Juno News - July 23, 2023


Parents unite against gender ideology in schools


Episode Stats


Length

12 minutes

Words per minute

190.54277

Word count

2,317

Sentence count

107

Harmful content

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Blaine Higgs is the new premier of New Brunswick, and he's got a plan to allow cross-sex education in public schools in his province. Is this a good or bad thing? And what does it mean for the rest of Canada?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 I said a few weeks ago that, yes, it's all well and good when Muslims and evangelicals
00:00:14.000 and I think just in general, most parents can all be on the same side of an issue.
00:00:19.760 I don't know what these folks believe about any number of other things.
00:00:23.880 So I don't believe that this alliance will necessarily extend to other political issues,
00:00:28.760 but I do believe that it has revealed in the liberal narrative on diversity issues a bit of a fault line,
00:00:35.940 which is that they only love diversity when they don't have to reckon with ideological diversity.
00:00:41.200 Once we have people thinking differently, well, that is not the type of diversity
00:00:45.660 that we hold up as being Canadians' strength or Canada's strength.
00:00:50.460 I want to talk about this and some other issues on the parental choice front with Alyssa Globe,
00:00:55.280 who is the co-founder of Right Now and joins me on the line.
00:00:59.480 Alyssa, always good to talk to you. Thanks for coming on today.
00:01:02.560 Thanks for having me. Glad you aren't vaporized.
00:01:05.660 Well, we'll see how things go by the end of the show here.
00:01:09.540 Now, just for context here, Right Now is a very effective pro-life political group,
00:01:14.460 and I know often the pro-life cause or social conservatism is viewed as being,
00:01:19.460 I think in some cases, a very Catholic thing, certainly a Christian thing,
00:01:24.360 but that's not really true in a meaningful way.
00:01:27.480 If you look at the landscape of Canadians, a lot of the values that you talk about
00:01:31.280 are shared by virtually every religious group on the face of the earth,
00:01:36.100 except for the United Church.
00:01:37.620 Yeah, and I mean, we just on our podcast this week interviewed a transgendered Canadian commentator
00:01:44.360 named Julia Mallott, who's also speaking out about this.
00:01:47.020 So even people within the LGBT community are talking about not targeting children with gender ideology.
00:01:53.320 So it's not just a religious issue.
00:01:55.100 It's not just a Muslim issue or a Christian issue.
00:01:57.160 It affects Canadians of all different walks of life across party lines,
00:02:01.320 and polls show this as well as people who are speaking out about it.
00:02:04.500 Yeah, and I think in this particular case, we have a lot of people that have been pushed
00:02:10.620 to something that was more gradual at first.
00:02:15.060 I mean, that famous audio clip from an Edmonton school that came out
00:02:18.720 where the teacher is chastising the Muslim students for not going along with the pride stuff
00:02:23.520 because everyone else had to go along with their Ramadan stuff is basically her argument.
00:02:28.800 And the catchphrase of that, it's not a joke, Mansour, is one that rings true.
00:02:33.540 And you see in New Brunswick here how a leader who I would say has not been particularly useful
00:02:39.440 on a lot of other issues, certainly not through COVID, Blaine Higgs,
00:02:43.320 ended up becoming a very strong leader on this.
00:02:46.360 And even in the face of massive criticism, including from within his own party,
00:02:50.100 has held the line on parental rights.
00:02:53.520 Yeah, I think Canadian politicians, specifically in the Conservative Party,
00:02:56.940 whether it's provincial or federal, have to look at what Blaine Higgs is doing
00:03:00.220 and emulate that if they want to actually connect and invigorate their voting base.
00:03:05.180 Because not only is he taking a stand on an issue that a lot of Canadians care about,
00:03:09.460 specifically, you know, in the Conservative Party, but like I said, across all party lines,
00:03:13.900 but he's also not backing down.
00:03:15.400 He is getting absolutely eviscerated in the mainstream media and by the opposition,
00:03:20.080 but that is not, he's not backing down whatsoever.
00:03:22.960 And when polls come out about this issue in New Brunswick, about parental consent,
00:03:27.420 if your child wants to socially transition in schools,
00:03:30.420 the majority of Canadians are on side with Higgs, the overwhelming majority of Canadians.
00:03:34.400 I think it was only 18% that are actually on the opposition.
00:03:37.780 And then the majority of people who live in Atlantic Canada are also on side with Blaine Higgs.
00:03:42.060 So that's why when the opposition says,
00:03:44.260 oh, we should have a leadership review or threaten an election,
00:03:46.440 they actually don't want that because they know they're going to lose.
00:03:49.100 Yeah, I mean, I spoke about the New Brunswick stuff a few weeks back.
00:03:53.980 And what's shocking, if you look at it, is that it actually is a very modest bill.
00:03:59.280 I mean, it's not even, I mean, I would say it could have gone a lot further
00:04:02.300 and still be on side with where a lot of Canadians are.
00:04:05.300 But it doesn't do what the critics accuse it of doing.
00:04:08.320 It doesn't out anyone to their parents.
00:04:10.660 In fact, it is not empowering schools to reach out to parents without consent in general.
00:04:15.800 It's just saying that if a child wants to go through this transition,
00:04:19.820 a child under the age of 16, I think it is, they need a parent to consent to that. 0.99
00:04:25.300 So it's not a road of communication towards parents here.
00:04:29.840 And I think that, you know, what's shocking to me about this is that the core argument
00:04:34.480 for people that support the criticism against Blaine Higgs,
00:04:38.820 for people that support the denunciation of Muslim families and other families,
00:04:43.300 is really that schools should be keeping secrets from parents.
00:04:47.640 I mean, that's effectively the argument here.
00:04:50.320 And I've never heard anyone come out and refute that.
00:04:53.560 Yeah, I mean, it's not a very good argument when your whole talking point is that parents are the enemy.
00:04:59.460 And when we've tried to separate parents from their children in the past,
00:05:02.560 it hasn't worked out too well.
00:05:03.540 I think we should learn those lessons throughout Canadian history.
00:05:05.960 So why are we trying to do it with this issue?
00:05:07.960 It's just nonsensical.
00:05:09.800 It hasn't worked out.
00:05:10.640 And parents, you know, Canadians are parents.
00:05:13.080 A lot of Canadians are parents.
00:05:14.340 They are not the enemy.
00:05:15.860 Parents know what's best for their children, not teachers.
00:05:19.120 And, you know, what they're trying to do is separate those children from their parents
00:05:23.340 so that if parents do try to intervene, well, then the teachers or the schools
00:05:27.080 or most likely the government is their savior.
00:05:30.040 And that's ultimately what they want to be seen as.
00:05:32.680 So I think this is, you know, as long as you said, it doesn't go far enough.
00:05:37.120 But another thing I want to mention, too, is that in Ontario, I don't think a lot of people know this,
00:05:41.580 this is already a policy that parents do not have to be notified when their children socially transition in schools.
00:05:48.920 This is something that's coming up in New Brunswick because Blaine Higgs is reversing a policy that was kind of quietly passed.
00:05:55.140 But this is already a policy in a lot of different provinces, including Ontario.
00:05:58.420 Yeah, and you've through right now launched a petition to basically stand with Blaine Higgs.
00:06:05.020 But more about the mechanisms being used here is that he's actually facing a calls for a leadership review.
00:06:11.420 So I can't stress enough that there are parents that, you know, again, it's hard to find an issue in politics that is as unifying as this.
00:06:19.640 But somehow it hasn't unified the PC party in New Brunswick.
00:06:23.240 Yeah, and I mean, you know, petitions are good to show solidarity, but the, you know, specific reason why we use our petition is so that we can build our supporter base
00:06:33.860 so that when a leadership review does come, we will actively sell memberships and support that politician that is speaking out.
00:06:40.520 So in this case, Blaine Higgs.
00:06:41.860 So not only will we show, you know, solidarity through a petition, but we'll also use that to actually effectively give him the votes that he needs to win.
00:06:49.380 So just in the bigger context here, I mean, we have this, I'll say, a coalition.
00:06:55.860 I mean, it's a very thin coalition between, you know, some transgender folks like you mentioned, between Muslim Canadians, Christian Canadians.
00:07:03.620 I think in general, just a lot of parents that are not particularly religious or political.
00:07:08.600 Do you think this is kind of a one-time deal that, you know, when it comes to what kids are being taught in schools, everyone can get together.
00:07:15.660 But the second you deviate from that issue, everyone kind of goes back into their corners again?
00:07:21.220 No, I do think that it will unify a lot of people, and it will start with the gender ideology issue.
00:07:26.880 But I think people are a lot more unified on social issues in general.
00:07:30.260 And culture wars are facing different parts of the world, and they're coming to Canada.
00:07:34.540 They already are here.
00:07:35.800 And a lot of conservative politicians are, you know, reticent to talk about these issues, but they are here and people care about them.
00:07:43.200 And so, you know, I think that in order to win, to motivate the base, to win future elections, there will have to be a solid opposition taking a stand on these issues, taking a stand with parents, taking a stand with people of all different faith backgrounds,
00:07:57.320 and really protecting family values in Canada because our children are being targeted.
00:08:05.440 I mean, just in Manitoba, recently in a city in Manitoba, they were putting in different really sexually explicit books in the library,
00:08:14.020 and they actually had to change one of their school board meetings from the school board to a gymnasium because so many people were pouring in because this was an issue that they cared about.
00:08:23.460 You can see these rallies happening in Ottawa and London, in different parts, in Calgary, where people of all different faith or non-faith communities are coming together,
00:08:32.440 and they're growing bigger and bigger and bigger.
00:08:34.580 And the more, it's similar to the COVID issue, I feel like, because the more that Trudeau tries to make an enemy of Canadians like he did with the COVID issue,
00:08:42.380 like you're a fringe minority when that's clearly not the case, the more people are going to rise up.
00:08:46.560 So in a sense, the more, you know, these teachers in Edmonton say, your ideology doesn't, you don't belong in Canada to these Muslim students,
00:08:54.500 or Trudeau says, oh, this is a far right Americanization of the issue, the more people are going to stand up, and I'm glad to see it.
00:09:02.280 Yeah, and I just, I mean, when you have like, let's say a Catholic and a Calvinist and a Wesleyan Armenian in a room, 0.81
00:09:09.800 they can all find no shortage of things to yell at each other about and disagree about, but when you talk about sort of core values issues and core moral issues,
00:09:18.440 they're all going to be in agreement on 99.9% of things, same as if you extend the room and throw a Sikh in there and a Hindu guy and a Muslim and a Jew. 0.50
00:09:27.660 And again, they can disagree with lots on Indian politics, on Middle Eastern politics, but on these core values and moral issues, they'll agree on things.
00:09:34.860 And that divide and conquer thing that we see from the media and from the government is such an important tool to take note of here,
00:09:42.160 because any time abortion, for example, comes up in an election, the media and Justin Trudeau's team will all make it seem like there is a much broader consensus around their side on this
00:09:54.580 than actually exists in Canadian society. Even if people in Canada will disagree on, well, you know, rape and incest or third trimester, second.
00:10:03.960 I mean, the majority of Canadians is on a different side than the liberal government is on this.
00:10:11.380 Yeah. And, you know, to use Trudeau's words, it's often the fringe minority that have the views of Trudeau, like less than 10% of Canadians,
00:10:20.500 you know, 18% of Canadians want, you know, don't want children to be able to secretly socially transition.
00:10:26.280 What I find interesting about this whole situation is that, you know, the LGBT community originally started to say, you know, we, we want equality,
00:10:35.900 we just want to be treated like everyone else and be left alone. And it's now become, you know, in Toronto,
00:10:41.580 they want to force kids to go to drag queen story hour in their schools without being able to opt out.
00:10:48.180 So now it's become, you have to do this and there's no way out. And ultimately what the other side is saying is we just want to raise our kids.
00:10:56.120 We just want them to go to the school and be left alone. We don't want different views being pushed down our throat.
00:11:01.320 Like for example, what happened in Regina with Planned Parenthood, they get into the schools, they do their presentation on God knows what.
00:11:09.280 And then a 14 year old leaves with a stack of cards, which has the ABC alphabet of sexuality.
00:11:16.320 And some of the terms are about urinating and defecating on your partner and being sexually attracted to a television without, this isn't even a joke.
00:11:24.520 This is teaching kids about these really weird kinks that are, that Planned Parenthood say are legitimate. 1.00
00:11:32.320 So ultimately as parents, as Canadians, we just want to send our kids to school.
00:11:37.560 We want to be able to have the freedom to teach them whatever we want to teach them when it comes to our faith.
00:11:43.560 And we don't want things being shoved down our throat.
00:11:45.380 And I think that's, they're pushing the envelope way too far by targeting kids and, and refraining from being able to opt out.
00:11:52.080 And that's why you're seeing this backlash right now.
00:11:54.700 Very well said right now, co-founder Alyssa Gallobe.
00:11:57.960 Always good to talk to you, Alyssa. Thanks for coming on today.
00:12:00.780 Thanks for having me.
00:12:01.760 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:12:03.600 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.