Where was Pierre Poilievre?
The 1 Million March 4 Children parents rights protests were a success, no thanks to the Conservative Party of Canada
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Last year Woke Watch Canada readers followed our coverage of several dysfunctional school boards who consistently used bullying tactics and other undemocratic means to shut down concerned parents and others with dissenting viewpoints around controversial school policies. Mainstream media coverage was unsurprisingly sparse. The few stories that were reported on, painted dissenting parents, teachers and trustees, who had “unacceptable opinions” at contentious public board meetings, as unreasonable right-wing bigots or white supremacists.
But according to Angus Reid, 78% of Canadians do not support keeping secrets from parents regarding changes of gender, names or pronouns at school. This issue, and controversial policies around gender ideology - for example, the belief that gender is fluid and not fixed at birth, or the practice of placing boys in girls' change rooms or sports categories - are the reason many school board meetings were so explosive last year, and why on Wednesday, parents joined 1 Million March 4 Children protests across the country.
Most Canadian politicians, including the other leaders of federal parties, Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh, made their positions on the parents' protests clear. But, as I wrote on Wednesday, there was dead silence from conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. After a successful conservative policy convention earlier this month in Quebec, where party members voted into the conservative policy handbook a new provision that would entitle women to single-sex spaces, and another that would ban medical interventions for gender dysphoric minors, it was disappointing that Poilievre had no words of encouragement for Canadians standing up for families and parental rights - cornerstones of the conservative tradition.
Canadian lawyer and cultural commentator Viva Frei had the following to say about the silence from Polievre’s office:
Pierre Poilievre really has not tweeted out anything about today’s nationwide protest? At least @JustinTrudeau and @theJagmeetSingh acted like themselves, and tweeted something idiotic and divisive. @PierrePoilievre could not even capitalize off that mistake? The official “opposition” is officially limp. #LimpPP
I asked University of London political scientist, Eric Kaufmann, what he made of the lack of comment from Polievre concerning the 1 Million March 4 Children protests. Here is his take:
Poilievre is unfortunately largely neoliberal in outlook, garnished with some anti woke rhetoric, which represents an older establishment conservatism , but, despite some signaling, not newer populist conservatism. I think he’s making a big mistake by failing to lean into an issue that commands the support of most Canadians. Is he afraid of the media?
When it comes to cultural issues, it appears that Poilievre is definitely reluctant, if not afraid, of the highly woke Canadian legacy media. The Toronto Star reported earlier today that the Canadian Press obtained a copy of a message sent to members of Pierre Poilievre's caucus, warning not to speak publicly about the protests, and providing a list of acceptable talking points.
Even though the message to conservative party members mentioned that parents had "legitimate points to make" about "parental rights," MPs were told that "to communicate with constituents on the issue of parental rights," they should repeat past responses Poilievre has given to reporters concerning the issue. Two examples of Poilievre’s remarks were, “that parents should be the final authority on the values and lessons that should be taught to children," and "let parents raise kids."
Ok good, but if that is how you feel Pierre, why not say it out loud for the benefit of all Canadians?
Professor Kaufmann is not alone in thinking Poilievre is making a mistake in not taking a stand on issues concerning gender and children. Parent, and children's advocate, Billboard Chris said the following on X in a post linking to an op-ed he penned for the Telegraph called “Canadian Conservatives are just fine with medical sex transition for children”:
Bill C-4 made it a criminal offense to try to help a child feel comfortable with their sex. It’s totally acceptable under the law to convince a girl she is a boy, send her into teenaged menopause with puberty blockers, give her testosterone which will require a hysterectomy, cut off her breasts, and turn her into a lifelong pharmaceutical patient. If you object to this practice, you can now be charged with “conversion therapy” and face up to five years in prison.
This is total madness – but unfortunately for Canadians, the bill was confirmed unanimously in the House and the Senate. On the day that it passed, Pierre Poilievre’s hand-picked deputy, Melissa Lantsman, tweeted “Some days are exceptionally good days.” Conservatives and Liberals were dancing and crying in the aisles, hugging each other.
A virtually identical bill called Bill C-6 had passed the House during the previous government, but hadn’t passed the Senate yet when Trudeau called an election in 2021. At that time, 62 Conservatives voted against the bill. Among the minority of Conservatives who voted in favour was the Conservative party leader, Pierre Poilievre.
Another protest, scheduled for tomorrow in Toronto, will see Josh Alexander and Billboard Chris leading the call for “Education over Indoctrination.” Details of that event below. Please be safe if you are planning to attend.
I’ll leave it at that for today, but I’ll be watching closely to see if Poilievre and the conservatives break their silence on the issues that are so important to so many families from British Columbia to Prince Edward Island and everywhere in between.
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Thanks for reading. For more from this author read, It was a great day for Canadian parents
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If Pierre wants my vote he can't sit on the fence! Take a stand against child abuse in public schools without accountability toward parents!!! 78% are not wrong!
Poilievre may believe that silence is golden, but it isn't. Silence is complicity. When you have the leaders of the two other parties openly opposing parents and family values with their actions and statements, the official opposition has a moral obligation to speak out against such injustice and oppression. Remaining neutral in the face of wrongdoing should never be an option. He missed a very strategic opportunity to shine.
"Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”