roll back their rights, boundaries, and safety in society.
The opposition to this new persecution of women is stirring in Canada (we sadly, are still far behind the UK in this area). Once the language obfuscation is stripped away and more cases are brought court perhaps we can start rolling back this pernicious transgender ideology and all the harm it is causing in society.
Free speech is a large part of the basis of our democratic society. The issue is popping up much more frequently now in Canadian Society as it would seem that certain opinions have been deemed ‘untouchable’ and thus must be avoided or cancelled within the public sphere.
What I don’t understand is why so much of the Canadian political left has completely fumbled the ball on this issue. If you have a counter argument or refutation of Jordan Peterson’s views then bring those views to the public sphere and criticize his arguments. Demonstrate where they fall short, or where they are just plain wrong – but do it with evidence and coherent arguments – not just banning Peterson from speaking.
Banning and cancelling people should, and I repeat should, raise serious concerns on the Left asrestriction of personal liberties and speech are positions that the Left once defended (I imagine the classical Liberals still do, the activists not so much).
So, disagree with JP? Awesome. Bring your arguments to the table and show where he’s wrong. But for heaven sake, don’t stop him from speaking.
Educators, parents- when you start getting the smell of “anti-racist” activism coming from your local school board be prepared to go on the offensive to keep this bullshit out of your school and away from your children. Just look at the mess this activist agenda has created in the Peel School Board.
“The “serious issues related to governance” identified by Rodrigues arose as a result of the disconnect between the conclusions and directives of the PDSB review and the real-world situation in the schools. The senior administrative team at the time knew that racism in the schools was, at most, one part of the reason for lower achievement and higher discipline rates among black students. They knew that to address these issues would require a broad, community-based set of actions many of which would not be supported by the woke activists who blamed all the problems black students were experiencing entirely on “systemic racism”. The reluctance on the part of senior administration to blame the entire problem on racism and embrace Kendi-style “antiracism” as the antidote meant that they had to go. They were cut loose (with a reported severance package of half a million each for Director Peter Joshua and his Associate Director Mark Harmon).
“As supervisor, I have worked with board staff, the Board of Trustees, community members, students, and parents over the past 2 and ½ years to rebuild relationships and trust that had been eroded over a significant period of time. When I accepted the appointment, I assumed control over a board that lacked capacity to effectively govern in the interests of all students of the board. Administrative leadership and elected leadership lacked the capacity and, in some cases, – as noted in the Investigator’s Report – the willingness to provide the leadership required to ensure that the diversity of students and families in the PDSB was well served.”
The community activists have been well served, but no one else has. The supervisor was disconnected from any actual educational reality on the ground; he did not work out of the board offices but rather at Queen’s Park. He was an unknown ghostly presence in the board and most staff never met him or received any correspondence from him. His role appeared to be to ensure that the local activists, who were demanding the application of Critical Theory (wokeism) to board polices and procedures, were consulted by senior administration at every turn. Under Rodriguez, a major purge took place in which the majority of the senior administration, lifelong educators with a wealth of experience, were shown the door. Since these were firings without cause, this exercise not only degraded the administration, replacing these knowledgeable veterans with inexperienced, ideologically-driven neophytes, it was also very expensive. Millions were spent on severance pay and early retirement packages, which essentially amounted to paying an administrator his or her full salary while they sat at home until they reached that date at which they could retire with an unreduced pension. Of course, receiving these handouts was predicated on keeping their mouths shut about what was really going on at the board. The point is that the effect of Rodrigues’ supervision was the replacement of highly experienced, traditional liberal, and relatively apolitical administrators with inexperienced, identity-obsessed followers of Kendi-style Critical Theory. As you might expect, the resulting impacts on student learning environments and teacher morale have been devastating.
“I have also invested significant time and resources to build the capacity of the Board of Trustees (Board) to position them to govern the PDSB in a manner that is accountable, transparent, respectful, and responsive to the issues and concerns of the communities it serves….”
The only people Rodrigues was accountable to were the race-essentialist activists. He has done absolutely nothing to model respect or responsiveness to community concerns about the hostile and divided climate he has created in the schools and offices of the board, in which all white people (especially heterosexual males) are characterized as oppressors while black people and other “marginalized groups” are cast as victims.
“While the newly elected board has begun its term of office in a productive and positive way, it is appropriate for regular updates to be sent to the minister to confirm that relationships are professional, respectful, and collaborative among the trustees and between the Board and the senior leadership team. The minister would be advised to similarly request confirmation and evidence that the Board is responding to community concerns in a respectful, timely and meaningful manner”.
It is clear from this statement, that while the board may have been handed back control of its operations, Big Brother will be watching. That means that Critical Theory will continue to govern PDSB policy as long as it remains the mainstream thinking in academia generally. And that could be a very long time.”
Divide and conquer is the preferred method on display here. The former board was isolated and those that did not buy into the program were purged in the name of ideological purity.
Where is the Canadian Media, outside of Barbara Kay at the National Post on this war on females in Canadian Society?
This excerpt from the Daily Mail Online edition.
“Prominent British female Olympians have joined a revolt against controversial new plans that could mean they have to race transgender women in future.
Established Team GB stars Beth Dobbin and Emily Diamond, as well as up and coming runner Ellie Baker, have now all said women should not be expected to compete against transgender athletes due to biological advantages.
World Athletics has begun to consult its member federations over a proposed rule change that would increase restrictions on trans women but not ban them completely, The Telegraph reported last week.
The governing body was said to be looking to halve the maximum amount of testosterone trans female athletes would be allowed, and double the amount of time they would need to maintain these levels before competing.
But Ms Dobbin, who reached the 200m semi-finals in Tokyo 2020, said that women ‘deserve to compete exclusively against competitors who don’t have any of the advantages that the female category exists to exclude'”
Look Canada press, just look! Reporting the issue taking both sides into consideration, I know you can do it too!
It is the holiday season again folks. One of the best ways to get into the feeling of the season is to share with others. It’s also a very nice end around the whole capitalism thing, if that’s your bag.
To make it extra easy, while in Canada, I would suggest going to the Canada Helps Website. Straightforward, secure, and reliable.
It is my holiday tradition to donate Turkey’s in the name of my family and friends. Also a great time of year to donate to the Vancouver Women’s Rape Relief Shelter, they are on the front lines of keeping women (adult human females) safe in our society and deserve our support.
Any lesson plan that includes a section called “Critical Consciousness” is an immediate red flag. This is the groundwork being put in place to drive deeper the wedge of identity politics in our society via our children. The goal of all CRT is not education, but rather, the creation of activists whose goal is to disrupt society.
The vast majority of children are the same in the inside and the outside, so to speak. They not need to know about the bullshit that is gender identity while in Kindergarten. It is not appropriate, and should not be in LESSON Plans for them.
Kindergarten is not the space to brew activists who will challenge ‘gender normativity’. JFC – Queer theory is pernicious.
Need to know more about Queer Theory and how it targets children? Checkout the brief summary by James Lindsay.
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