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SHARBOT LAKE, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) — Teachers at a rural Ontario public school responded to a LifeSiteNews article about the suspension of two of their Catholic students by donning LGBT “Pride” clothing.
On Friday, April 26, elementary school teachers at the Sharbot Lake’s Granite Ridge Education Centre wore rainbow-festooned LGBT “Pride” clothing to work. This followed the publication of a LifeSiteNews article about the suspension of brothers Malachy and Desmond O’Kane and an interview with Malachy and his mother Kate O’Kane on Thursday, April 25.
Malachy and Desmond O’Kane, aged 16 and 13, were both suspended from school on April 18, following Malachy’s second appearance in a sweatshirt reading “There are only two genders” and Desmond’s open display on his clothing of the same belief. Malachy was excluded for 6 days, whereas Desmond was back at school on Friday and saw the teachers’ LGBT ‘Pride’ display.
Posters displaying the unscientific and purely ideological “Gender Unicorn” have also been placed around the school.
Kate O’Kane attempted to discuss the teachers’ apparently impromptu protest when she accompanied Malachy to his post-suspension meeting with school principal Carrie Moore and vice-principal Wojtek Czermak.
“Desmond came home and said the majority of [elementary school] staff had on ‘Pride’ and rainbow clothing,” Kate told the school officials. “He said at least half the staff, and a lot of kids were commenting [on] why so many staff had on ‘Pride’ clothes.”
“Staff are welcome to wear what they like,” stated Moore according to material obtained by LifeSiteNews.
READ: 16-year-old Catholic student suspended for wearing ‘There are only two genders’ shirt
Moore and Kate argued briefly over the notion that wearing ‘Pride’ clothing is an aggressive act, or “about going against others.”
“If there were messages of hate and intolerance on staff shirts, then absolutely they would have been asked to remove them and there would have been follow up,” Moore told Malachy and Kate. “But wearing a flag is not that.”
“Nor is stating that there are two genders,” stated Kate.
“That’s a fact, though,” Malachy interjected.
“We will disagree on that,” the principal replied.
Moore told Malachy that there would be “follow up” if he used “language like that” or engaged in “activities” or used language “verbally that has similar messaging.” In response, Malachy informed Moore that there are two genders before questioning her authority to deem this opinion “hate.”
Kate spoke up for other students who do not believe in transgender ideology.
“What about all of the students here?” she asked. “The majority of these students that feel the same way, but you’re telling them they’re not allowed to say it?”
She told Moore that the vice-principal had told her that Desmond’s remarks about biological men not being allowed to take part in women’s sports “should be kept inside Desmond’s head.”
“Those opinions, which 70% of the population of Canada [share], should be kept inside Desmond’s head,” she marvelled.
Wojtek Czermak did not speak during the five-minute meeting. Kate O’Kane told LifeSiteNews that Czermak, too, was wearing Pride-themed clothing on the Friday after Desmond’s return to school.
LifeSiteNews contacted Principal Carrie Moore for comment but has not yet received a response.
Whiles teachers engaged in a sartorial display of LGBT pride, students watched and talked about Malachy’s LifeSiteNews interview. Kate told LifeSite that Desmond, who is in Grade 8, was approached by a “bunch of kids” on the Friday after the story and interview were published to say that they had seen his brother online, that he was doing a good thing, and that they felt the same way.
“They started sharing the video among their friends,” Kate related. “Desmond walked into the cafeteria at some point throughout the day, and there were groups of kids crowding around phones watching the interview.”
One of Kate’s other children in primary school told her that she, too, had been approached by classmates who said they agree with her brother. And an even younger child has told Kate that one boy in his class wears “girls” clothing” and “talks like a girl” while another boy in class “says he’s a dog and acts like that in class.”
According to Kate, Desmond has spoken to her daily about an “abnormal” number of children in his Grade 8 class who say they identify as “non-binary” or as the opposite gender, or as lesbians, bisexuals, or animals.
“One of these children will bark and growl at Desmond,” Kate said.
According to its CatapultSchools.ca, Granite Ridge Education Centre was built for 550 children and represents the consolidation of two elementary schools and a high school. The school year population of Sharbot Lake itself is around 1,500.
LifeSiteNews has ascertained that “There are only two genders” has never been ruled “hate speech” in a Canadian court of law.
Since Section 5 of the Canadian Human Rights Act was repealed, hate speech is defined only in the Criminal Code of Canada’s Section 319. To meet the threshold, an expression requires public communication which incites hatred against an identifiable group, and it must be “wilful”—meaning that the person expressing the sentiment must intend to promote hatred.
Hatred has been defined by the Canadian Supreme Court in R. v. Keegstra thus:
Hatred is predicated on destruction, and hatred against identifiable groups therefore thrives on insensitivity, bigotry and destruction of both the target group and of the values of our society. Hatred in this sense is a most extreme emotion that belies reason; an emotion that, if exercised against members of an identifiable group, implies that those individuals are to be despised, scored, denied respect and made subject to ill-treatment on the basis of group affiliation.
Meanwhile, Malachy’s sweatshirt did not mention any groups at all. It stated solely that “There are only two genders.”
Outside of grammar classes, the word “gender” is colloquially used to denote biological sex. It is a scientific fact that human beings are either male or female and thus that there are only two sexes. A small minority of human beings (0.018 percent of the population) are born with disorders of sexual development (DSD) in which their observable sexual characteristics do not develop in accord with their male or female chromosomes.
READ: The transgender narrative is continuing to crumble in real time