SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Calgary Teacher Russell Hillier： Taking a Stand Against Masking Our Kids
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Summary
A new petition calling for an end to mandatory masks in Alberta schools is picking up steam, and today we re talking to the teacher behind it, Russell Hilliard. After he worked all day at school, Russell was fresh off of a day of teaching. He s the son of renegade MPP Randy Hilliard, who is running for re-election in Ontario.
Transcript
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Hi, Rebels. It's me, Sheila Gunn-Reed, and you're listening to a free audio-only recording
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of my weekly Wednesday night show, The Gun Show. However, this is the internet, so you
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can watch or listen whenever you feel like. Now, tonight, my guest is Russell Hillier.
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And yes, that name is familiar because his dad is Randy. And he is the instigator, maybe
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that's the right word, of a teacher-led petition over at the Alberta Institute calling on the
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end of masking for children in schools. And the petition is growing on Monday morning.
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It was at 13,000 signatures already. And so naturally, I had to have Russell on the show.
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And I think it's so important that these discussions are led by teachers, too, because
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we need to remember that there are so many people from within the school system who are
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against the same things us parents are. Now, if you like listening to the show, then I promise
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A new petition calling on schools to end mandatory masking in Alberta is picking up steam. And
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today we're talking to the teacher. Yes, the teacher behind it. I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed,
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Late last week, the Alberta government instituted more COVID restrictions, though July 1st,
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the government of Alberta promised that restrictions would never come back if Albertans met their
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vaccination targets. Now, Albertans kept their word, but as is so often the case, the Alberta
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government did not. Now masks have returned to most indoor settings. And all of this is being done
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under the direction of the provincial government. However, the provincial government did not mandate
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masks inside of Alberta's schools. Unfortunately, many school boards across the province took it upon
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themselves to bring in mandatory masks. In fact, Alberta's chief medical officer of health,
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Dina Hinshaw, does not recommend mandating masks for all students. She's even expressed concern about
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the harm to social, emotional and psychological development of children due to kids wearing
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masks all day in schools. So our friends at the Alberta Institute have a new petition, which this
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morning, Wednesday morning, has nearly 15,000 signatures on it. The petition is calling for an end
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to masks in Alberta schools. And the petition was proposed by a group of teachers, including
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Russell Hilliard, the Calgary area teacher, who also happens to be the son of renegade Ontario MPP,
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Randy Hilliard. So joining me now from his home in Calgary in an interview we recorded yesterday
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afternoon. So after he worked all day at school is teacher Russell Hilliard. Take a listen.
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So joining me now from his home in Edmonton, fresh off of a day of teaching is Russell Hilliard. Russell,
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let's just get this out of the way right away. Your dad is Randy, freedom fighting Randy. But it's not just
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Randy and your family that's a freedom fighter, your sister, your brother too, right?
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Yeah, I guess you could say freedom runs in the family. My dad's definitely busy with this election
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in Ontario with the helping of the PPC party and Maxine Bernier and really proud of my sister.
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She's running a really strong campaign in southwestern Ontario. So I know that Dylan's
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been on the, you know, he's no stranger to the rebel either with his service to Canada. So
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yeah, I guess it's a, it's a family, a family business of freedom.
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Yeah. Freedom is the family business. Your dad's going to put that on a shirt
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for the next campaign. Now I wanted to talk to you because in collaboration with the Alberta Institute,
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you have started a petition against masks. And I wanted to talk to you because this is so
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phenomenal because this is usually a drum that parents like me are banging, but you're a teacher.
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And so you, you and some other teachers sort of are driving this petition. Why did you do that?
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Well, I mean, first and foremost, we need to have a, we need to start having a conversation about this.
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There's been no debate about masks on kids. There's been no consultation, at least none with
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parents or teachers as far as I've, I've seen. So there's been, there's been no transparency about
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what I think is a very drastic measure of putting masks on kids for seven hours a day.
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So the whole point of the petition was to, you know, start that conversation and, you know,
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bring to light that there are some significant negative effects of masking kids. And I'm sure
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we're going to get into it, but that includes, you know, an impediment to language development skills,
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phonological development, pronunciation skills. The mask acts as a barrier to socialization as well.
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So there's all kinds of these negative effects that the masks have. Who's talking about it?
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I see it every day. Teachers see it every day, but there, there's nobody talking about it. So,
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you know, me and some other teachers, we wanted to start the conversation. And I'm really happy to
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say that we've had over 500 teachers sign this petition to, you know, encourage Jason Kenney to do
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the right thing and overrule some of these school boards that have gone above and beyond AHS measures
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in implementing their own mask mandates. Yeah, I was, I checked on your petition and as of yesterday
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morning at eight 17 in the morning, you guys were at 13,000 signatures already, which I mean,
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that's a, that's a huge petition for us here at rebel news. And we have the ability to just blast that
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out everywhere. So this has really picked up a lot of steam. I wanted to ask you, what's the feedback
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been like from, I guess, let's start with parents because I know for parents like me, I'm always,
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I always think the teachers are kind of up to no good. And I don't know, it's because I have a,
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you know, I have a healthy skepticism of teacher unions, but for me, this is really heartening to
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see that this is a teacher led petition and please don't take my concerns about teachers personally.
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But what is the feedback been like from some of your teacher colleagues? How, how do they feel about
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this? Yeah, I'll just, I'll just go back to what you touched on about the, you know, being somewhat
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suspicious about the profession. I think that comes from a lack of transparency. There, there's been a
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cone of silence. And it's a lot of it is, you know, it's not like it's dictated anywhere that we can't
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speak about these things. But when you're a member of a profession, whatever it is, you sort of feel
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like an obligation to toe the party line, I guess you could say. Yeah. But I mean, when you talk to
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teachers, the response has been tremendous. A lot of my colleagues, they agree with what this
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petition is all about. They've signed it. Like I said, there's been, there has been over 13,000 people
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signing the petition. 500 of those people are teachers. So the response across the entire country,
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specifically in Alberta, though, has been overwhelming. I'm getting messages from people all over the
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country saying, you know, good job. Thanks for doing this. And how can I sign up? So, you know,
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I think there's a perception out there that, I don't know really where this comes from. But I think
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there's a perception that there's some kind of unanimous consent about masks on kids from teachers.
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And it's just not the case. I can't put a final number on it. But I would bet if you did a poll,
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you'd find that half the teachers out there think that masking kids for seven hours a day is not the
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right course of action. So there's a lot of us out there. And this, this is my opinion, but it's not,
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it's not a rare opinion. I mean, it's very common amongst teachers.
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Yeah, you know, this petition and you in particular, and the 500 other teachers who have signed this
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petition are a good reminder for people like me that just like with costs, you know, like,
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they're, while, you know, the, the, the bosses are often political, and they tow the party line.
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Not and I think with everything, the union doesn't always exactly speak for the membership. And, and we
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have to remember that now. What? Also, I think that people who get into teaching do that because they
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generally like and care for kids. So, you know, when you see the, the results of a year and some worth of
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masking on little kids, you know, I think, go ahead, go ahead, please cut me off. Yeah, just just seeing that
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effect on kids. It's, it's like, for me personally, as a father with four kids. Yeah, it's, it's heartbreaking.
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It's devastating to see the negative impacts of mandatory masks on kids. The, there is, like I
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said earlier, there's significant impediments to learning. And there's all kinds of studies on
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this. But I think it's something that parents just instinctually know. Yeah, that if you put a mask on
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a kid, it's just, it's not natural. And it gets in the way of learning. My heart really breaks for the
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kids who are already disadvantaged. And I'm thinking about kids that have speech delays, speech impediments,
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some kind of learning disability, ESL students. Yeah, those kids are being left behind. And nobody,
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there's nobody cares about them. I hear a lot of parents say, well, my kids find in a mask all day.
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Well, great. How fortunate are you? But there's a lot of parents who cannot say the same thing.
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And so one of my motivations is to just give a voice to those parents who,
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you know, maybe they do have a student with some kind of learning disability.
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And, you know, tell them that there's a lot of teachers that are with you. There's a lot of
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parents who are trying to make sense of all this stuff that's going on that doesn't make any sense.
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And sometimes, you know, maybe if a parent wants to, you know, be that tall poppy and raise their
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voice, they get intimidated because they think, oh, well, all the teachers, they'll hate me for saying
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this. And it's not the case at all. You know, I'm really glad you brought up
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the challenges that kids who learn differently face because of these masks. And I think it's
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something that as parents, we don't necessarily see. My kid gets off the bus, the mask comes flying
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off her face, and she runs in the door. And I don't see how she had to live and learn for the entire
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day. But as a teacher, you do. So maybe, can you go into some detail about what you're seeing and
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what some of the other teachers are seeing happen in the classroom because of kids wearing masks all
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Yeah. And, you know, it's not a universal effect on it. Every kid is different. Every kid is going to
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learn differently. Every kid is going to be impacted by a mask in a different way. But, you know, some of
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the discussions I've had with colleagues is that, you know, we've all seen kids who, they never said
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a damn thing all year last year because they, you know, they had one of these things stuck in front
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of their face. And if you're a kid who suffers from anxiety or, you know, some other issue that
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that's maybe like a speech delay or, you know, receptive language development delays, you're
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handicapping that kid with a mask. And so these discussions are happening all the time. And I
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don't think you have to scratch the surface very deep to, to find, you know, these kinds of concerns
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You know, let's talk a little bit about how this all happened in schools, because the Alberta
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government has not necessarily mandated that kids wear masks in school. This is something that
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largely has been made at the school board level and without input from the parents. That's one
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thing that happened in my school division. I'm in the Elk Island Catholic School Division.
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I'll say that publicly. And it was done like that. The government made an announcement about
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masks across the province. And then as quickly as that was done, I got an email from the school
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board saying, well, your kid's wearing a mask now. After two days of them being perfectly fine to go
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about their business at school, all of a sudden, somehow the science had suddenly changed and the
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kids were mandated into masks. And none of this is being done with any sort of parent input whatsoever.
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Yeah. Well, yeah, you are. The, you know, I, I almost cringe. Sorry, I just, I almost cringe when I hear,
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you know, these stories where kids had two normal days of freedom, of some kind of normalcy,
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and then it was taken away from them. Like, almost as if it was too good to be true.
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And I think this is, like I said, there's been no consultation with parents. There's been no
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consultation with teachers. This is a political decision, in my opinion. You know, I did talk to
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the minister's office, Minister LaGrange's office over the summer, and I was assured that masks would
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not be in schools this year. Talked to my MLA office, same thing, masks would not be in schools.
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So, so where's this coming from? You know, I keep hearing the, the line that, oh, well,
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we got to keep students safe. Well, of course we have to keep students safe. As a teacher,
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that's my primary job is to keep students safe in the classroom. When you look at the stats though,
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what, what risk are we talking about? If you look at the most recent data that we have from the
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beginning of July to the start of the school year in mid-August, there were a grand total of zero
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deaths in the, in the, you know, below the age of 19. So what, what are we talking about keeping
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students safe? The students are safe. They've never been at really a risk of COVID. And that's
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something that Dina Hinshaw has been very clear about that compared to seasonal influenza, COVID-19
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is a non-issue for these school-age kids. So this is a political decision. I think Jason Kenney,
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he's bowed to the Twitter mob. He's bowed to the loud voices on social media, but he's forgotten
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that Twitter is not the real world. The real world is parents having these kinds of discussions.
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And, and I think he's forgotten that. And you know, I guess we'll, we'll see where that goes in the,
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in the next election for him. You know, it's been a complete, it's been a complete like abdication
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of leadership on Jason Kenney's part. He, he knew when he said that it's going to be the decision
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of the boards to mask up students, he knew that, um, you know, the big boards at Calgary and Edmonton
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were going to go that down that road. So it's very disingenuous for Jason Kenney to then wash his hands
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of, of what's happening to kids right now and say, Oh no, it's not my decision. Uh, it's the school
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boards. No, Jason Kenney, the buck stops with you. You're the premier.
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Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly it. I mean, we see the same thing when he's saying that he's against
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vaccine passports, but he's not saying anything when they're being implemented in, um, publicly
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funded and publicly owned in some instances, facilities like those that the oilers and that
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the flames use. Um, but yeah, he's passing the buck on these major issues. He's taking one stand here,
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but saying, okay, well, we'll leave it up to the school boards. And then when the major school
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boards make these decisions, then it trickles down and hits my school board. And I'm like,
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I didn't, I didn't vote for the school board in Edmonton. Why are they making decisions for my
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kid that my school board is following? Yeah. And then you had some other smaller school boards,
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um, you know, surrounding Edmonton, surrounding Calgary, uh, you know, small town, rural school
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boards that were holding the line on allowing kids to learn without masks. And then, but, but they
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were put into an untenable situation when just days ago, the province said, okay, it's indoor
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masks everywhere except schools. Um, you know, the, this, those school boards, the trustees, uh,
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they, what, what are they, what are they going to do when, when all the provinces is going to
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indoor masks, uh, mandatory masks, like they, they're just put into a bad situation. Uh, don't
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get me wrong. I think they should have held the line, but, uh, it's, it's just Jason Kenney,
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complete, utter abdication of leadership on his part. And, you know, I'm, I'm very disappointed.
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I think a lot of parents are disappointed too. Yeah. We had high hopes. They promised us the
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best summer ever, but they didn't promise us closed for fall. And, you know, I was reading
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your Facebook post because I thought it was interesting, the numbers that you pulled up
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and the timeframe that you pulled up because you did pull, um, July 1st to August 16th, um,
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1700 COVID cases amongst, um, roughly 1.1 million Albertans aged zero to 19. There were only
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18 hospitalizations, one ICU admission in that age range. And I think you have zero deaths here,
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but I think that it's been zero deaths with, of kids under the age of 20 with no comorbidities,
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which is the case with most kids. So the reason I think that timeframe is important is because
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that's the open for summertime frame. That's when kids were out playing soccer, they were getting
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back to normal. They were visiting their friends. Chuck E. Cheese was open. Um, you know, it was a
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normal summer around here with zero deaths and yet still kids are being punished because of, uh,
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from, uh, these are my words, not yours, adult hypochondriac fears.
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Agreed. It's the most recent data we have. Um, you know, the, the school boards were, uh, you know,
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when they justifying their decisions for mandatory mass, they said, well, we're looking at the most
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recent data. They're looking at a very small piece of the recent data. They're looking at cases.
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They're not looking at ICUs or hospitalizations or deaths. If they were, then they wouldn't,
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it would be very clear that there is essentially no risk to kids in the classroom. So yeah, is this,
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uh, you know, is this to, is this maneuver to like, you know, appease the vocal minority that is
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terrified, um, of COVID still? I think so. Um, and so it's a political move. It's not,
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it's not based on health. And I think there's a really good reason why Dina Hinshaw was very clear
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that seasonal influenza, way more of a risk to kids than COVID-19. And yet we never went to these
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lengths, um, over seasonal influenza. Now, I wanted to ask, you know, I guess it'll just be anecdotally,
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which I think is perfectly fine because you're a teacher and you see these things. Um, I'm kind
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of concerned about, and I, I saw a little bit with my own kids sort of developing these
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strange, not strange habits, but it felt like an unhealthy habit with like sanitizing their hands
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constantly. Um, and you know, wearing masks when they didn't need to, I felt like I was saying,
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get that thing off your face. We don't need to wear it in here all the time. Um, are you seeing some of
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that at school or did you see some of that at school? Um, you know, it's probably, I see that
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with my own kids. Um, you know, where the kids, they get off the bus and they have their, their mask
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on and it's just, it's sad because it's becoming just a normalized thing. Um, you know, sort of on that
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note, I was having a discussion with a colleague, um, you know, another teacher in the province and
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his words to me were that, uh, you know, he was afraid that things were going to go back to normal.
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And what he meant by, by normal was, uh, masks in schools and lockdowns. And, and it's,
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it's so sad that that's becoming the normal state of affairs. I don't want my kids to, to grow up in a,
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a province or society where wearing a mask is, um, you know, quote the normal thing to do. Um,
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and so, but it's, you know, the longer this goes on, the, the more entrenched it gets. And so that's
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why I'm speaking out and that's why I'm, I'm, you know, encouraging teachers and parents to speak
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out as well about this. Um, you know, we, we gotta like start having this discussion, this
00:22:00.280
conversation, or it's going to be too late. My, my fear is that this is going to be, that masks are
00:22:04.840
going to be a permanent fixture in education. You know, I I'm very worried about that. I'm
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worried. Uh, I worry when I think about little ones. So kids who started, you know, play school
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last year, they're studying kindergarten this year. This is their entire schooling experience.
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And for kids who are like five and five and under, this is, this is their normal. This is how they
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remember being on the earth. When you think about, you don't remember much under the age of three,
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all of their memories are of people being scared to touch each other, scared to hug each other and
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wearing masks and never seeing anybody's face. And I really worry about the psychological imprint
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that this has on our littlest of people. Yeah. Well, agreed. Yeah. Uh, what are, what are we doing?
00:22:51.880
What on God's green earth are we doing to these little kids who are not at risk, never have been at
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risk and will not be at risk of COVID. Uh, it's, it's simply to satisfy the irrational fears of,
00:23:02.880
of adults, uh, the people who should be protecting these little humans. And we're, you know, not enough
00:23:09.960
of us are doing that right now. So agreed a hundred percent. It's a very sad state of affairs. And,
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and, you know, when you think about like how important it is for kids to see somebody's face,
00:23:21.320
it's, it's incalculable, uh, kids are learning at this young age, they're learning what these facial
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expressions, what these facial cues mean. Uh, and that's important for their emotional development
00:23:31.940
and their socialization. And we're, we're robbing them of that, um, in these classroom settings. So,
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um, yeah, my, my, my, my heart breaks for these little kids who they, they don't know any other way.
00:23:42.980
Yeah. I was just thinking about little kids with, you know, who are on the autism spectrum and they
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take a lot of their social cues from somebody else's face about how they should respond. And
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they don't, they don't see that they don't have that support in it. It just, I just worry about
00:23:56.660
their future development. Um, but Russell, I know that you were teaching all day today
00:24:01.520
and it's probably getting pretty close to supper time because we're recording this on Tuesday night.
00:24:06.060
Um, I want to ask you on behalf of parents like me, how do we support teachers like you? How do we
00:24:14.160
get a message to the school board saying, you know, there are teachers out there who, who don't agree
00:24:19.120
with this. They're worried about our kids as much as we are. How do we throw support behind the
00:24:24.180
teachers who are trying to work to change the system from within? Well, I mean, if, if people
00:24:31.240
are listening to this program, I know a lot of people are in Alberta, um, go to the Alberta Institute
00:24:35.300
website and, uh, maybe you guys could throw up a link for that somewhere and sign the petition,
00:24:41.000
but don't, don't worry about teachers. Um, don't worry about us. Um, I I'm here to back you up.
00:24:48.060
Um, what I would say to parents is, you know, start writing letters, start making phone calls
00:24:52.340
to your school trustees. There's an election coming up by the way, in about a month, put pressure on
00:24:56.600
your trustees, um, contact your school boards and, and let them know that you're not happy with how
00:25:01.680
things are rolling out here and contact your MLAs too, because I, my gut feeling is that there's a lot
00:25:07.280
of UCP MLAs in particular who know this is the wrong thing. Um, but they're not going to say
00:25:13.000
anything until they start feeling the heat from their constituents. So, um, don't, don't worry
00:25:17.680
about teachers. Uh, we're going to do the job. You parents, you, you start talking, you start making
00:25:22.760
the noise that you need to and start, um, you know, advocating for your kids in the way that you feel
00:25:26.440
is best. You know, I think in the end of all of this, I hope conservatives like me have a real
00:25:32.180
wake up call about how important municipal politics are, how important the school board
00:25:36.840
is because we've sort of walked away from all of that. And we've sort of focused on provincial
00:25:41.460
issues and federal issues. And those things are important, but when we want to change the
00:25:48.380
things that affect us most. And first it starts a lot closer to home with our municipal politicians
00:25:53.180
who are bringing in mask mandates and school board politicians who are sticking masks on kids
00:25:58.320
without asking their parents first. Um, for me, I think in all of this, let this be a lesson to all
00:26:05.500
of it, all of us that we need to get involved closer to home. Yeah. It's our democracy and, uh,
00:26:12.860
democracy starts in the neighborhood, starts in the community. Well, Russell, thank you so much for
00:26:17.800
taking the time to be on the show. Thank you for being one of those teachers who advocates for kids
00:26:21.860
first and for, uh, the rights of parents to be in charge of their kids and to be involved in the
00:26:28.120
school system. So often we feel sort of shut out. So thank you for giving us a voice and, uh, thanks
00:26:33.700
for being part of that, uh, family that has freedom in the bloodstream. My pleasure, Sheila. Thanks.
00:26:39.480
We'll have you back on again real soon. Parents, if the school board isn't going to involve us in these
00:26:52.460
discussions, then we need to start involving ourselves. Our municipal politicians, including
00:26:59.200
school board trustees and prospective trustees, well, they want your vote and they want it now,
00:27:04.960
but they need to earn your vote. And they also need to be held accountable for shutting parents out of
00:27:11.400
these conversations altogether, for doing things to our children that could inflict lifelong psychological,
00:27:19.020
emotional, emotional, and developmental harm to our kids without even involving us in it.
00:27:26.560
I'll include the link to the Alberta Institute petition in the show notes. Please sign it and
00:27:31.800
please share it. And let's support the folks who are working within the school system, who are there
00:27:39.340
fighting for the wellbeing of our kids too. Well, friends, that's the show for tonight. Thank you so much
00:27:44.760
for tuning in. I'll see everybody back here in the same time in the same place next weekend. Remember,
00:27:49.980
don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.