Duelling rallies fuelled by controversial trustee’s return

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/09/2023 (785 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two separate rallies about the role of the Louis Riel School Division when it comes to teaching students about LGBTTQ+ identities unfolded only five kilometres away from each other, but attendees’ views were worlds apart.

Shortly after 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, roughly 200 people – many of them wearing Pride flags and paraphernalia – chanted, “Hey! Ho! Transphobia has got to go!” outside LRSD headquarters at 900 St. Mary’s Rd.

Teachers, parents and students held up phrases including “Ban bigots, not books,” “Protect queer kids,” and “Hate is NOT a family value.”

“For some students, school is the only place where they feel safe and accepted, and they can be who they are. The attempts made to remove school as a safe place are not successful, and hopefully never will be,” said Lee Ramuscak, a trans woman who is starting Grade 12 this week.

For many, the event was the culmination of months of frustrations about the actions that resulted in St. Boniface trustee Francine Champagne being temporarily suspended from the LRSD board and her supporters’ backlash in response.

Champagne, who represents Ward 1, was criticized for her personal social media activity in the spring. On multiple occasions after being elected, the rookie trustee has shared conspiracy theories and sensationalistic content about the trans community on Facebook.

On May 13, she published an image with text that read: “To identify as = To live a lie.”

The board of trustees unanimously voted to bar her from trustee duties for three months without pay, starting on June 6. They cited internal policy breaches related to respecting human diversity and social media use.

Champagne, who is expected back at work this week, has refused to comment.

More than 30 of her supporters — including a number of high-profile “freedom fighters” — showed up to the LRSD board’s June 20 gathering to demand answers about the suspension.

Division administrators were quick to condemn individuals’ heckling, including homophobic slurs that were leveled at a bisexual trustee during the event. No-trespass orders have since been issued to everyone who caused a disturbance.

Teacher Kay Wojnarski organized an anti-hate rally to coincide with back-to-school because of her concerns about book-ban discussions and other provinces announcing policies that require students to receive parental approval to change their pronouns at school.

“We’re not coming for your straight or cisgender kids to make them gay or trans; it doesn’t work that way,” Wojnarski, who lives and teaches in the district, told a rowdy crowd during an impassioned speech in St. Vital Tuesday.

She added: “We are here for your queer kids, to help them grow into their authentic selves.”

At the same time, dozens of individuals gathered around LRSD’s Windsor Park board office (50 Monterey Rd.) to raise concerns that LRSD administrators won’t listen to their concerns that teachers are pushing an agenda to sexualize children.

Members of the latter group showed up with signage bearing the words, “Let kids be kids” and “Protecting children is not bigotry or hateful.”

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Paul Samyn | Editor's Note

Wednesdays

A weekly dispatch from the head of the Free Press newsroom.

Sign up for Paul Samyn | Editor's Note

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Karl Krebs, who gained notoriety for advocating against COVID-19 mandates during the height of the pandemic, was among the speakers. The Winkler resident has been a vocal supporter of Champagne and helped raise money for her while she was suspended without pay.

“We do not need to sexualize our kids… It’s simply reprehensible and it needs to be talked about,” he told the group that included others who, like him, received no-trespass orders from LRSD after disrupting the June 20 meeting.

Krebs criticized the division for “acting in a very authoritarian way” by banning members of the public from properties.

The board’s bimonthly meetings are typically held in a hybrid format, but division leaders announced last week that members of the public would only be allowed to attend online “in an attempt to do our part to de-escalate tension.”

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Maggie Macintosh
Education reporter

Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie.

Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.

Every piece of reporting Maggie produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.