On Feb. 17, British Columbia’s Human Rights Tribunal levied a fine of $750,000 against Barry Neufeld, formerly a trustee with the school board of Chilliwack, B.C.., for comments he had made several years ago. Neufeld’s main concern, the evidence would suggest, was the possibly devastating effects produced by the widespread admission of Trans Ideology into the province’s educational system. It is an Ideology, he has argued, that actually has very little to do with Gay Rights. The members of the tribunal clearly disagreed, ruling that equating gender affirming support to Child Abuse was Hate Speech! Really? Have you read of the various teens incited to change genders only to have discovered they had utterly ruined their lives? Was Neufeld’s position rooted in Hatred or simple Common Sense?
A few days after the tribunal’s decision, another trustee of the Chilliwack school board, Laurie Throness, resigned, saying he no longer felt safe in expressing himself and that Neufeld’s fate could have a chilling effect on public discourse. Clearly of the same opinion, an independent member of the province’s Legislative Assembly, Tara Armstrong, actually launched a motion to have both B.C.’s Human Rights Code and its Tribunal abolished. The motion was narrowly defeated on Feb. 26. One wonders how many voted against it for fear of having their political careers and perhaps their entire live destroyed?
Ms. Armstrong made her motivation clear. It was not hatred of any demographic, but her belief that “Freedom of speech is the cornerstone of our democracy.” In a wonderful example of an individual putting his Ideals ahead of his Identity, Josh Dehaas, a member of The Canadian Constitutional Foundation who is Gay, nevertheless published an article in the Mar. 1 edition of the National Post in which he argued that the comments of people such as Neufeld were far less destructive than the efforts of various demographics to silence all those who do not share their world-view. He clearly values the preservation of our Democracy over the “hurt feelings” of those unwilling to tolerate any criticism whatsoever!
Is there such a thing as Hate Speech which ought to be curtailed? Of course there is! But the criteria of today’s Leftist Human Rights Advocates are inane. At the core of that inanity is the double-standard whereby it is perfectly permissible to launch any criticism whatsoever against a member of a “privileged class” [i.e., a White Male], but utterly deplorable to impugn the views or actions of one deemed to be “oppressed.” Given this absurd formula for what constitutes “hate speech,” when the interests of two “oppressed” groups come into conflict, the one deemed to be the most vulnerable by definition garners the empathy of the Left. Women constitute half of the species, Trans individuals significantly less than 1%. Thus are 200 lb. individuals with penises who now identify as Female, given the right to compete in Women’s sports by “woke” individuals who at the same time see themselves as champions of Women’s Rights. Truly absurd!
To those of us who still see Self-Awareness and Morality as existential imperatives, the contemporary Left has validated self-indulgent whining for all those who deem themselves “oppressed.” Being fully sympathetic to those who feel they have been born into the wrong gender, I nevertheless loathe the Trans initiative to spread its gospel in our schools, its purpose being to validate Transitioning as a perfectly “normal” aspect of the human condition. It is Not, and stressing teens with this issue would seem to be the agenda of a demographic that simply does not care about the welfare of others! Gee, is it possible Barry Neufeld ought to be be lauded for attempting to defend B.C.’s adolescents from issues they are simply too young to digest? A fifteen year old cannot drink, drive or vote. Ought he/she be allowed to change genders at the urging of perfect strangers?
Wow! What a coincidence. Blaze News today revealed that the Supreme Court has just ruled that California’s schools cannot launch a student down the path to Transitioning without informing their Parents. That any institution would even consider violating the rights of Parents is atrocious, yet a perfect example of the authoritarianism and arrogance of those who deem themselves “progressives.”