In this episode, I interview Dr. Bahira Abdul Salam about the One Million March for Children, a protest against gender ideology in Canadian public schools. Dr. Salam is a professional businesswoman, an engineer, and a mother of three boys. She has been involved with the march for children since its inception and has been a vocal advocate for the rights of Muslim children.
00:01:21.500And to what extent are you involved in organizing it?
00:01:23.940Okay, so I have, I'm a mother of three boys,
00:01:31.420and my youngest is, he is in the middle school.
00:01:36.660And there was an incident in the school that affected my son,
00:01:43.600which made me concerned about being involved in parent council.
00:01:50.340So I was, I actively joined the parent council of my child's school.
00:01:58.400I have been involved with them, and I looked deeply into schools and school boards.
00:02:07.720And I, I also, there was a, like an incident also in our neighborhood regarding safety.
00:02:17.740So there was a conference, and I was vocal about defending the student rights.
00:02:24.600Parents in our neighborhood, many of them, they, they had a feeling that I can represent them.
00:02:31.740So I was elected as an official, officially representing parents in my neighborhood in TDSB,
00:02:41.860the Toronto District School Board Parent Engagement Advisory Committee Representative,
00:02:48.540and for public and for French schools.
00:02:52.620I joined different committees in TDSB, and I had lots of concerns about many, many things that are like how things are managed.
00:03:10.400And I communicated with, like politicians, and I was actively working with, or volunteering with the Liberal Party of Canada for several years.
00:03:25.040So many things I saw that I didn't, I wasn't satisfied about.
00:03:31.180I, I was, I wasn't satisfied about how things are working in general, not only about schools, or about discrimination that personally I have been facing as a Muslim woman in the male-dominated field.
00:03:50.360And through my involvement in politics and in civic involvement, I found out that the way forward, not to just complain, but to be involved.
00:04:05.600So I, I officially joined the election to be nominated to, I was nominated to be running for the mayor of Toronto.
00:04:20.360So I, I connected with many people, I was campaigning, I was talking every day with people in the streets, in events, and I listened to them.
00:04:35.440And this was one of the major complaints of people about raising their children.
00:04:42.620So people in Toronto, they have lots of challenges.
00:04:46.400They are, they have challenges regarding transportation, regarding the, like the, the, the cost of living and many challenges, but raising their children, the way they want, is the most critical challenge they have.
00:05:07.000And they gave me this feeling that this is what we need.
00:05:13.700So this, I, so Cam, Camille, I, I connected with him very recently, but I can assure you that there are huge number of groups of parents all over Canada.
00:05:28.800They are willing to, they are willing to do anything to make sure that they, their children are raised in the way they are, and the, the, the education needs to be changed.
00:05:44.900So when Camille talked to me about what he is doing, I was motivated because I know that this is what people really need.
00:05:55.300So you're obviously talking about the gender ideology curriculum in the schools and the fact that children are forced to salute the gay pride parade and, and to, to acknowledge this month, or as Trudeau calls it now, a season of gay pride.
00:06:14.400And, and this goes against your faith.
00:06:44.900So what, what, what is wrong really is that children are educated in a way, and the, the, the ideology that is a controlling public schools is that telling the children they might have been born in a wrong body.
00:07:05.420So they want to change the way children are treated by changing their pronouns, or letting them choose, which is something, it's unbelievable.
00:07:19.460How can a little child be confused or be given an, an option about choosing a pronoun different than, so one thing that I really see critical as, as a Muslim, as a believer, that we believe in God.
00:07:45.080We believe in a huge, our, like the, the greatness of our creator.
00:07:51.000So telling our children that their creator or our creator might have been mistaken, or how, how they are created might be wrong.
00:08:00.740And from a very young age, this is very dangerous for their faith.
00:08:07.020This is, this is the, the core problem that I see about gender ideology.
00:08:12.720So it, it, it is, uh, giving the, the children, uh, uh, uh, like confusion about the great power that, and that's, uh, being satisfied and being happy and in peace with the way they are created.
00:08:31.500So this is, uh, confusing kids at this very young age is very dangerous and we want the children to go to the school, uh, to study, to learn critical thinking, to study all kinds of subjects.
00:08:48.500Uh, they don't, uh, they don't, uh, they don't have to study religion at all, but don't, uh, involve some ideology and impose it on all children in schools.
00:09:01.080So this is not only about the sex curriculum, it is about, uh, uh, um, the diversity in, in, in, uh, in the educators themselves, how educators are selected, how principals, vice principals are selected, the, uh, all the environment and the democracy.
00:09:21.680Like we want to understand, uh, to want to ensure that, uh, uh, uh, the, the, the, the system as a whole is, uh, designed in a way that is, uh, that is freedom in this system.
00:09:36.840We don't have freedom in our education system.
00:09:39.420There is, it looks like it is very democratic, but in reality, uh, the school boards are, uh, are, uh, given a huge power.
00:09:50.820Uh, and there is even, uh, uh, uh, provinces or the, uh, the, the, the, the provincial, uh, uh, or, uh, the federal government, they give them, uh, a very, uh, big, uh, it is like a, a cult.
00:10:09.740Well, that's, that's an interesting way of putting it, because, uh, certainly, as far as I am concerned, when they force students, children,
00:10:19.700to be indoctrinated into an ideology, it's, it's almost like it's a religious drive.
00:10:27.020And there was a, uh, teacher in Edmonton who's been famously, infamously quoted now as saying that, telling her Muslim students that if they didn't agree with this gender ideology program,
00:10:39.860if they had a problem with observing pride, so-called pride month, that they should leave Canada.
00:10:46.560And there was another teacher in Ontario who was recorded surreptitiously by one of her students saying that the students who decided not to be there for the raising of the so-called gay pride flag were disgusting.
00:11:02.260And she said this word repeatedly to children, that they were disgusting and hateful for not showing up for this event.
00:11:10.540How does that make you feel as a Muslim woman, that, that teachers think they can say, go, leave Canada?
00:11:25.320Like we cannot have teachers of this kind in our schools, like, uh, a teacher has to be, uh, she has to be, uh, uh, like open-minded.
00:11:36.540She has, even if she, if she, if she really find that, uh, this faith is completely opposite, uh, to what she really believes.
00:11:48.060But she, uh, this is what diversity means, right?
00:11:51.960Diversity means accepting others regardless of their religion, regardless of their school of thought, regardless.
00:12:00.760So when we find that, uh, this is the way, uh, teachers or, uh, some kind of, uh, like ideology completely rejecting others because of what they believe.
00:12:18.480Uh, so this is, uh, so this is racism, this is not diversity and inclusion.
00:12:23.060So what I find is that there is, uh, uh, kind of, uh, uh, uh, like, uh, a new definition maybe for diversity and inclusion, like diversity should be, uh, should mean accepting everyone without limitations, not accepting a small group of people and, and rejecting the others.
00:12:47.080So this is, uh, this is, uh, this is unacceptable.
00:12:49.880So, uh, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau famously says, diversity is our strength.
00:12:55.580Obviously, he doesn't really mean that, does he?
00:12:59.860He means that, that, uh, for, uh, the, uh, uh, this is what I, uh, this is why I was very actively involved as a liberal, uh, uh, uh, but I didn't realize that this is what they mean.
00:13:16.780If I knew that I wouldn't have voted or supported the liberal party in my life.
00:13:22.220And I really, uh, I feel that I was deceived, right?
00:13:26.080If this is what they mean by diversity to only accept to be, um, like, uh, uh, uh, in, uh, part of the member of the LGBTQ community, and this is what diversity mean for them.
00:13:44.940Um, so this is not acceptable, just, uh, a little point of a clarification.
00:14:11.200They are humans and they are respected no matter what their decision is, because there is a kind of, uh, uh, like, um, uh, it's an evil, uh, uh, like, uh, stakeholder.
00:14:30.820I don't know who is doing this, but they are trying to convince people that when, uh, others are protesting for rejecting LGBTQ ideology, they hate you.
00:15:05.120We, we, we are not calling to reject them or remove them from schools.
00:15:10.280We love children, no matter who they are.
00:15:13.460We love people, no matter who they are.
00:15:16.140But we hate to be, um, uh, to, to, to be, that our children to be taught something that are against our values.
00:15:26.660So this, uh, I don't know if this is, uh, clear enough, but, um, but I know that, uh, some people are really confused about it, uh, that they think, oh, they are protesting.
00:15:41.860No, yet you have been subject to hateful speech on, on, it's now called X, formerly called Twitter, but there have been numerous tweets slash posts that are, I've seen them.
00:15:54.980Extremely hateful, directed against you, and, and I understand you've also had death threats.
00:16:05.700Uh, I did receive a huge number of, uh, like, uh, uh, uh, comments and tweets and messages and, uh, and, and sometimes like phone calls, but I, I, I didn't, uh, I did a police report about this because, uh, really it is concerning about my safety.
00:16:27.980Like, yeah, yeah, so, uh, what I understand that this is, uh, this is how, uh, uh, they wanna, uh, spread the, this idea or they wanna, uh, confirm that no one speak up silencing people.
00:17:38.640Another layer because of, uh, political, uh, affiliation.
00:17:42.540Maybe I was, uh, uh, supporting a party.
00:17:46.360Now I don't, I no longer support them.
00:17:48.400So, uh, some people, uh, they are very shocked that I, I'm no longer, uh, uh, supporting the same party.
00:17:56.560So there are a lot of different reasons.
00:17:58.440But, uh, um, uh, what I can say that, um, uh, I am not really gonna be silenced.
00:18:08.280I'm not gonna be silenced by, and this is my advice to everyone.
00:18:13.680Let's say, let's say the 90, uh, 95% of Canadians who really don't really, uh, don't belong to this ideology.
00:18:28.420They are Christians, they are Jews, they are, uh, uh, people who, uh, even atheists, they don't like their children to be, uh, taught this ideology in school.
00:18:39.020If everybody spoke up, if everybody, uh, went to the protest and said, this is what we want, how are, are they gonna silence them?
00:18:52.620So, uh, this, uh, this is like breaking the barrier of fear of, uh, inside people that, oh, they are going to, to, to harm us or to, no, we shouldn't be afraid of that.
00:19:07.020And this is, uh, this is, uh, maybe I, I get this, uh, uh, um, I'm very, uh, concerned because I feel a responsibility.
00:19:19.580I have a responsibility, a very big responsibility because of, uh, the knowledge I have.
00:19:27.180I, I knew something, some information they don't, some people they don't know.
00:20:55.500How about, uh, these Twitter, or they're now, it's now called X, but these, these posts that were directed against you, these hateful posts saying, all Muslims are evil and leave the country.
00:22:21.540And I'm very careful about the way I address people.
00:22:25.000I, I, I never write something offensive, I, uh, to anyone, but, uh, they, uh, change my wording and they take screenshot and put it on their own, uh, uh, uh, groups and they say, oh, she said that and I never said it, but, uh, now it is much calm.
00:22:44.680I don't get that much, uh, number of the, like those hate speech are filtered.
00:22:49.900So I feel more, uh, a little bit more comfortable.
00:22:56.240You find it ironic, I suppose, that the LGBTQ people who are railing against you are using the same kind of language and the same talking points that the far right used to use against Muslim people in the wake of 9-11.
00:23:13.100Saying all Muslims are, all Muslims should go back.
00:23:18.480All Muslims should not, should not be here.
00:23:21.320Do you find that strange that the, the, the left now is using this kind of language?
00:23:37.040They told me, uh, Bahira, we are standing up with you.
00:23:42.460Especially, like, there is, uh, a group gay, uh, called Gay Against Groomers.
00:23:48.460So they are against grooming children in schools, right?
00:23:53.940So it seems that there is a conversation within the community themselves and, uh, they are against, like some of them, they are against, uh, what is going on in, in, uh, in the public schools.
00:24:09.220And, uh, uh, so, uh, and this is something really positive.
00:24:29.260They don't want, uh, to, that this extreme policy that the government is, uh, heading to, uh, is gonna affect the whole community or it's, it's gonna create, uh, like a kind of divisiveness within the, the, the community.
00:24:47.500And I see this, uh, like very strange policy that the government is heading through.
00:24:54.160They insist on taking, uh, aside and creating this divisiveness, which is, it's not helping them.
00:25:03.800So, uh, uh, what I find that, um, uh, this kind of speech that, uh, is, is being used, it is, uh, uh, like they use some terms.
00:25:17.500They use some terminology and they are putting us as, uh, extremists or whatever, uh, just in a try.
00:25:26.520I think this is a way to create divisiveness within Canadians and there must be, uh, an entity who is gonna benefit from this, like dividing people.
00:25:38.940Uh, it is not, uh, a good way of, uh, policy.
00:25:43.120I think, uh, when people get united, uh, this is much better for the people, but, um, uh, this is what we need to understand.
00:25:53.840Like we need to understand that we have to stand up all together, uh, Muslims, Christians, even, uh, LGBTQ, they have to stand up for, uh, uh, for protecting their children.
00:26:11.000Like how can a person, no matter who is, uh, what he is thinking, leave his little child and leave the, their rights to know and to control and to care about their children.
00:26:25.660So any human being who care, he should be, uh, standing up with us, uh, with all of us.
00:26:34.820Yeah, but the extremists who are, who are going after you in such a hateful way, are they not exhibiting the very Islamophobia that they used to accuse other people of exhibiting?
00:26:49.160There is, uh, like, um, uh, so they want, uh, they want all Muslims to, uh, to leave Canada.
00:26:58.340Some of them, uh, they want me to go back to my country or when I started posting about, uh, Florida and the United States and the laws and they, they want me to go there.
00:27:11.020So I, I will not, uh, uh, uh, like I'm a, I'm a Canadian, right?
00:27:17.480Like no one can, uh, push me away from my home because, uh, my faith or because the way I think.
00:27:25.780And even if I do, uh, decide to do, to go anywhere, this is not, this is not going to stop people of, like people are now, uh, they, they are alert.
00:27:39.400And it is not me as a person who is opposing this.
00:27:50.460Now, Prime Minister Trudeau didn't really know what to do when Muslims started pushing back against his LGBTQ ideology.
00:28:03.400And so what he did, as you, as you probably know very well, he told Muslims that they were being misled by disinformation and misinformation coming from the far right or the American right wing.
00:28:17.040Now, how, how did you feel being told that you can't tell the difference between right and wrong yourself?
00:28:57.660Some Muslims are, uh, maybe some of his advisors, maybe they are not, uh, really understanding the deep, uh, uh, like, uh, they don't have deep knowledge of, uh, Muslim community, but Muslims, they, they have deep faith and they have a holy book.
00:29:19.860And we are not really, we haven't been very vocal about, uh, our, uh, like, uh, uh, ideas and our faith because we don't want to, uh, we are just, we want to live in peace.
00:29:39.540And this is what we have, we thought that if you want to practice your religion, uh, do it, practice your religion, you are free.
00:29:50.480Others are free to do whatever they do.
00:29:53.740So there was kind of, uh, disengagement, I think, like many of the Muslims, uh, have been practicing, uh, uh, the religion and they are, uh, um, uh, people don't know really,
00:30:08.680they don't have, uh, uh, clear understanding, many people, they don't have clear understanding about how they think.
00:30:16.320And I think this is one of the problems.
00:30:21.760We need to talk to each other more to understand each other because this kind of understanding and engagement, this is the thing that will create, uh, unity within, uh, uh, the Canadian, uh, communities.
00:30:37.780Well, I think clearly Trudeau is all behind Muslims as long as they agree with him.
00:30:44.620But as soon as they start to disagree with him, then suddenly they're unreliable.
00:30:49.680And he has certainly created an opposition by his own words.
00:30:55.140Uh, I think with the, uh, with the advent of the, of these protests, it illustrates that Justin Trudeau is losing support amongst Muslims.
00:31:07.240There's a recent poll, and I think that suggests to me that a lot of those people are not only Muslims, but Sikhs and Hindus who are becoming alienated by Trudeau's extremist policies.
00:31:23.540And are you hearing the same thing from your Muslim friends and family, that they, they can no longer support Trudeau or the Liberal Party?
00:31:34.180Like, uh, with, uh, with, uh, with his, uh, policy of, uh, uh, uh, taking side with, uh, uh, LGBTQ, uh, ideology and, uh, imposing it and making it like preaching it in our schools.
00:31:51.160They are preaching it as if it is, uh, the new Canadian religion or the new Canadian, and you cannot be Canadian unless you are accepting, respecting, and, uh, uh, being silent.
00:32:08.180Like, we are, uh, any person, especially, uh, Muslims, we are very proud of our identity.
00:32:15.940So, being told that this is how it is, no, this is not how it is.
00:32:21.240This is the way you, this is your policy.
00:32:25.240So, this policy is not working for us.
00:32:28.220So, Muslims, uh, uh, are completely rejecting, uh, this, uh, this policy of the Liberal Party.
00:32:37.080And they are being, he is being very clear about it.
00:32:40.680Like, even though we have, uh, uh, uh, shown our, uh, uh, like, um, like, um, we, we demanded our rights, but still he, he is posting every day his, uh, how he is, uh, uh, uh, going every day to Pride and to Barbie movies.
00:33:01.960And, uh, which is, it is surprising for me.
00:33:09.040So, like, personally, I am encouraging every Muslim to not to vote for the Liberal Party and the NDP, because Liberal and NDP are, by the way, our movement, it's not a political movement.
00:33:28.840But this is how we see what it is. It is imposing this ideology through political parties. It is not going to work.
00:33:47.360So, we have to discuss with politicians. Don't give your vote for anyone who don't represent your values.
00:34:01.020So, this is my advice to people. You have to vote. You have to participate. You need to have civic engagement, because this is how we have reached this situation.
00:34:13.800By people are not well engaged, even they don't go to vote, or they don't understand who is the politician that they are voting for.
00:34:28.960You need to understand, question your politician, question your school trustee and the people who represent you.
00:34:37.920You cannot have someone, an elected official, in your neighborhood that is working against your community and putting values and imposing values which are harming you.
00:34:54.040So, I think people need to be alert and need to be more involved in politics, and they need to do their own judgment, right?
00:35:07.920Yeah. I wanted to ask you, there was an Ontario school board has refused to eliminate a book called Gender Queer from the libraries in schools across Ontario.
00:35:23.380Do you know if that book is still available? It's a pornographic book. Is that book still available for students?
00:35:29.160I saw that many people all around Ontario and Canada, they are complaining, not just from this book, but from other materials.
00:35:41.040And I cannot tell what exactly the situation, but it has to be, we need a reform about the system, because let's say they remove this book, there will be another book which is similar.
00:36:03.940It is about the idea itself. It's about the policy. It's about the policy. It's about that the minister of education, he doesn't have enough power over the school boards, right?
00:36:19.360So, the problem is not limited to a specific book or a specific curriculum. It is much bigger than that.
00:36:31.680And, like, for example, I read in the news that they want to have drag queen shows into the schools in Toronto.
00:36:44.620And then they want to remove the opt-out option. So, drag queen is, it's a show where someone from the LGBT, they read books for kids and definitely there is a, like, kind of preparing them for this idea and giving them some concepts about how to be an LGBTQ or whatever.
00:37:14.060And how, and there are like some extreme cases of those people that, I'm not going to discuss this now, but what I want to, what surprised me and shocked me that they want to put the show and they want to remove the opt-out option, claiming that it is going to hurt their feelings.
00:37:40.720They will not feel that they will not feel that they are accepted.
00:37:42.720Like, how, how come? How come that you are doing this? And in, in, in other countries and in other cities outside of Canada, they completely, by law, they said this is, is not going to happen in schools.
00:38:00.840Why in Canada, why in Canada, we have this extreme way of imposing this ideology in our schools and putting drag shows and, and making mixed washrooms.
00:38:14.840Yes. This is, this is, this is, this is not, this is not correct. Like, Toronto District School Board, they started an experiment while people are busy with their lives. They put mixed washrooms and then they want to normalize it and, and, and this, that's very dangerous.
00:38:36.320Yes. Uh, so getting back to the Million Person March that's coming up on September 20th. Uh, I recently was interviewed on this subject by Redacted, which is a huge YouTube station, uh, run by a couple out of, uh, Portugal actually, but they've, the husband formerly worked for Fox News, very capable journalist, as is his wife.
00:39:02.120And I was interviewed on this subject. And I was interviewed on this question, talked about the September, September 20th planned March. And we received, I think thousands of comments from people who wanted to join in on this March.
00:39:15.180So you were saying to me that you want to make a very good point about this March, that it's not just about Muslims. You are an organizer, but how do you see this March unfolding and what does it symbolize for you?
00:39:32.120Yeah. You are. Yeah. Uh, uh, yeah. So I see that, uh, many, uh, groups of, uh, parents and many people all around Canada. Uh, they are fed up.
00:39:46.140They are fed up with this, uh, policy. They are fed up with, uh, imposing ideas that they reject and they want to, uh, show their, uh, uh, uh,