'Education over indoctrination': Regina's RCAAN backs candidates who promote 'family' values
Educators concerned that schools are becoming less safe for 2SLGBTQ+ youth
The fiery debate over Saskatchewan's Education Act changes and pronoun policy may have simmered down, but parental rights and gender and sexual identity are still a core issue for some candidates running in the fall election.
One civic group says it's pushing for change in the Nov. 13 Regina school board and municipal elections by promoting its members and other candidates who share a focus on "family" values, but some educators worry that this type of rhetoric is making schools in the province less safe for 2SLGBTQ+ students.
Retired lawyer Wayne Bernakevitch is one of the founders of the Regina Civic Awareness and Action Network (RCAAN), a group supporting seven school trustee candidates in the upcoming election. RCAAN opposes diversity, inclusion and pro-2SLGBTQ+ initiatives in schools.
"We vet the candidates to see whether they align with our principles. And if they align with our principles, we'll provide an endorsement for them," Bernakevitch said.
Among those who've announced their attention to run for Regina's public school board is Lise Merle, an RCAAN member who's been outspoken on social media about her views on keeping parents informed about what's happening in schools, eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in public education, and promoting "education over indoctrination," as one of her billboard proclaims.
One local teacher said the wording within certain would-be trustees' platforms makes him feel uneasy.
"I am seeing a lot of people that are coming in under the guise of parental rights and saying that they're here to stand up for the kids and for the parents and everything. But often my question is at what cost are we doing this thing? And what exactly are parental rights?" Brendan Dickie said.
He said voters should be probing aspiring public school board trustees about their ideologies.
"How are they going to implement policies that are going to keep queer kids and trans kids in our school building safe?"
The origins of RCAAN
Bernakevitch said his concerns about municipal and school board politics was piqued back in 2021, when the City of Regina began steps toward banning conversion therapy, a practice aimed at changing a person's gender identity and/or sexual orientation. Bernakevitch said that at the time, he was approached by some local business owners who were also concerned about the city's direction.
"I just thought this is not helping our business community. And I thought the city was out of its lane," he said, noting that he was among the several delegates that spoke out against the ban, which ultimately did pass.
Further city decisions to change street names and remove the John A. Macdonald statue from Victoria Park were also a concern for him. He said the city was taking a revisionist approach to history instead of focusing on enhancing safety and improving things for the business community.
- Sir John A. Macdonald statue removed from Regina's Victoria Park
- Naming streets and buildings with Indigenous languages an act of reconciliation: activists
"Then I was meeting with the client for lunch one day and he mentioned how his five-year-old son came home and asked if he was really a boy, because his teacher said he might be a girl," Bernakevitch said.
He said this conversation put a spotlight on the school system and educators straying out of their lane by discussing gender identity issues within classrooms.
Those incidents helped prompt him and a few others to form RCAAN.
RCAAN was supportive of the government's changes to the Education Act that, in part, require teachers to get parental consent if a student under 16 wants to be referred to by a different name or gender pronoun, and for any sexual education lessons. Bernakevitch said the changes didn't go far enough and shouldn't have had the age restriction.
"Teachers should be teaching reading, writing, arithmetic," he said, adding this includes other core lessons like geography and history. "But when you get into the area of sexual education, that's a different area altogether."
Saskatchewan and other provinces have seen declines in students' test results in reading and mathematics. Bernakevitch speculated this could be a result of the pandemic, increasingly complex classrooms and more immigration, among other factors.
"It's very difficult for the teachers. [So] why don't we just focus back on the basics and put aside the gender ideologies and all of those things?" he said.
"Let's just educate our kids. That's where we stand."
Bernakevitch said RCAAN has been called transphobic for its views on gender and transitioning. At RCAAN's monthly meeting held on Tuesday, trustee candidates running with the group's endorsement described a few incidents at people's doorsteps where they were the targets of anger, with one saying she was called a "fascist jackal," and another saying she was described as a "religious bigot."
Bernakevitch said the group cares for all children, and believes gender dysphoria is an issue best handled by medical professionals, rather than educators.
"People call us child haters and so on and that type of thing. All we want for our kids is if they have an issue, is that they be properly diagnosed."
Candidates endorsed
Bernakevitch said his organization is endorsing seven candidates in the Regina public school board elections. Besides Merle, the other six candidates RCAAN is throwing its weight behind are Kelly Bond, Carla Taylor-Brown, Tracey Sparrowhawk, Doug Armbruster, Lee Harding and Mandeep Sinhmar.
CBC Saskatchewan reached out to each of these candidates. Only Armbruster responded, saying he is an independent candidate and not affiliated with any outside organization, nor is he accepting any donations from outside organizations.
Armbruster said he's already hearing a lot of "noise" around the election, but as a candidate, his primary concern is the strain on stretched classrooms and teachers.
"What matters is the message: our children and our education system is in crisis and that's what we need to focus on," he said.
Changing nature of education
There's no doubt that schools have changed in terms of visibility and acceptance of diversity and events like Pride Month, but people have different perspectives on whether these changes are positive.
"There's been a tremendous change," Bernakevitch said.
He said the things his organization has heard from young people about sex education and gender and sexual identity is "shocking." He pointed to a highly publicized incident in Lumsden last year when a student found explicit sexual education material left on a table.
Dickie said openness to sexual and gender diversity has made it easier for students to feel like they can be themselves.
"Years ago, when I was in high school, I probably would have never dreamed of even coming out when I was in the school building," Dickie said.
He said more kids are comfortable today saying they may be queer, bisexual or gay, and know there are educators out there who will support them.
"Since last year now, it's been almost like a backpedal where I'm seeing less kids that are trying on identities and trying on different pronouns to find what fits them," he said, speaking on the impact of the government's Education Act changes.
"It's making it hard to create any sort of authentic connections with kids because they're worried about whether they're going to be punished for being a certain thing."
Schools as safe places
J Wallace Skelton is an assistant professor of queer studies and education in the faculty of education at the University of Regina, and has studied how to support trans youth.
Skelton said that after the home, the school is the second most impactful place for 2SLGBTQ+ youth, who want to feel safe and affirmed in these spaces.
"If you are at school and you feel unsafe all the time, if you feel harassed by your peers, if you feel harassed by the school because they won't call you by the right name, it impacts your learning," Skelton said. "When you don't feel safe, when you've got a trauma response, any learning becomes much more difficult."
In Skelton's eyes, education should be centred around the needs of children, not parents. This means lessons on topics like safe sex or menstruation in addition to reading and writing.
"It's not about a parent's rights for their own self," Skelton said. "It's about saying parents' rights should trump children's rights, and parents should be able to control what their children learn, what pronouns their children are able to use, and what their children's name is, which doesn't match what the Human Rights Code says about children as independent rights holders."
Skelton and Dickie both say education needs to move beyond basics of reading and math, even as some running for the public school board espouse a 'back to basics' mentality.
"They're very locked in a white European-centric way of education, which has been long past," Dickie said.
"I believe that education — to make it relevant — has to change as things grow and evolve. It can't stay static."
RCAAN also wants to see people vote for change, but board director Al Fedorak told people at their meeting Tuesday evening that their endorsed candidates need to win and implement incremental change, rather than radical and disruptive change that would see these trustees voted out in the next election, four years down the road.
"If they do that with our help, and all the people you're going to influence, they can be there for years," he told the crowd. "And we'll have a school system we can be proud of."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
