Exceptional parent & teacher delegations to learn by

As parents learn to navigate the system, trustees and education directors will be held accountable for their actions

Photo by Kristina Paparo on Unsplash

By

James Pew

Canadian parents are taking their concerns to school boards and in many cases there is something unique about the way events are unfolding. Since it is no longer possible to ignore progressive policies and curriculums stretched to radical extremes by the incursion of the Social Justice movement, the reaction coming from parents and concerned citizens is inevitable. It is now generally understood by a growing minority who have taken notice, that many Canadians were far too complacent and unaware during a period spanning from the 1960s to the present day, in which the institutions of public education were subverted by quasi-culturally socialist activists who made it their priority to install their quasi-culturally socialist ideology (what Eric Kaufman calls, left modernism). Now things are a mess, so much so, it is not possible for a growing constituency to stay silent.

In today’s post I feature a number of excellent school board delegations given by parents who have children attending schools across the country. They bring forward a number of different issues, through a variety of deputation styles, and are able to elicit a variety of interesting responses both from trustees and the public.

Regular readers who also use Twitter will probably have seen most of these videos already. However, Woke Watch Canada has a lot of subscribers, and they don’t all use social media. So this post is a way for me to translate some of the great content that circulates on Twitter, over to our humble Substack newsletter.

The first delegation I’d like to point out is one from January of 2022 by a teacher at the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) named Carolyn Burjoski. This was one of the first times many parents in Ontario became aware of the age-inappropriate sexualized content that had found its way into Canadian K-12 school libraries. It was also the first time the public became aware of the radical nature and authoritarian tendency of far too many school board trustees. In this case, the behaviour of last year's WRDSB chair trustee Scott Piatkowski illustrates my point. I wrote previously about the controversy that ensued after this board meeting in a piece called The Sinister Six Feel Entitled To Their Racism.

 Here is the video:

In February 2022 an informative WRDSB delegation was given by Dr. Peter Woolstencroft, a professor of political science. Dr. Woolstencroft focused his disputation on the Human Rights Code and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, specifically, the board's position that any contravention of the Charter will not be tolerated. Dr. Woolstencroft says this is based on a “gross misunderstanding” and should be considered “extreme intimidation.” The Charter was designed to control governments, however, “the board is using it to control what people say when they appear at its meetings.”

Here is the video:

One year after Carolyn’s delegation, a father with daughters who attend a WRDSB school, addressed the board. At the January 16, 2023 meeting, David Todor’s delegation covered the same phenomenon that Carolyn was concerned with, namely the age appropriateness of some of the books with sexualized content available to K-12 students in school libraries. David also brought up the surveys the school had sent home with students to fill out with their parents. David asked why these surveys contained questions about his 9-year old daughter's sexual orientation and gender identity.

Here is the video:

In the days after David gave this delegation, the board wrote an open letter, without the knowledge of all trustees, attacking non-woke parents. The letter repeatedly invokes “human rights.” David is not mentioned, but there is no doubt the board was referring to his January 16th delegation. From Sue Ann Levey’s True North report:

“The letter – which stumbles along for three pages endeavouring to defend the indefensible – is a seeming attempt to intimidate and cancel yet another person for daring to speak out about the board’s bizarre focus on age-inappropriate and highly sexualized books, surveys and policies.” 

Also in the March 2023 WRDSB meeting, parent Cristina Bairos Fernandes delegated for her second time. Cristina is not alone in thinking that it is child abuse to subject  prepubescent minors to sexualized material. She makes it clear that she is frustrated with the board who does not answer emails, and has not provided her and other parents with clarification repeatedly requested over the previous 14 months.

I like this delegation because it is full of important questions: what is the process for vetting the books in school libraries? What is the benefit for showing children graphic content? 

The next video is a delegation given at the same March 2023 WRDSB meeting by parent Julia Malott. This delegation is interesting not least because Julia is a trans woman speaking on policies and procedures around transgendered students - things like, social transition at school without the knowledge or permission of  parents. Julia says. “This overstep of parental rights is dangerous and irresponsible.” 

An interesting moment occurs mid-way through the delegation when Julia is interrupted by a trustee who says “I thought your delegation was about pronouns.” Julia explains that when a child changes pronouns it is not some arbitrary matter of grammar, they are socially transitioning. There is a brief pause as the gears in the machinery of confused and conflicted minds slowly turn. Julia is permitted to continue. She explains that changing pronouns is not something to take for granted; it is a “profound intervention” into the development of a child.

Here is the video:

Turning to the Ottawa Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) where the last few board meetings have been the source of much controversy. As I have covered in these pages, the OCDSB seems to suffer from many of the same issues as the WRDSB does when it comes to transparency around policies concerning gender ideology and transgendered students, and the bullying and silencing of parents who question them.

On March 7, 2023 a father, Nick Morabito, was respectfully raising concerns with the OCDSB washroom policies when he was cut short 35 seconds into a delegation. An unhinged radical progressive trustee and masked-obsessed medical doctor, Nili Kaplan-Myrth, told the Ottawa Citizen the next day that Mr. Morabito’s 35 seconds were transphobic.

Here is a video made by Mr. Morabito in response to being silenced at the March 7, 2023:

Another contentious OCDSB meeting, also covered in these pages, was held on March 28th. This time, due to the controversy over Kaplan-Myrth’s attempts to silence and slander him, Mr. Morabito was able to deliver his full delegation un-interrupted (video below).

From the same meeting on March 28th, regular Woke Watch Canada contributor Shannon Douglas gave one of my favorite delegations on free speech. Shannon has long been an advocate for children and the rights of women and girls, and a critic of Trans Rights Activism. However, his delegation was created in response to the illiberal and slanderous treatment of Mr. Morabito at the previous meeting. 

In the video below, Mr. Morabito’s full uninterrupted delegation is first, followed by Shannon’s excellent free speech delegation:

Also covered in these pages, the Halton District School Board (HDSB) received international attention last year when a shop teacher, a trans woman named Kayla Lemieux, was filmed and photographed teaching shop class while wearing oversized highly offensive prosthetic breasts. It is worth noting that by their own standards, the HDSB is failing miserably at equity. 8 of 10 trustees at HDSB are white women.

The inappropriateness of Lemieux, and the board's embarrassing lack of competence in bringing forward or articulating a professionalism policy that would deal with the perverted shop teachers offensive attire, inspired the formation of an extraordinary parents group called Students First Ontario (SFO). I recommend that all Canadian parents subscribe to and study the SFO’s newsletter, website, strategy, and the HDSB delegations given by parent members. SFO is a model parent organization by which other Canadian parents can fashion their approach.

The first HDSB delegation I will share is one delivered on February 15, 2023, by lawyer and parent member of SFO, Rishi Bandu. In his talk, Mr. Bandu focuses on the role of parents council. He emphasizes that school councils, sometimes called “parent councils,” are there to hold school boards accountable. He says, “the HDSB is accountable to the parents through school councils,” and, citing HDSB regulations, “the purpose of school councils is to enhance the accountability of the educational system to parents, through their active participation….school council is a check and a balance.”

Mr. Bandu goes into great detail concerning the rules and regulations around the purpose and function of school councils. At one point the audience of parents breaks into applause when, addressing the widespread pattern of parent deputants being denied their right to free speech during board meetings, Mr. Bandu says, “You cannot prevent parents from issuing feedback or recommendations with respect to their own children.”

Here is the video:

The most frustrating thing about Mr. Bandu’s delegation is the way Trustee Chair Margo Shuttleworth​​, full of smiles, dismisses everything he covered by claiming it was outside of the scope of the board and that parents need to take these issues up with school principals. This was a moment when many parents started to see the variety of excuses that trustees and directors of education use to pass the buck. Sometimes they defer responsibility for a given issue down the line to school administrators or principals, and sometimes they defer it up the line and hide their authoritarian impulse behind the Human Rights Code, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, or the Education Act.

In response to the HDSB’s unacceptably slow and ineffective response to Lemieux, who continued teaching in sexual fetish gear for over 8 months, parent Celina Close delegated on the role of trustees in policy development (in this case, the professionalism policy was the concern). Like Mr. Bandu, it is clear she has done her homework, as she cites many relevant laws and regulations. Her reasonable request is for the board to understand they have the power to design and enact a professionalism policy, and to consult with the parents when doing so. 

Here is the video:

An interesting exchange occurs at the end of the delegation when Trustee Amy Collard, gives her interpretation of the education act and asserts that it precludes trustees from being involved in the administrative affairs of schools. Trustee Collard explains that the procedures related to professionalism must come from the director of education. At the HDSB, that is the highly incompetent, Director Curtis Ennis. 

Trustee Collard cites the Education Act which states that trustees must stay out of the day-to-day operations of schools, and that operations “fall under the purview of the director.” This was the moment many parents realized the inexcusable level of incompetence illustrated by Director Ennis’ drawn-out ineffectiveness at dealing with the highly solvable issue of Lemieux’s lack of professionalism in the workplace.

The last delegation I will point to is one by parent Lynn Petruskavich, who addressed the professionalism policy at HDSB at the March 1, 2023 meeting. The HDSB had stalled the process claiming a statutory freeze was preventing the drafting and implementation policy, however, Lynn argued that the existing polices should be enough to enforce that teachers dress professionally at school. This is an excellently articulated and well crafted argument.

Here is the video. Lynn’s delegation begins at 2:26:51 :

I think there is a lot to learn from the different approaches being taken by parents when addressing their concerns with school boards. The above examples can inspire and instruct other parents on how they may bring their own concerns to their families school board. Please share any examples of effective parent delegations in the comments section and tell Woke Watch Canada readers what you think is effective about them. A lot more can and will be done in future posts of this nature that seek to highlight the best examples of parent and teacher push-back against the radical progressive agenda making schools less safe and far less educational.

___

Thanks for reading. For more from this author read, The people in the story of Canada

There are now two ways to support Woke Watch Canada through donations:

1) By subscribing to the paid version of the Woke Watch Canada Newsletter for - $5 USD/month or $50 USD/year

2) By donating to the Canadian School Board Investigation fund, which is raising money to expand Woke Watch Canada’s research and investigation into dysfunctional Canadian school boards.