Coverage of the 2024 Million March For Children - Edmonton, AB
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Summary
Parents and concerned citizens turned out in droves for the One Million March for Children protest in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. This year's protest focused on parental rights and opposition to the teaching of soj or sexual orientation and gender identity to children, specifically those of elementary school age.
Transcript
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welcome back to the critical compass it's mike here and i just wanted to do
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a quick recap of this year's one million march for children in edmonton alberta
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this demonstration was in front of the alberta teachers association building
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who are currently displaying a massive pride flag on their front facade the protest is focused
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on parental rights and opposition to the teaching of soji or sexual orientation and gender identity
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to children specifically those of elementary school age this reflects a growing concern from
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parents who believe that schools are teaching inappropriate confusing and ultimately harmful
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ideas to kids the most interesting part of this protest that we observed were the demographics
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the messaging and the overall difference in tone between each side the protest was divided by a
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major road just like last year the police kept both sides separate and their presence seemed to
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discourage protesters and counter protesters alike from crossing sides to engage thankfully from what
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we saw there were no conflicts and no altercations on the protester side we saw parents and children
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from a mix of different backgrounds messages like leave our kids alone anti-soji is not anti-lgbtq
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and mature content is not for kids before the speeches protest organizers played documentary audio
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recordings from detransitioners recounting their experiences on the counter protesters side we saw
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antifa members in all black outfits masks gloves and even some donning full ride gear including helmets
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and tactical vests non-antifa members waved massive pride flags and trans flags with various messaging and
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slogans such as protect trans kids trans kids deserve to grow old trans rights are human rights hate speech
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is not welcome here and this teacher supports trans kids from the start the counter protesters continuously
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played loud dance music and traditionally lgbt themed songs seemingly to try and drown out the
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protesters audio recordings what this demonstrated to us is that the counter protesters believe that
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this is a hate based protest their role is to show up provide their support to lgbtq people and
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disrupt the protest these are common antifa tactics which are available for anyone to view on their handbook
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and website called beautiful trouble they use noise as a distraction and deterrent like playing loud
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copyrighted music so that any recordings of speeches get flagged and taken down from youtube we even had
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a car that was seemingly doing laps around the block returning multiple times to slow down and drive by the
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protest laying on his horn to disrupt the speeches last year i tried documenting the counter protesters and
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even tried to have a basic conversation with them but what they ended up doing was singling me out and
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actually gathering around me to push me onto the road uh and instead of addressing these uh these
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actions of the counter protesters the police actually took me aside and told me that i should stop
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provoking them i'll link below here the video that i took of that interaction with the protesters and police
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compared to 2023 this year's turnout was much smaller with around 125 protesters and 60 counter protesters as
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reported by jonathan bradley of the western standard james and i had looked for details about this event in
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the days leading up to it and even with precise search terms it was difficult to find any information
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through the traditional channels so unless you directly follow these event pages the average parent or
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concerned citizen would be unlikely to find any information about the movement or event searching
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for million march for kids website brings you this the top result is actually a parody website claiming
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that the movement is hateful ignorant and against trans children it's not clear if there have been any
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official million march websites but it seems like there are facebook and other social media pages that
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have been doing the bulk of the messaging this year the march seems to have been organized through a
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website called handsoffourkids.ca there was also a cbc edmonton video about the event which was fair to
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both sides of the protest media outlets interviewed jason schilling who is the alberta teachers association
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president i think a simple conversation with principals with teachers with school districts about
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resources and curriculum and what is being taught really needs to be held so that we don't have folks
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walking around with misinformation about what's happening in our schools today i found the wording
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very interesting as it implies that misinformation is the reason that parents have concerns after
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watching this i have a few questions is it appropriate for teachers and administrators to wear pride symbols
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should public buildings and classrooms display pride flags do these symbols serve individuals or does it
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serve an underlying ideology for more information on what is happening inside of schools it is best to look
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at the people who have been collecting samples of curriculums and guidelines for teachers
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one example is the weekly canadian culture wars report with shannon boshi and melanie bennett
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another great follow is chanel fall who is a former teacher dedicated to exposing wokeism in schools
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she posts great examples on x as well as on her substack
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even though this year's protest was relatively small it still shows the significant divide between
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lgbtq activists and the parents who are concerned about their children it shows how parents are
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frustrated when the government teachers and media seem to be pushing very similar messaging
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to even have a proper discussion about this there are a few questions that need to be asked
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for example what is a trans child what is gender and what is personality what is age appropriate sexual
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education and what are the fundamental rights of parents and children you can see us unpack these ideas in
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this video link below thank you so much for watching and be sure to subscribe for more videos we're on
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x rumble youtube and spotify as well thanks again and we will see you in the next one