Conservative book-ban group crashes kindergarten open houses

Members of a conspiracy theorist group have been showing up uninvited to kindergarten open houses in Winnipeg to warn young families about “pornographic” content in public schools.

The Pembina Trails School Division recently contacted Action4Canada — a radical conservative group with a mandate to protect “family, faith and freedom” — to request representatives stay off its properties.

“Schools must be safe and caring environments free from unauthorized demonstrations, protests, or propaganda,” superintendent Shelley Amos said in a statement to the Free Press.

A4C members have gone to at least eight division campuses in recent weeks to distribute brochures and, in some cases, approach parents and students directly to discuss their cause.

“Individuals who do not have a reason to be on school property should not be there. It’s really just as simple as that,” said Jani Sorensen, a mother at Royal School who was approached by a stranger with a stack of pamphlets at a Feb. 12 event at the elementary site.

Sorensen said she is confident in the Manitoba curriculum and unaware of what was inside the leaflet because she declined to take one.

Parents who attended a community meeting at Laidlaw School last week were briefed on a similar situation involving an individual who was fearmongering about library material they called sexually explicit.

Free downloads on A4C’s website include a pamphlet condemning the promotion of LGBTTQ+ representation in schools and a “notice of liability” template to intimidate recipients to remove sex-ed curriculum materials.

The not-for-profit organization promotes Christian homeschooling as a way to protect children from “being encouraged to masturbate and experiment sexually with the same sex.”

Pembina Trails parents have reported concerns about local protesters’ tactics, including leaving pamphlets on windshields that claim schools endorse pornographic books, Amos said.

“Unfortunately, this approach has caused some unnecessary disruption to what should be a warm, inviting event at a school,” the division leader said, noting that members of the public can put in a request to make a presentation to the board of trustees should they want to raise an issue.

A4C has been mobilizing Canadians around a wide-ranging list of divisive topics, such as COVID-19 mask mandates, book banning and abortion rights over the last five years.

Manitoba is home to three chapters, in Winnipeg, Virden and Portage-Lisgar.

Tanya Gaw, founder of the Surrey, B.C.-based organization, did not respond to requests for comment.

Last winter, three supporters of A4C’s mission managed to sneak into École Dieppe during a kindergarten information night.

Pembina Trails principals were briefed on the Feb. 13, 2024 incident the following day in a memo that indicated one of the protesters tried to get into the library of the Charleswood elementary school.

“This isn’t a new issue,” said Nathan Martindale, president of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society.

Martindale noted teachers will continue to “stand up and push back against hate — and that’s what this is,” by condemning this type of messaging.

The Canadian Library Challenges Database, operated by the Centre for Free Expression in Toronto, shows there have been at least 12 requests to remove content from Manitoba schools in recent years. All of them were dismissed.

The Prairie Rose School Division reported 11 complaints in 2023, the year it, alongside the Brandon School Division, became a hot spot for debating book bans.

Each one cited “explicit content,” with some complainants explicitly condemning pro-LGBTTQ+ representation in reading material.

The books in question included Alice Sebold’s memoir Lucky, Rupi Kaur’s milk and honey poetry collection and a comic book by Cory Silverberg titled Sex is a Funny Word.

Birtle’s Park West School Division refused to pull April Raintree from its shelves in 2019 over concerns about violence in the plot. The story, which is targeted at a Grade 9 to 12 audience, was adapted from an adult edition by Métis author Beatrice Mosionier.

The Manitoba School Library Association’s executive team indicated it trusts that Pembina Trails administration is “making decisions in the best interest of students.”

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.