Commentary
The Edmonton teacher who controversially tore a strip off a Muslim student for dodging school Pride celebrations isn’t the problem.
She’s just the symptom, her words merely the manifestation of growing demands by government that citizens conform to its beliefs and submit their children to its guidance.
If you haven’t heard the recording of the teacher declaring that failure to participate in Pride activities makes a person un-Canadian, you should listen up right here before reading further.
The teacher is clearly in an elevated emotional state and deeply offended by what has occurred. While there’s no indication the student did anything other than avoid the Pride activities by skipping school, she dresses the student down by noting that Ramadan was recently acknowledged during the school’s daily 20-minute assembly and that the student should have reciprocated.
“If you want to be respected for who you are, if you don’t want to suffer prejudice for your religion, your colour of skin, your whatever, then you better give it back to people who are different than you,” she says, sounding rational, before concluding, quite implausibly, with: “We believe that people can marry whomever they want, that is in the law, and if you don’t think that should be the law, you can’t be Canadian.”
It was an extraordinary, authoritarian thing to say, particularly from a teacher. I remember when schools taught that being Canadian meant that if you didn’t like a law, you worked to change it (notwithstanding the fact that in this case that would involve getting yourself appointed to the Supreme Court). You were taught to obey the law, of course, but dissent—particularly upon theological grounds—was not to be punished and its civil expression was encouraged.
But here’s the deal. Lots of Canadians, many millions of them, agree with the teacher that everyone should be compelled to view the world the way she sees it and believe in what she believes.
Certainly, tolerance of each other and our differences/diversity is vital for social cohesion. But these days, that isn’t enough; participation in and agreement with the core values of designated celebrations is mandatory. It isn’t just action the teacher is demanding, it’s belief.
Given the ever-growing list of orientations attached to Pride, one would think it possible to fully favour equal rights for gays and lesbians while being more hesitant regarding the need to join the party in celebrating some of the less well-explained Ps (pansexual) and Qs. Or being of the view that while the promotion of patience, kindness, and tolerance is certainly of high importance for all ages, discussions regarding sexuality and who puts what where how and with whom are not appropriate for all ages.
Yet many Canadians—and certainly a lot of school trustees and teachers—see those as nothing other than rhetorical excuses for hatred.
There’s no doubt many within the 2SLGBTQQIA+ universe are troubled by those who adhere to traditional religious views regarding sexuality and gender identity. And, just like everyone else in this world, they should be free to express their concerns without fear of sanction by the state or its agents. We don’t, after all, live in a theocracy.
Or do we?
Surely none of us gets to demand that other people attend our events or indicate they agree with us about everything. Just as we can respect Ramadan without insisting that all students eschew food and water during school hours, we should be able to note the occasion of Pride activities, Indigenous People’s Day, Christmas, Dhawali, and Ramadan without imposing their rituals and orthodoxies upon each other.
People like New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs should be able to insist that parents of students struggling with their identity be brought into the conversation by educators without being vilified by the prime minister and his cabinet because there’s no guarantee all parents would react appropriately to the news. Being human, there’s no doubt some would struggle. It’s got to be a difficult conversation.
But it takes the breath away to imagine how anyone can believe, as Justin Trudeau clearly does, that the same institution—government—that denied women the vote, created eugenics policies, criminalized homosexuality, imposed Chinese head taxes, race-based internment camps, and the residential school system is so morally superior to the nuclear family that it can usurp it as a protective shell for its members.
Indeed, according to the PM, believing in your right as a parent to have an honest relationship with your children is to adopt a “far right” position akin to white supremacism.
If there is a problem with parents who in general love their children with a strength that defies understanding, the state has the power to deal with it. But it is entirely inappropriate and deeply insulting for government at any level to base its policies on the assumption parents are a threat to their children and that the state is not.
And that, really, is the problem. It’s not the teacher and her overwrought shock that some people actually believe in Islam with as much conviction as she believes in 2SLGBTQQIA+.
Although it’s certainly likely in many cases, I doubt that the main reason most people in some school districts are keeping their kids home from school on Pride days is that they are afraid of the Gs and the Ls and the Bs. Or the Ts.
Whether they realize it or not, what they are really afraid of is a state that wants to own their children.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
