Prime Minister Trudeau at Toronto’s 2019 Pride parade. Photo credit: PMO/Adam Scotti
Somehow, someway in the past few years, the proper respect for individuals making personal choices about sex has become a debate about what sexual conversations can be had with preadolescent children without their parents’ knowledge. Our “forward thinking” Canadian society has become transfixed with arguments about use of pronouns, gender fluidity, and how young children must be protected from their parents’ hurtful opinions on transgenderism.
In addition to his infamous blackface poses, Justin Trudeau has become the poster boy for 2SLGBTQIA+, championing their causes at every opportunity. The country’s subsidized legacy media trumpets the PM’s progressivism with state-broadcaster CBC acting as a proactive vanguard, espousing enlightened opinions from the front lines in the battle of the (multiple) sexes.
2SLGBTQIA+ are loud and proud – and merciless to anyone whose beliefs may differ. Their modus operandi is to silence any discussion by labelling and shaming people as a hateful “sexist,” “misogynist,” and/or “transphobe,” and then shout down and bully until an individual is “cancelled.” This intimidating tactic has the majority of Canadians keeping their heads down and mouths shut – that is until it comes to how the progressives’ assault on individuals’ beliefs impacts children. This is the rub – as witnessed through the last couple of months in New Brunswick, at the Toronto District School Board, and with Pride celebrations in schools across the country.
There have been dozens of CBC reports on Pride school celebrations, including this year’s tour de force, the Drag Queen Story Hour for primary students. With its own progressive slant, CBC “news reports” share the many joys of school Pride activities as well as the deplorable agitation of protestors who rally to shut down drag queens’ freedom of expression. It’s been a deluge of CBC news: “Advice from some Halifax drag queens about life, love and confidence,” “Just Ask: Drag Story Time,” and “Drag helped me find myself and talk about gender with my son.” There was also the CBC Radio special “The Power of Drag” that proclaims “Drag is everywhere — and it has never been more popular” and then reports on the hate and violence of those protesting story hours for kids.
The CBC has been primus inter pares among Canada’s legacy media in reporting on transphobic arguments erupting at school board meetings, odious acts in defense of women competing in sports or feeling safe in their washrooms, school board directives to observe Pride month as a human rights imperative, and how American “anti-LGBTQ hate” is tainting the full embrace of transgenderism in our schools.
From its opinion and anchor desks in Fredericton, CBC has reported at length on the stand taken by New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs to amend Policy 713, directing schools to notify parents when students under the age of 16 want to change their name and pronoun choices. First there were the headlines about the “embattled Premier” who had lost faith of his caucus. Then there were detailed reports of the “Christian conservative groups” rallying to turn back the caucus revolt and energize “evangelicals” and “the religious right.”
The state-broadcaster presents the evolving New Brunswick news stories as political drama and a black (Christian/conservative) and white (progressive) issue. With this biased presentation, lost is the context regarding how schools have become the meeting ground of “gender identity” activism, or how parents’ rights in raising their preadolescent children are being challenged and denied. For those contextual considerations regarding the crux of the matter, Canadians must turn to independent journalists and news sources.
On this last point, it is remarkable to recognize the difference in coverage between legacy and independent news when it comes to reporting on PM Justin Trudeau’s clarion voice for transgender issues. For example, regarding the New Brunswick legislation, legacy media amplified the PM’s observations on the matter: “Right now, trans kids in New Brunswick are being told they don’t have the right to be their true selves, that they need to ask permission. Trans kids need to feel safe, not targeted by politicians. We need to stand against this.”
The PM waxed eloquently in front of the cameras, “We’re seeing that angry, hateful rhetoric rise on our continent, particularly targeting trans people. Far-right political actors are trying to outdo themselves with the types of cruelty and isolation they can inflict on these already vulnerable people.”
Not surprisingly, the same media failed to broadcast Premier Higgs’ statements in the legislature when he declared, “Parents are the foundation of our society; families are the foundation of our society. And what we’re seeing is that erosion of the family role in children’s upbringing.” Not surprisingly CBC did not report on the Premier’s concerns that gender dysphoria is being packaged and presented in schools as “popular and trendy.”
In another instance on the opposite end of our country, Canadians will be well aware of the PM’s response to Muslim parents who shared their concerns about gender ideology being taught in elementary schools. Again, legacy media was very good at showcasing our woke PM telling parents that they are victims of “misinformation and disinformation” by the “American right wing.”
Again, in front of rolling cameras, Trudeau patiently explained, “These are people on the far right who have consistently stood against Muslim rights and the Muslim community, but they are weaponizing the issue of LGBT, which is something that, yes, Islam has strong opinions on, the same way that the religious right in Canada, the Christian right, has strong opinions against as well.”
CBC was generous in its coverage of this reflective exchange between the PM and parents; much more generous than its coverage of the Muslim families who took to the streets in cities across the country to chant “Leave our children alone.” Again, Canadians needed to search out alternative news sources such as The Post Millennial, True North Media, and The Cultural Action Party of Canada newsletter to understand the grievances that Muslim groups have against “PM Trudeau’s LGBT Indoctrination Agenda.”
Canadians will not learn from CBC or Toronto Star how focused the Trudeau government is to advance the 2SLGBTQI+ cause in the country. Consider these facts that got little to no legacy news coverage:
- The 2022 federal budget committed $100 million to a “2SLGBTQI+ Federal Action Plan,” including grant funding to bolster community organizations and their outreach activities
- The Trudeau cabinet researched the impact of banning funding to organizations “unaccepting of LGBTQ individuals” and also discussed its preferential funding for Pride communities
- Trudeau took the occasion of International Women’s Day to make the statement: “with a disturbing rise in anti-transgender hate here in Canada and around the world recently, I want to be very clear about one more thing: Trans women are women. We will always stand up to this hate – whenever and wherever it occurs.”
- At the G7 Summit in May, there was much coverage on Trudeau’s comments to PM Giorgia Meloni about her government’s stance on LGBTQ+ rights but no follow through reports on the reaction of Italian officials. In the same vein, there was no media commentary on why Trudeau and cabinet delegation failed to raise the same issue with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at July’s NATO Summit.
By way of a parting comment, let’s look at recent opinion polls on the subject. Leger polling on the Trudeau-Higgs standoff reveals 57 per cent of Canadians believe that a school should have to tell parents if a student wishes to change their gender identity – and 69 per cent of Atlantic Canadians agree with Premier Higgs’ stand for parents’ rights.
Abacus Data reports 72 per cent Canadians are familiar with LGBTQ issues, and 76 per cent are comfortable around members of the LGBTQ community. However, the same survey tells us 62 per cent of Canadians said they were “concerned about the values children are learning.”
Might it be that, perhaps, in Canada the issue of students and transgenderism has indeed become black and white: the progressive ideologue leader and his billion dollar-plus state broadcaster versus concerned parents and fair minded Canadians.
Chris George is an advocate, government relations advisor, and writer/copy editor. As president of a public relations firm established in 1994, Chris provides discreet counsel, tactical advice and management skills to CEOs/Presidents, Boards of Directors and senior executive teams in executing public and government relations campaigns and managing issues. Prior to this PR/GR career, Chris spent seven years on Parliament Hill on staffs of Cabinet Ministers and MPs. He has served in senior campaign positions for electoral and advocacy campaigns at every level of government. Today, Chris resides in Almonte, Ontario where he and his wife manage www.cgacommunications.com. Contact Chris at chrisg.george@gmail.com.
