It was a tale of two rallies in the Louis Riel School Division (LRSD) on Tuesday, as groups on opposite sides of a hot-button issue gathered in different locations to express their views on LGBTQ2S+ education for students.
At the LRSD offices at 50 Monterey Road, representatives from Action4Canada.com gathered to protest the school board’s actions at its last meeting, as well as to criticize the shifting of the board’s Sept. 5 meeting online to avoid protestors.
“This is all in the same genre of defending our children, and standing up and saying ‘no more of this nonsense,'” said protest organizer Karl Krebs. “We need to balance the narrative in our school divisions.”
The conflict began at the LSRD’s final meeting of the school year on June 20, when a group of people showed up in support of Francine Champagne, an LRSD trustee who had been suspended without pay for making transphobic comments on social media that were deemed disrespectful to the LGBTQ2S+ community.
Krebs said the LRSD overstepped its bounds when it cut that meeting short before everyone could voice their support for Champagne, and also for banning 35 people from all future school board meetings.
“Many of us have received letters banning us from the Louis Riel School Division properties indefinitely,” said Krebs.
At the LRSD offices on St. Mary’s Road, dozens rallied in support of the LGBTQ2S+ community. Rainbow flags and signs of support could be seen as event organizers addressed the crowd.
“It fills me with such warmth here today to see this overwhelming turnout,” said rally organizer Kay Wojnarski, “This diverse, beautiful, wonderful, caring group.”
Wojnarski told supporters the group that disrupted the June 20 board meeting shouted messages of intolerance and hate.
“We will not stand idly by and allow hate and misinformation to thrive and spread in our community,” she said.
Wojnarski told CTV News she believes the group’s anti-LGBTQ2S+ messaging originates in the U.S. She said it’s about removing LGBTQ2S+ material from schools completely.
“There are people who think Trans kids, Trans people, are sexual deviants and groomers and pedophiles – all without any shred of evidence by the way- and they’re using this as rhetoric for ‘we need to remove as much of this as possible from schools and classrooms,'” said Wojnarski.
“It’s all a very calculated effort to make queer people, and especially Trans people, look like the enemy and focus hate on that,” she added.
At the LRSD offices at 50 Monterey Road, representatives from Action4Canada.com gathered to protest the school board’s actions at its last meeting, as well as to criticize the shifting of the board’s Sept. 5 meeting online to avoid protestors. (Source: Glenn Pismenny, CTV News)
Pierre Attallah with Action4Canada.com has a child at an LRSD school. He opposes the sex education curriculum being taught there, and believes his parental rights are being taken away.
“This is about protecting children from sexualization and grooming via the school system,” Attallah said.
He and other members of Action4Canada.com distributed flyers in the neighbourhood to raise awareness of the issue.
“We wrote an invitation flyer to the constituents of the Louis Riel School Division inviting them to come to the school board meeting today,” Attallah said.
He agrees that the LRSD board abused its power by cutting the June 20 meeting short, and moving the Sept. 5 meeting online. “People have a right to an opposing view,” said Attallah. “It’s not hateful to have an opposing view, and it’s their right to be able to come to a school board meeting.”
He and the 20 or so protestors at the Monterey board office are calling for the entire LRSD school board to be dissolved, and for a by-election to be held to replace it.
Wojnarski said this is about helping kids be comfortable in expressing who they really are.
“These students who are at risk, the ones who are questioning who they are, the ones who are in unsafe situations at home and are not willing to talk about it,” said Wojnarski. “We need to be there for these students more than ever by providing them a safe space to be themselves.”
– with files from CTV’s Devon McKendrick
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