By Cathy Smith, Alberta REAL Women Board Member
On June 8, 2019, REAL Women of Canada hosted its AGM at the Liberty Suites Hotel in Toronto. With an attendance of new and old members, we were enthralled with the presentation given by Tanya Granic Allen.
I first became aware of our guest speaker when I read an email on the Ontario-based PAFE (Parents as First Educators) several years ago. They were concerned about parental rights and the sex-ed curriculum of Kathleen Wynne, the then premier of the province of Ontario.
Tanya is the President of PAFE and continues to keep the issue of Ontario’s sex-ed curriculum in the news.
In fact, as she highlighted to all those in attendance, she was successful in her nomination bid as a candidate for Mississauga for the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario and then decided she needed to run for the leadership of the Party to keep the sex-ed curriculum issue at the top of the news throughout the campaign. It was truly inspiring to see her in the debates as she challenged the other candidates, notably Caroline Mulroney, Christine Elliott and Doug Ford, on where they stood in relation to parental rights and the sex-ed curriculum and their voting records on this issue.
She demonstrated to our members present that she has strong leadership skills and that she is well versed on a variety of issues, not just education.
During the Conservative leadership campaign, Tanya’s strong base of support was later transferred to Doug Ford which enabled him to win the election for leadership. She continues to soldier on speaking out on the promise Premier Doug Ford made and has not fulfilled regarding the sex–ed curriculum. The curriculum has not been repealed as promised by Mr. Ford.
In spite of Article 26.3 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that parents have the right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children, parent rights are slowly being eroded by the interference of the state. As an example, Scotland has now assigned a “named person” from the state to look after one’s child. This Named Person will have power to access confidential data on the family, and to talk to a child without their parents agreeing with what they say.
Tanya explained that Canada has become an authoritarian state, interfering with parental rights. For example, Ontario Bill 28, “All Families are Equal Act”, passed in December 2016, redefined the family such that there can be no more reference to “mother” or “father”. The family becomes a contractual arrangement where up to four persons are identified as parents.
The child has now become a commodity like “Thing 1” and “Thing 2” in the world of Dr. Seuss.
This ideology is counter to natural law.
Ontario Bill 77, the Transgender Therapy Bill, passed in 2015, prevents therapy for children who are gender confused (“Gender dysphoria”).
Ontario Bill 89, Supporting Children, Youth and Families Act, which passed in 2017, amended the Child and Family Services Act. (The NDP in Alberta did something similar.) This new legislation signals a potential shift towards greater readiness for children’s aid societies to intervene in family affairs, including cases where the parents do not agree with their child’s expressed “gender identity”.
Tanya discussed the impending Ontario Bill 84, prohibiting hate-promoting demonstrations at Queen’s Park in Toronto. The Bill has passed second reading and is now at the Standing Committee stage.
People need to start pushing back on this abuse of their rights.
For 36 years, REAL Women of Canada has been using its voice and speaking out about these abuses and warning about many of these issues which have now become reality.
As Tanya reminded us, Dr. Jordan Petersen says “Use your voice or lose it.”
“The cost of not speaking up is far worse than speaking up”.