Sometimes The Law Is An Ass

"Where an employer's dress or grooming standards create a discriminatory impact, it will be incumbent on the employer to establish that the standards are a bona fide occupational requirement, most likely on the basis that they are necessary to protect workplace health and safety."

"Similarly, it is important to recognize the impact that dress code policies can have on members of the transgender community. Most notably, it is important for employers to make allowances to ensure that these employees are able to express themselves in accordance with their lived gender."

"Even if a dress code is implemented for non-discriminatoy reasons and in good faith, it would likely be found to be discriminatory."

Halton District School Board Report

Oakville Trafalgar High School transgender shop teacher Kayla Lemieux is seen here at a theatre in Halton Region. Photo by Supplied

 

Photos and videos of an industrial arts teacher at Oakville Trafalgar High School west of Toronto elicited gasps of disbelief from parents when they showed the teacher wearing giant prosthetic breasts with prominent nipples. Published on social media by students, the illustrations led to headlines in a number of other countries, appearing in multiple languages. There was outrage expressed, disbelief that such an absurdity could occur and a concern that students exposed to this kind of outrageous showmanship would be led to take the education system less seriously than might be warranted.

 

The Ontario Minister of Education was not amused. He urged the Ontario College of Teachers to consider producing a review for the purpose of emphasizing the importance of professional conduct provisions. The college agreed to the request but has not yet produced its review. "The College has been reviewing its professional standards in response to Minister Lecce's request. We will provide our response to the Minister when it is ready.".

For its part the Halton District School Board initiated its own report into a teacher dress code, releasing the results at a school board meeting. Sari Taha, superintendent of human resources with the school board informed trustees of two considerations with respect to dress codes; the first whether a dress code would be permitted under labour and employment law. Secondly, whether it would be consistent with Ontario's Human Rights Code.

There is a theory from insider sources that the teacher had an earlier disagreement with school officials. Where he was criticized for lack of seriousness toward diversity initiatives. The theory holds that he decided to confront the school with an exaggerated outcome of their policies, a type of 'performance art' in appearing in a vastly exaggerated costume meant to draw notice and it certainly did do that. 

What it also demonstrates is how bound up institutions have become in heeding human rights codes lest they be charged with human rights abuses, in particular against members of the LGBTQ-2 community in solidarity with transgender rights. Nothing diminishes the shock value and outrageous behaviour of an individual to whom student education is entrusted, making a mockery of social conduct.

School administrations, school boards and teachers' unions are all held hostage to the woke-liberal values of 'human rights' laws and human rights bodies which mandate conformation to their socially liberated acceptance of bizarre behaviour in the interests of furthering human rights for everyone, equally. A sense of responsibility to the student body is completely absent. The issue is not merely whether transgender people have a right to be accepted in society, it is also their responsibility to be part of society.

 

The issue should revolve around the responsibility of authorizing authorities to the students whose interest they purportedly represent. The transgender teacher who chose to flaunt huge prosthetic breasts may have been delivering a message, but it is the students who found the display at odds with their view of social interaction with equal respect for everyone involved, somehow missing respect for then sensibilities of the students themselves.

An image from a video taken at Ontario’s Oakville Trafalgar High School showing a shop teacher wearing enormous silicone breasts with visible nipples while teaching class. Photo by Twitter

"This is simply ridiculous [that the teacher has been informed she may continue dressing in this manner],"

"No one should accept any other form of sexual perversity, no matter how it’s dressed up, being paraded in front of minors at school."

"[The CLC has delivered a petition with 5,000 signatures to the board demanding Kerry “Kayla” Lemieux’s removal from the class because] we saw this teacher’s fetish for wearing large fake breasts with extruding nipples as pornographic and a threat to children."

"Parents should rise up, pull their children out of the school, and make it clear that their children will not return until the board starts putting children, instead of employees, first."

"Parents, unfortunately, won’t be getting any help from Prime Minster (Justin) Trudeau who’s about to make an appearance in Canada’s Drag Race.”

"Trudeau has proven to be an enemy of Canadian families by promoting the delusional lifestyles that lead to this kind of shameful situation."

Pete Baklinski, director of communications, Campaign Life Coalition (CLC)

 

Banned From Teaching : Termination Punishment for Questioning Premature Medical Transition

Carolyn Burjoski, Jan. 21, 2022

"I am not a transphobic person. It's crazy that just because  you ask a question, the first thing people do is call you that. We do need to have a conversation about the intersection of biology and gender. We're not having those conversations in our culture because, look what happened to me."

"The message is clear: no dissent is allowed."

"[Books judged appropriate on gender dysphoria in school libraries aimed at impressionable children make it seem simple to take cross sex hormones; misleading] because it does not take into account how Shane might feel later in life about being infertile. This book makes very serious medical interventions seem like an easy cure for emotional and psychological distress." 

"The following morning H.R. informed me that I was immediately assigned to home, pending a formal investigation and banned from contacting my colleagues and students. This was particularly upsetting to me because I love my students, and I have not seen them since December."

Carolyn Burjoski, Ontario school teacher, Waterloo Region District

"This person was speaking about transgender people in a way that was disrespectful, that would cause them to be attacked and I really needed to ensure it did not continue."

"I'm quite confident it was the right decision."

"[I would not repeat or respond to her remarks and] give them oxygen."

Scott Piatkowski, chair, Waterloo Region District School Board

"I'm not sorry that someone who opened the door to transphobic comments was stopped from keeping that door open."

"That's not overreach. Protect the most vulnerable. Uphold human rights."

"If you can't do that, sit down."

Laura Mae Lindo, NDP MPP, Kitchener Centre

 

"It's censoring presentations that the chair doesn't agree with."

"As decision makers, we have to make informed decisions ... If we're going to just take one point of view and say that's sufficient, that's wrong on so many fronts."

Mike Ramsay, board member and three-time chair, Waterloo Region District School Board

CityNews file photo

 

Discussions on certain topics are forbidden by the very delicate 'hands-off' position taken by the neo-liberal-left wokeism that appears to have transfixed society at every level in hushed tones of compassion for the traditional victimized; members of the LGBTQ-2 community who now demand -- and society is eager to acquiesce to -- unquestioning acceptance that any child expressing bewilderment or uncertainty about his/her biological gender, must be guided toward the alternate gender identification.

To question the unquestionable sanctity of 'respect' for juvenile transgenderism now routinely accepted by the broad medical fraternity, legal experts, academia, and much of the general public, is to invite oneself being inducted into the shamed halls of persona non grata doubters -- 'transphobics' -- whose presence can only be of grave harm to the well-being of the vulnerable young whose emotional and future prospects as well-balanced and healthy individuals they presumed to speak for.

Some people who are in constant contact with children and see directly the confusion and uncertainty they exhibit, fail to weigh the consequences of speaking out rashly and subjectively on these very emotional topics. As did Carolyn Burjoski when she was shut down in making a presentation to her regional school board group. She had commented on the books to be fund in school libraries to serve students from Kindergarten to Grade six.

As she spoke she was admonished that her comments on transgender issues violated the province's human rights code. The personal opinion she had articulated was that the books made it appear simple and 'cool' to medically transition to another gender. And then her presentation was cut short by the Board's chair who ruled she could not continue; the board following up in his support to vote 5-4 on his decision.

Most transgender advocates will not accept controversial questioning of gender-dysphoria and are downright opposed to discussing any complications that might ensue in future when children are prematurely guided to transition to the alternate gender. On the other hand, concerns have been expressed, including by leading figures in the transgender movement itself, that gender-dysphoric young people are on occasion too aggressively ushered toward medical transition.

Following the incident, the teacher received what she named a "stay-at-home order", informed she must not communicate with colleagues or students. She remains on the payroll and was set to soon retire. Her union representative informed her that the board appointed an outside investigator to examine her record on the issue. She was 'flabbergasted' by the meeting's procedure and the remarks of the chair that followed.

The order she received to distance herself from the school was meant, she believes, to make an example of her. The chair, asked to explain how the teacher's comments violated the human rights code that bars discrimination based on gender identity and other grounds in areas of housing, employment and services provision, simply responded that he could not repeat what she had intimated, but he stood by his decision.

Carolyn Burjoski was in classrooms for over 20 years as a teacher of English as a second language, her specialty, teaching children who immigrated from various countries affected by war and political unrest. The board had made a controversial decision to conduct a system-wide removal of books it considered 'harmful' to children's mental health, and teacher Carolyn Burjoski appeared as a one-person public 'delegation' in a session to discuss that decision.

Her comments reflected a focus on resources recommended as appropriate by the board for a transgender awareness day. She addressed the issue of a particular publication titled The Other Boy, zeroing in on a scene depicting a meeting between a transgender boy (born a girl) and a doctor. The boy expresses excitement at the prospect of beginning testosterone therapy, when the physician warns that hormone therapy would likely render him incapable of having children, and the boy replies: "it's cool".

When the teacher remarked such books appear to simplify taking cross-sex hormones neglecting to mention outcomes and consequences, the chair interjected, warning her she could be violating the human rights code. She continued her comments that the book was misleading, not delivering complete information, simplifying a complex procedure, and mentioning nothing of an altered future. Which was the point when the chair stated he was "ending the presentation".

Carolyn Burjoski, bottom row left, was ejected from this Waterloo Region District School Board virtual meeting for expressing concerns over content in some board-approved school library books. Photo by Screen grab