Action4Canada - June 17, 2023


Amazing! NB Minister of Public Safety, Kris Austin, Speaks Out in Support of Children's Rights

Topics
Policy 713
Hosted by
Tanya Gaw
Mentioned
Speaker Lone Ranger
Weekly Update： June 14th with Tanya Gaw Who Am I？ A4C Youth Speeches 2023

Episode Stats


Length

10 minutes

Words per minute

143.44

Word count

1,518

Sentence count

141

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, Mr. Speaker speaks on the issue of parental rights in the public school system, and why parents should have more power over their children's education in public schools. He also talks about his own experience with public school and why he thinks parents need more control over their child's education.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
00:00:12.540 Mr. Speaker, I stand here today as a member of the Legislative Assembly, as a Cabinet
00:00:19.620 Minister within government, but most importantly as a parent, as a father of three amazing
00:00:27.920 kids that, like most, and I would say the vast majority of parents, would give our lives
00:00:33.740 for our children.
00:00:36.300 Those three kids, two of them, are currently in the public school system.
00:00:41.420 One's going to be graduating here next week.
00:00:43.880 Couldn't be prouder of him.
00:00:47.200 Next year, my third one will be entering the public school system.
00:00:50.520 And I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, without question, as a parent, I am concerned about the public
00:01:02.200 school system.
00:01:03.760 I am concerned by what I'm seeing in the public school system.
00:01:09.100 I want my kids to go to school, to be educated, to learn math, science, social studies.
00:01:23.120 I want them to feel safe.
00:01:25.820 I want them to learn what it means to be part of a community.
00:01:31.020 I want them to learn to be kind and compassionate.
00:01:34.120 And I think, Mr. Speaker, in the midst of this debate, that is very sensitive and can get
00:01:39.560 very passionate and heated, we can sometimes lose the concept of compassion and understanding.
00:01:50.140 But I want to tell you something, Mr. Speaker.
00:01:52.200 When I enrolled my two children in public school, I had to sign a registration form.
00:01:58.280 Every parent had to do it.
00:01:59.280 I had to sign on that registration form the name of my daughter.
00:02:06.700 I had to sign on that registration, another registration form, the name of my son.
00:02:11.480 I had to put the sex, male, female, other.
00:02:15.600 I had to fill in some personal information about my children.
00:02:20.180 And everything I put on that registration form, at the bottom of it, I had to sign.
00:02:23.800 And that signature meant that I, as a parent, am giving parental authority for my child to
00:02:31.480 be registered with the school.
00:02:33.860 But, Mr. Speaker, doesn't stop there.
00:02:36.760 I also have to give a written consent signature for my child to have their photo taken in school.
00:02:44.620 I have to give my written consent as a father for my child to be administered a Tylenol,
00:02:50.440 should they have a headache.
00:02:51.360 I'll tell you how intricate this is with parental authority.
00:02:57.300 My 17-year-old, he's going to turn 18, he's going to be a legal adult next week.
00:03:03.240 He's been accepted to a university here in Fredericton.
00:03:07.420 I'm very proud of him.
00:03:10.540 And he was going on a school trip to this university that he's already been accepted to.
00:03:15.560 He's 17 years old.
00:03:16.780 And I remember the frantic call I got.
00:03:20.620 I can't remember if it was my wife or if it was my son, but I just said,
00:03:23.600 we forgot the consent form.
00:03:26.180 He's 17.
00:03:28.640 He could not go to that university on a field trip unless I signed the form to allow him to go as a parent.
00:03:34.660 And yet, my daughter in grade 2 can change her name and her gender. 0.69
00:03:46.260 Not just without my consent, but most importantly, without me even knowing it.
00:03:51.180 To the point that the school would literally deceive me as a parent should I ask to know what's going on.
00:03:58.300 I have a serious problem with that.
00:04:04.980 And I can tell you one thing.
00:04:07.060 The vast majority of parents in this province have a very serious problem with that as well.
00:04:11.540 And I will not back down.
00:04:12.740 Thank you.
00:04:13.740 I just want to remind the members in the gallery that they are not to participate in the proceedings here in the House.
00:04:26.220 Thank you.
00:04:28.980 Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
00:04:30.180 You know, when this debate first came up, I get it.
00:04:37.300 I get that people were worried.
00:04:40.080 You know, a review of Policy 713 is three pages back to back.
00:04:44.240 It's all full of protections for LGBTQ+.
00:04:46.700 So I get it.
00:04:48.300 We first said we're going to review this.
00:04:50.400 People said, what does this mean?
00:04:52.580 Well, now we know what it means.
00:04:54.500 It's one section of Policy 713 that invokes parental rights, parental authority.
00:05:00.180 For the good of the child.
00:05:01.300 Not for the detriment of the child.
00:05:03.160 For the good of the child.
00:05:04.080 If the state thinks it knows better than parents, think again.
00:05:08.340 It's not true.
00:05:10.600 Not all parents are abusers and bad.
00:05:13.600 Matter of fact, most parents are good.
00:05:16.220 They would give everything for their child.
00:05:17.720 And the ones that are, we need protections for those children.
00:05:21.420 I agree 100%.
00:05:22.720 And Policy 713 clearly lays in those protections.
00:05:26.580 So don't make this something it's not.
00:05:30.180 So I thought, well, maybe I'm a Lone Ranger here.
00:05:32.580 Maybe I'm off my rocker in thinking that parents should have some say in their child's upbringing as it relates to public schools.
00:05:38.920 Well, I found out very quickly through emails that I know every one of you have gotten that that's not the case.
00:05:44.160 The majority of parents think exactly the way I think.
00:05:46.740 I'm going to give you one example of an email that I received.
00:05:50.540 I don't know if you did or not, but you're going to hear it today.
00:05:53.620 Because I called this parent, this mother, who is just beside herself.
00:05:59.620 She's articulate.
00:06:00.480 She loves her daughter.
00:06:04.760 And she wrote this email.
00:06:06.060 And I asked her.
00:06:07.640 First, I had to verify whether it was true or not.
00:06:11.260 And I spoke with her.
00:06:12.280 And I got an idea that, indeed, this is a credible story.
00:06:15.880 And I called her today.
00:06:17.000 And I said, I won't use your name.
00:06:19.820 I won't use your child's name.
00:06:21.780 Because they don't want to be in the middle of this debate.
00:06:23.480 You can see what's been done to the Premier and the Minister of Education on this debate.
00:06:26.980 That's why people aren't speaking out.
00:06:28.960 If you speak out on something with a reasonable debate and a reasonable concept of actually articulating your point of view,
00:06:34.660 you're called everything in the book.
00:06:36.940 And you folks propagate that.
00:06:42.220 It's true.
00:06:43.200 It's true.
00:06:45.860 So I'm going to read the email.
00:06:47.800 Verbatim.
00:06:48.440 Word for word.
00:06:49.120 My daughter is in middle school in New Brunswick.
00:06:55.560 Several years ago, after suicidal thoughts at the age of eight,
00:06:59.820 many counsellors, assessments, and tears,
00:07:02.720 she was diagnosed with ADHD and several other mental health disorders.
00:07:08.000 As a family, we work diligently with counsellors and the school to set my daughter on a path to thriving.
00:07:14.820 I want to be clear.
00:07:16.020 My daughter does not have body dysmorphia.
00:07:19.840 Nor is she part of the LGBTQ community.
00:07:24.600 This letter is in no way intended to take away or disrespect those challenges.
00:07:32.860 When my daughter entered middle school, we had a plan in place.
00:07:37.900 Unfortunately, the school did not implement that plan, which led to a mental health spiral for my daughter.
00:07:42.260 She created an altered reality, changing her name while at school to cope with overwhelming stimuli presented with no access to her coping strategies.
00:07:53.620 The school, at no time, told me about anything.
00:07:59.140 At home, my daughter had the structure and safety she needed,
00:08:02.780 and I never knew the school had failed to implement her personal learning plan.
00:08:07.840 Listen to what she says here.
00:08:09.240 Listen, I found out from a friend whose daughter was also in the class that my daughter was going by a different name and had been for months.
00:08:20.880 She even submitted provincial tests under this name.
00:08:25.680 In this instance, and I know she's not alone,
00:08:28.300 By failing to keep us, her parents informed,
00:08:33.700 the school actively contributed to my daughter's mental health emergency.
00:08:40.220 Teachers are not psychologists.
00:08:43.280 They are not trained to spot a mental health crisis,
00:08:46.140 and they should never blindly allow children to change their identity without understanding the full context.
00:08:52.980 Thankfully, I can report my daughter in her last year of middle school as thriving,
00:08:58.480 top of her class, and now comfortable and able to cope with her surroundings.
00:09:02.760 I shudder to think how different that path could have been had I not been informed by another parent.
00:09:09.380 I know my daughter.
00:09:13.060 I love and support her through all of life's challenges.
00:09:17.480 But Policy 713 could have ended her life by allowing teachers, 0.79
00:09:23.200 brand new one at that,
00:09:24.940 to blindly follow my daughter down a dark rabbit hole.
00:09:29.420 She's not alone.
00:09:30.400 I've gotten emails from other parents that feel the same way.
00:09:37.400 Mr. Speaker,
00:09:38.840 this is a passionate topic.
00:09:41.720 We've debated so many things in this House.
00:09:45.000 I've never debated or felt any more passion from both sides on this topic.
00:09:49.340 I get it.
00:09:52.480 But, Mr. Speaker,
00:09:54.180 if we can't, as a society,
00:09:56.760 come to some consensus on the role of parents in parental authority,
00:10:02.360 we are in big trouble.
00:10:06.080 I'm convinced
00:10:07.140 changes to Policy 713
00:10:10.260 is not only the best thing for both parents and kids,
00:10:14.060 but it should send a clear message about parental authority
00:10:17.320 that it's the foundation of a strong and vibrant society.
00:10:22.720 Mr. Speaker,
00:10:23.920 I will end with this.
00:10:24.940 The province does not own our kids.
00:10:30.020 And God help us
00:10:30.920 if we ever succumb to that way of thinking.
00:10:33.540 Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
00:10:34.560 Thank you.