Election Platform/Policies: Educational Vision and SOGI 123

Educational Vision and Concerns:

My position on education is one of maximizing parental involvement and choice in a way that respects the true diversity of the social, emotional, and cognitive needs and abilities of our children. The educational system has become so focused on identity politics and sexual diversity that it has completely forgotten to respect religious and ideological diversity. Children are our future and in that sense it is important to fund the educational system fully, and to enhance funding and focus on the increasing numbers of children with special needs.

In order for children to flourish they need to feel safe, supported and assisted in a step-by-step process that gradually builds confidence and success.

I believe our current education system is failing children as financial pressures are forcing more students into classes with less teacher supervision, causing concurrent stress on teachers and those with special needs.

It makes sense that funding needs to be increased for high incidence children (those with ADHD, learning disabilities) and concurrent parental support and involvement increased for those with low incidence student funding (those with autism, intellectual disabilities, deaf, blind students) There is no doubt that children in these categories need more one-on-one support and tailored classes.

I am a strong advocate of equal choice in education and empowering parents to access independent distributed learning options which has been especially helpful during the pandemic. However instead of supporting these alternative and, as most would agree, successful options, our government has slashed funding for IDL schools at a time when this model has proved to be the most helpful for children that are vulnerable in a classroom setting. 40% of the children in IDL schools come from vulnerable backgrounds of trauma, bullying and special needs. They would only benefit from a tailored educational program that IDL schools offer and thus should be supported. 

As a transgender person (he/him) and a leading opponent of SOGI 123 in BC, I believe politics, religion, and ideology need to be removed from the public school system all together, particularly in the lower grades. An independent school may set up their programming grounded on value based education and parents should be empowered to choose that option if they wish.

As a long-time member of the LGBTQ community, in order to promote peace in our classrooms and campuses while facilitating a diversity of worldviews, I support removing sex education from the classroom and creating online classes where students can be educated on these issues if they so wish with parental support and oversight.

We have been fighting unnecessarily over sex-ed for too long. An online platform of this kind of sex-ed model could be tailored to both inform and respect persons of different beliefs and values. Currently youth are being taught things that Christians and people of other faiths find horribly inappropriate and offensive. This does not garner inclusivity at all but seeks to encourage diverse and strong clashes in and outside the classroom which need to be stopped if we are wanting our children to be in an environment that is conducive to learning.

As with SOGI 123, there is no reason to enforce a one-size fits all sex-ed program when online options could be targeted to whatever parents/ students decide fits them best. This kind of model would go a long way to keeping the many divergent cultures represented in classrooms in harmony with each other and is definitely more “Canadian” in that it respects those of all cultural, religious and other background.   Education is critical and needs to be funded fully in order to empower teachers as well as private educators, but ideology and areas that promote a certain indoctrination in the area of politics, gender identity and that like need. Promoting choice should mean everyone is given the choice as to what they want their children to learn in these areas.

SOGI 123

I am probably best known for my opposition to the SOGI 123 program, although the reasons for my opposition have been routinely misrepresented. I believe SOGI 123 has trampled all views contrary to those advocated by the prevailing orthodoxy, and it tramples truth and reality underfoot as well. That needs to stop because it is having an extraordinarily devastating affect on our most vulnerable children as is documented in my call for a National Inquiry (see link below) that Conservative Leadership candidate Derek Sloan recently agreed to sponsored. 

The SOGI 123 resource needs to be, at a minimum, reviewed immediately because it contains materials such as I Am Jazz that cause gender confusion and is leading vulnerable youths onto a path that involves lifelong dependence on pharmaceutical medications (see statistical and detailed breakdown below), chemical castration and sterilization, and in later years even permanently altering genital and other “gender affirming” surgeries. The program itself has also generated much anger and discontent in society. Teachers are supposed to be educators not indoctrinating children into their chosen worldview. The fact SOGI 123 was designed without even consulting the largest demographic in BC, the Christian and religious community, is absolutely inexcusable (in my travels through the religious community of BC I have yet to meet a single religious leader that was consulted during the design of SOGI 123). This underscores a disturbingly totalitarian impulse in our education system that must stop and be redirected towards true inclusion.

Yes we want to make sure no child is bullied for any reason ever. I was bullied viciously myself as a foster child in BC and believe nobody should be bullied ever for any reason because it can be horribly traumatizing and can leave serious lasting scars, but that can and must be done in a way that is respectful and sensitive to the variety of different beliefs. Unfortunately SOGI 123’s one-size fits all methodology promotes a monoculture not true diversity and respect. 

Video call for a National Inquiry into the pharmaceutical “sex reassignment” and sterilization of vulnerable children, complete with statistics.