Juno News - May 11, 2023


Saving Canada ｜ feat. Josh Alexander


Episode Stats

Length

26 minutes

Words per Minute

166.18411

Word Count

4,324

Sentence Count

2

Misogynist Sentences

5

Hate Speech Sentences

2


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 hi everybody welcome to the rupa subramanya show i am rupa subramanya i hope you're all doing well
00:00:23.680 wherever you're tuning in from and that hopefully nicer weather has arrived wherever you are
00:00:30.560 now last year a high school student josh alexander from renfrew ontario made news headlines for
00:00:39.460 protesting his school's policy of using gendered washrooms based on self-identification and not
00:00:46.320 based on one's biological gender being uncomfortable with the fact that boys were using girls washrooms
00:00:52.500 and many girls in the high school telling him they felt unsafe he protested and was suspended by the
00:00:59.720 school and barred from attending school joining me today to talk about how the trans issue is
00:01:06.280 unfolding in our high schools please welcome josh alexander hey josh welcome to the show it's great
00:01:13.040 to have you here let me just begin by asking you to tell us a bit about yourself what exactly happened
00:01:21.760 that led to your suspension from your high school just walk us through the series of events that
00:01:28.120 took place that led to your eventual suspension yeah so i'm a 17 year old student currently enrolled at
00:01:36.680 the saint joseph's catholic high school in renfrew ontario i had previously been in the public board
00:01:43.020 where i had done some activism regarding the mandates and the online learning and that we had
00:01:47.960 done some uh protests uh myself and my crew from safe canada um regarding uh well like in opposition
00:01:56.380 to the mandates in in solidarity with freedom convoy anyways uh that caused some drama in the board
00:02:01.920 there's cops involved the uh we were getting suspended left right and center um simply for our public
00:02:08.420 stance and uh we i decided to finish up my year um and uh i graduated grade 10 successfully and decided
00:02:17.080 to just have a bit of a uh smoother end to my education and that's why i enrolled in the catholic board
00:02:23.640 um this grade 11. however not long into my time there some female students approached me and
00:02:29.560 uh informed me that males were using their washrooms they were concerned about this
00:02:35.080 um i brought this concern to the principals and the administrators and it wasn't taken very seriously
00:02:41.080 um they another female student did the same and uh at the end of the day um i decided the best way to
00:02:48.680 uh make them a little more open to discussing this with us would be to put it on the media
00:02:54.520 and as we organized a protest it went on the news um and they decided to suspend me um and uh i mean my
00:03:04.040 lawyers got involved there was no justification for the suspension they didn't even want to release
00:03:08.520 allegations against me and eventually uh they said i could return um but i was permanently banned from
00:03:16.520 math class religion class and also banned from speaking to certain students so uh i didn't comply
00:03:23.480 with that i said i would attend class and they gave me an exclusion order um which is now in effect
00:03:30.840 they also gave me a trespassing notice i waited all that out um and uh i was scheduled to return
00:03:38.440 once again at the end of the semester i'd failed four classes missed all that um but i was finally
00:03:45.160 scheduled to return it was agreed upon and uh i told them i'm returning to class i'll continue to adhere
00:03:51.880 to my religious beliefs and uh that's where it's at and uh they informed me that i was to be excluded
00:03:59.080 for the remainder of the year um and uh at this point i still um have no reason to believe i'll be
00:04:07.000 welcome back next year either but uh i felt by complying with that discriminatory exclusion order
00:04:12.920 i'd be condoning it and i decided to attend class um in response to my decision the school ended up
00:04:20.600 calling the police and i was arrested and charged wow that's uh that's incredible so tell me um you
00:04:29.560 know listening to what you're what you've been saying uh it sounds like the school was was basically
00:04:35.880 treating you like some hardened criminal uh you know why do you think your school went to such
00:04:41.960 extraordinary lengths uh to bar you from school from uh preventing you from you know being even
00:04:48.840 being on school grounds uh you know what what is it that uh set them off to such an extent that they
00:04:55.480 you know that they were treating you this way well i think it i i personally believe it goes beyond the
00:05:01.400 school um obviously this was a very public uh incident and uh i mean any young person with
00:05:12.280 influence that's opposing the mainstream narrative is obviously a threat and uh they wanted to make
00:05:17.480 an example out of me so they've been very hostile and they've done everything they can to discourage
00:05:21.800 other students from taking a similar stance to the stance i took and uh i guess they're going to continue
00:05:26.760 to do that and it's now like i said it's it's beyond just my school it's left my board and it's now
00:05:31.880 affecting my family who are teachers in the uh public education system as well yeah uh we'll get to your
00:05:38.760 family in just a little bit um what do you think is going to happen next i mean you're not allowed to
00:05:44.840 attend school uh uh and so what what do you plan on doing like can you go to another school or i mean
00:05:51.800 is that is that an option for you uh i mean i'm assuming you do want to finish high school um
00:05:58.360 yeah so i had actually i withdrawn from parental control in order to appeal to the disciplinary
00:06:04.200 decisions made by the school okay and uh i was well this went um the school refused to accept my
00:06:11.800 withdrawal and this ended up going to the ontario court of appeal i had my first date back on i believe
00:06:16.680 it was april 27th um and they ended up adjourning it to uh june 5th so on uh june 5th i uh will again
00:06:26.520 i i believe i'll be scheduled to uh go back into the court of appeal and we'll try to work that out
00:06:31.800 with the school and if we're successful there i'll i will be able to go ahead um and uh appeal this and
00:06:39.800 maybe start to uh well hopefully withdraw that exclusion order which would have enabled me to attend
00:06:45.720 class again um however i my my hopes for that are fairly low at this point and we'll have to decide
00:06:52.920 whether we're going to continue with that uh appeal um but i uh i also have the option or there's a
00:07:02.440 possibility that i could attempt to withdraw from the school board and go into the back into the public
00:07:07.400 board however um since the school is refusing to recognize that i have withdrawn from parental control
00:07:14.680 i don't know if they'd accept it if i asked to be uh withdrawn and uh unenrolled and enrolled in the
00:07:20.680 public board i don't know how all that would work out but we're looking at all the options right now
00:07:25.960 well you know as a young person i mean you're only 17 uh what is your uh sense uh on where people your
00:07:33.240 age are on this whole trans issue uh uh you know are most uh people your age towing this uh woke
00:07:41.160 progressive view or do you find a lot of people are agreeing with you it honestly depends on the
00:07:49.480 student the environment um and the influencers but uh i would say that students in general are
00:07:59.080 more so distracted by the vices that are provided by our system um whether they actually care or hold
00:08:06.840 views on these topics is often left unknown um there are i do get a lot of support from students
00:08:14.040 who have just had enough of it and they're fed up but at the same time you have like i said vices and
00:08:19.400 you got kids that are just they've grown up with everything at their fingertips whether it be video
00:08:24.280 games social media pornography movies all this stuff that just captivates the mind and distracts it
00:08:32.680 um and uh so i mean our generation doesn't have uh doesn't have much uh motive in it it's certainly
00:08:43.960 just numbed by uh distractions and pleasure so i think we will start to see a uh a turn soon where
00:08:52.760 people start to wake up and go okay this isn't actually providing me true happiness um and they'll
00:08:58.200 start to look at the the people that encourage this kind of behavior and uh even indoctrinated
00:09:04.840 while they were in that uh almost trance but uh yeah i i see some support where i go um like i went
00:09:13.960 to the york mills uh collegate institute and we received a lot of support there that was our first
00:09:17.960 visit and our only visit outside of uh a high school that we attended um we'll probably be doing
00:09:24.280 more of that um later i hope to be going to alberta at some point this month visit some schools there
00:09:30.760 uh but uh yeah we'll we'll soon be able to engage the student support yeah at your own school what
00:09:36.600 was the level of support that you received um you know did uh a whole bunch of uh i mean i don't know
00:09:43.320 how many people attend that school but you know did people show up in solidarity with you uh or did most
00:09:51.960 people just sit on the sidelines uh you know what how did how were you able to gauge that to support
00:09:59.320 back then um there more and more i hear from students and parents that do support me um they're
00:10:09.720 just afraid uh like i was saying earlier they're doing their best to uh discourage anybody who has
00:10:15.240 similar uh views to mine um and like they've these students have now watched me leave the
00:10:21.720 school in the back of the cop car um they've watched me get removed from class since november
00:10:28.280 and uh it's uh it's obviously concerning for them to see that happen a lot of it
00:10:33.640 unfortunately um the situation for a lot of students is that their parents won't support them
00:10:39.320 and uh i mean that's the worst thing a parent can do if your student wants to stand up and is
00:10:43.880 willing to face the consequences and take the risk of um of being a a a kid with morals in our society
00:10:52.280 these days you should be encouraging that allowing that um and having their back but unfortunately that's
00:10:58.280 often not the case um what is uh what's the role of teachers and guidance counselors um at a school
00:11:05.800 like yours uh what what are they doing what are they telling the the kids at the school uh you
00:11:11.480 know what's the kind of messaging that is coming out uh uh you know via the teachers and guidance
00:11:17.320 counselors yeah well their their role certainly should be to teach and to guide but unfortunately
00:11:24.280 it's been more recently um common for them to indoctrinate and confuse and uh like i've uh i've had
00:11:32.200 teachers you know they're they're promoting and defending male breastfeeding um and then they're
00:11:37.640 telling you that there's upwards of 73 genders and you can be whatever you want to be and uh they'll
00:11:44.920 they'll try to confuse you know the they'll talk about the difference between gender and sex and uh
00:11:51.080 just confuse kids um whereas i come around with a more um basic statement just saying god
00:11:58.360 grade male female and i can provide scripture to back it um but uh unfortunately that's considered
00:12:04.120 bullying in our uh in our society you know i find it very bizarre that uh you were treated the way you
00:12:12.200 were i mean for a whole range of re uh reasons um but you were in the catholic school system which by
00:12:20.120 definition should be committed to a core set of uh christian values uh i believe you yourself are a devout
00:12:27.320 christian um does it seem strange to you that in our religious school system in ontario they seem to
00:12:34.040 be taking such a um such an extreme woke view that doesn't conform uh at all with mainstream christian
00:12:41.400 thinking on this topic well yeah i mean it it honestly doesn't surprise me at this point it disappoints
00:12:49.080 me but uh i know that the catholic board is merely pandering for public funding and they've thrown out
00:12:55.240 all their morals and values um and they will do anything to um continue to bring that money in
00:13:02.680 uh it doesn't surprise me but um it's the catholic church ought to be ashamed and uh start to disown the
00:13:11.640 catholic school board um if they refuse to stand for catholic values and this is i i mean i'm a i'm a
00:13:18.280 student who's not even catholic i'm a born-again christian um but i'm going in there and it
00:13:23.800 certainly leaves pretty bad uh testimony for the catholics when that's what i that's my experience
00:13:29.000 and put two months spent around catholics yeah yeah and you know you tweeted uh recently that uh
00:13:36.760 your parents uh who are both school teachers i believe have been suspended um and um i i can you tell us
00:13:45.080 explain to us what happened to them uh why were they suspended uh was it was it because of your
00:13:51.480 activism in the space um yeah um so approximately two weeks ago we learned that my dad had been uh put
00:14:02.760 on leave and uh put under investigation um there was there has been no specific reason given for that uh
00:14:10.600 uh and uh we'll probably figure out more um in the time to come but uh up until this point we don't
00:14:17.720 really know why that happened i obviously have my assumptions and i think it's pretty obvious that it
00:14:23.400 has to do with his relation to me given that he's my father um and then uh just this past friday i was
00:14:30.920 about to go up and give a speech at the great canadian awakening and uh i was informed over the phone that
00:14:36.600 my uh mother had also been uh removed from the classroom and placed under investigation um there
00:14:44.040 what happened there is uh somebody went to her uh classroom and put a pride flag on the door of her
00:14:52.040 kindergarten class um she uh was not asked for approval for any of this came as a surprise to her
00:14:58.680 she removed the flight um and she was uh ended up having a conversation with the superintendent who
00:15:04.280 informed her that in order to protect the children they'd have to put my mom under investigation or
00:15:08.920 remove her from the class extraordinary and uh do you i i know you can't speak for your parents but
00:15:15.720 do you know how they're gonna um um fight this at this point uh it's pretty uh it's pretty fresh case
00:15:24.840 i don't really know what we're going to do yet we're looking at all the options um i'm sure there
00:15:29.560 will be some more information to come from this yeah uh you've been you've been critical of uh the
00:15:35.960 new conservative leader pierre polyevre for remaining silent on the trans issue um i i recently wrote about
00:15:43.720 um um you know in my recent uh and national post column i wrote um that um you know i think the
00:15:50.760 conservatives uh for them this was a real missed opportunity to stand up for uh core small c conservative
00:15:57.880 values which uh basically at this point leaves the field open for the woke narrative coming from
00:16:04.440 both the ndp and the liberals do you agree that the conservative party is making a huge mistake here
00:16:11.240 and needs to get engaged with this issue um yes yeah absolutely um i had i never really shared my view
00:16:20.360 on that until i had an opportunity to speak directly with mr polyevre um i wanted to hear his side and
00:16:26.920 uh meet him and uh so that's what i did and uh i mean i can't say i'm impressed uh what a what a
00:16:35.240 politician says behind closed doors um is means nothing and uh i don't care if if they believe the
00:16:43.080 right things um they have to be willing to publicly say it even in the in the face of controversy and uh i
00:16:51.640 haven't seen that from the conservative party i know they're well aware of the issues that in our
00:16:56.120 education system right now they won't speak against it and uh to be honest i think canadians are sick
00:17:01.800 of hearing about price of milk um there's there's other issues going on right now about uh like i mean
00:17:08.840 every kid goes in and buys their carton of milk before class but i don't think that's the parents
00:17:13.560 biggest concerns um when they're entering a woke um indoctrination facility every day and uh so i
00:17:23.320 think that i would strongly encourage the conservative party to start to speak out against the uh the
00:17:29.240 radical gender ideology that's being pushed in their education system and uh focus on the problems
00:17:34.360 that matter to the the youth of canada the the future of canada um and uh so far i haven't seen any of
00:17:42.040 that yeah uh i mean you've uh criticized them uh for not uh uh you know for for not taking a position
00:17:49.720 here uh but uh you know if you could tell me what is the general sense you get interacting with uh
00:17:57.240 members of the conservative party when you when you speak to them behind closed doors do they
00:18:01.720 generally seem very supportive of uh of your activism and of where you're coming from
00:18:07.800 uh some of them do some of them will snob me it depends i mean i'm sure a lot of them are afraid
00:18:15.400 to speak to me about this because i've been very public on my stance on the conservative party and i
00:18:19.480 don't necessarily blame them for that i i just speak my mind on the issue um and uh i'm still open
00:18:27.720 and to and willing to talk to any uh not just conservative party any any uh elected uh representative
00:18:34.760 about this issue i believe it's an important topic and we need to start having conversations
00:18:39.080 um with with respect and uh concern and uh i'm so yeah i'm totally open to this yeah i mean you've
00:18:47.320 certainly um um you know pointed to the fact that maxime bernier of the people's party of canada
00:18:53.240 has supported you and he's i would say has been pretty consistent on this uh in opposing um the use of
00:19:00.840 uh gendered washrooms and um you know for for trans people um and uh do you are you or are you happy
00:19:09.080 with that support that you've received from bernier yeah i mean i i to be honest i was i guess i would
00:19:16.760 have been maybe 14 years old i was i was a fan of pierre pauliev i enjoyed watching his uh his work in
00:19:22.440 parliament and i uh had a lot of respect for him but then when i started to watch these uh mandates and
00:19:27.720 restrictions come into play and uh i noticed that nobody in the conservative party would speak out
00:19:33.720 against it um it was concerning and uh maxine bernier is somebody that would have been introduced
00:19:40.280 to me around great my grade eight year and uh i liked what he had to say i mean i didn't really know
00:19:46.440 too much about it i was in grade eight i didn't follow all this stuff too closely but over time i
00:19:51.400 started to realize that this guy is actually speaking out about the the problems and the issues that
00:19:56.840 matter matter to me and a lot of canadians and a lot of my peers and uh more and more he's spoken
00:20:04.280 out and been consistent and uh pierre pauliev has just started catering more so to a mainstream
00:20:11.240 narrative and uh so yeah i'm i'm i must say i'm quite impressed with maxine bernier and uh
00:20:17.960 as of right now he certainly has my support for uh in kansas city yeah well um you know you said
00:20:25.080 something very um interesting uh at the beginning beginning of the show uh you said you know anybody
00:20:32.680 who goes against this mainstream narrative gets cancelled uh you're only 17 um and um is that um
00:20:41.720 you know um unique to you or is that increasingly happening uh for for people your age where you know
00:20:50.920 they challenge uh this sort of this mainstream narrative and then they find themselves shunned
00:20:57.160 and criticized and denigrated and eventually cancelled yeah obviously my case is a little bit
00:21:03.480 peculiar compared to the average student in canada um but yeah i've watched it many times uh there's
00:21:10.600 often negative response from both staff and students in the education system when a student uh expresses
00:21:18.120 beliefs contrary to the mainstream narrative and uh i mean i i it doesn't necessarily bother me
00:21:26.360 but i've also just learned to have thick skin and go about my business but for the average student um
00:21:32.440 i mean they're looking at getting a girlfriend getting a relationship having a job um often uh fighting
00:21:39.320 for good grades and uh it like it or not it will affect your grades it will affect your
00:21:45.640 popularity as they called in the school um and uh it affects your chances of getting a relationship
00:21:52.440 whether that's a relationship you want to be in that's debatable but uh yeah i mean it certainly
00:21:58.280 affects most students and it certainly hinders them from speaking out yeah i mean you're at the heart of
00:22:03.640 this uh trans issue um um you know you're as a young person um how hopeful are you about the future how
00:22:14.840 hopeful are you about change um uh change as you define it yeah i mean i i believe it's all in god's
00:22:23.240 hands at this point um i uh i'm i'm impressed with the uh with what at least what i see in the future um
00:22:32.360 students are more and more every day are coming to me and uh they're they're they're expressing their
00:22:37.000 concerns and expressing their support and uh some i mean this these weren't issues that were on the media
00:22:43.320 before and at this point it's it's uh it's very common and everybody's aware of it um we've raised a lot of
00:22:49.880 awareness not just myself uh but like you look at guys like billboard chris and uh i mean this has
00:22:56.040 been going on for quite some time it's nice to finally see a bit of uh reaction from it yeah well
00:23:01.400 speaking of billboard chris um i believe you're going to be in ottawa in june with billboard chris uh
00:23:07.960 chris uh elston um also known as billboard chris uh can you tell us a little bit about that event
00:23:14.280 uh what should people expect is it a protest and uh where is it happening yeah um so we are going to
00:23:22.520 be in nepean ottawa um and we'll be on i believe it was carling and broadview um there's several schools
00:23:31.240 there so all are welcome the community members are welcome i know there's been uh some calls for
00:23:36.360 counter protesters from uh well there's faye johnson some ndp members um but i mean we'll see what
00:23:45.480 happens uh the police are in contact with me we're working together quite well um hopefully it all goes
00:23:53.400 well and uh yeah i'd encourage everybody to come out on june 9th and just uh we're i mean we're there
00:23:58.200 we're there to talk and to uh hear from students and uh also openly express our um not so popular opinions
00:24:06.680 well um it's extraordinary that you at your age uh have you know displayed this incredible amount
00:24:13.640 of courage where most people are just cowardly in my opinion um you know they're afraid to say these
00:24:20.040 things pop in public but here you are uh suspended from school and you continue speaking up uh what
00:24:27.000 gives you what gives you the courage to uh go you know to do this what motivates you and what inspires you
00:24:34.520 well i mean courage of conviction isn't something that gets talked about a lot today because
00:24:41.640 you often don't need courage to express the ideas that most people are expressing in our culture
00:24:47.080 um but uh yeah i know i know that god's got my back i know that i'm doing the right thing in it
00:24:53.000 and i'm uh i'm honored and to have the privilege to be able to represent the truth in a time like this
00:24:59.000 and uh it's it's also quite encouraging to be able to uh give the gospel while doing that okay well um
00:25:06.680 i wish you all the best josh uh with your activism and i will be sure to uh be in ottawa for your event
00:25:15.000 in june uh i know a lot of people are excited and uh looking forward to meeting you uh people who
00:25:20.920 haven't uh uh who've heard a lot of stuff about you but they you know they're really uh looking
00:25:26.840 forward to seeing you uh in person and and billboard chris of course and uh thank you for coming on the
00:25:33.400 show uh and uh and again you know i commend your correct courage and i wish you all the best and
00:25:39.720 hopefully you'll be back on the show uh soon perhaps in june thank you for having me on it
00:25:45.560 all right yeah no worries you take care yeah you too god bless