Sheila Gunn-Reid and Cosmin Gerja expose the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board’s 42-page gender policy, banning teachers from sharing students’ self-identified gender or transition status with parents unless permitted. The board allows name/sex changes without parental consent, raises concerns over washroom misuse, and removed Lord of the Flies in 2021 over "white male supremacy" claims. Gerja links these policies to rising suicide rates among gender-dysphoric youth, warning parents to push back against systemic exclusion. The episode underscores how progressive school boards prioritize ideology over parental rights, reshaping education without transparency or accountability. [Automatically generated summary]
Oh, hey Rebels, it's me, Sheila Gunread, and you're listening to a free audio-only recording of my weekly Wednesday night show, The Gun Show.
However, as you know, I say it every week.
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Now, tonight, my guest is someone new to the show, but I don't think he's all that new to you.
It's Cosman Gerja from True North, and he has really been drilling down on a lot of the madness that is happening at the school board level in Canada.
And as a parent, it's pretty frightening.
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What is the most insane school board in the entire country?
Guiding Questions on Gender Transitions00:16:01
I think one just self-identified.
I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you are watching The Gunn Show.
I think the Ottawa Carleton District School Board might be one of the most overtly woke school boards in the most overtly woke country, at least in the Northern Hemisphere.
Cosmen Jerja from True North has been the lead investigative journalist in the entire country, digging into some of the more radical policies and initiatives at school boards from coast to coast to coast.
And the OCDSB has come on his radar with some really bizarre decisions.
For example, back in September, the board removed Lord of the Flies after the William Golding novel was described by a student as rife with, quote, white male supremacy, which tells the story of a group of boys in a hierarchical order who fight for power and degrade one another, end quote.
Good job missing the point there, little lady.
Three weeks before Remembrance Day, the board wondered if singing O Canada at school gatherings was quote distasteful and they mused if the tradition, which is entrenched in Ontario law, should be just replaced altogether.
Now, more recently, and possibly more troubling, the school issued a 42-page gender identity and gender expression document, which was meant to foster inclusive learning environments for all students.
Now, this document requires the schools to recognize the gender self-identification of students at any age and prevents schools and teachers from sharing the new identities of the students with their parents.
Look at this from Cosman's article.
Trans, two-spirit, gender-diverse people are experts in their own identities and experiences, and school staff must follow students' leads regarding the spaces and language that are most comfortable for them at any time.
School staff shall not share a student's trans or gender diverse status with family members or guardians without the explicit permission of the student.
A student's gender identity will only be disclosed to another person on a need-to-know basis.
I'd say parents always need to know.
Joining me tonight to discuss just some of the woke madness coming out of the OCDSB is Cosmen Gierja of True North Center.
Take a listen.
So joining me now from True North is Cosmin, Georgia.
I had to ask his name in advance how to pronounce it because I've only ever read it.
I've never actually said it.
Thanks for joining me, Cosman.
I noticed some of your reporting over the last little bit has just been fantastic on the madness at some of these school boards, but in particular, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.
I think it's one of the craziest ones in the country that we know about because so many of these school boards do things that we don't really know about.
But these guys are pretty upfront about it.
And you have a great article over on True North that goes into the school board's gender guide that says teachers can't question the washroom preferences of students.
Can you give us a broad overview of what's happening here?
Absolutely, Sheila.
Thank you for having me.
So before I go into the specifics of that guide, I would say that Canadian parents would be horrified to see the type of gender ideology, critical race theory that is being pushed on the next generation of Canadian kids at these school boards.
And like you said, yes, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board is one of the worst and most aggressive boards that has been conducting themselves in this way.
But there are other school boards, the Toronto District School Board, you know, where I'm originally from, the Waterloo Region District School Board.
They all have similar ideas regarding, you know, gender, race, and other identity issues.
Now, this latest guide, it's actually the second iteration of a guide that was originally published back in 2016.
It's called Gender Identity and Gender Expression, Fostering Inclusive Learning Environments for All Students.
And this will be presented to the OCDSB, so that's the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board's Advisory Committee on Equity on Thursday, this coming Thursday, November 25th, 2021.
So there's really not a lot of time for parents to get involved.
And if you are not actively on top of this stuff and, you know, life gets in the way, and you don't even think this stuff is being taught to your kids.
This is something that you hear about in American news media, but it's here and it's coming.
Tell us a little bit about what this guide entails.
Sure.
So it's a sort of reference guide for educators, staff, and teachers on how to deal with kids that might identify a different gender.
So, you know, kids from the queer LGBT community.
But the guide, it's a very comprehensive update to that 2016 document, which is only about like 14 pages.
This is about 46 pages.
And it goes into detail on how to, you know, whether parents need consent.
Kids need consent from their parents to change their names to a different gender on their school records.
So there's a part at the end of that that has, it's a guiding guided questions section that instructs teachers to ask their students whether they would like to hide this information from their parents, whether they would like to hide their gender transitions.
And it's funny because there's a disclaimer in that section that says, oh, we're not encouraging or telling teachers to lie to their parents necessarily, but it doesn't say that they shouldn't lie.
So it's a very problematic document.
It also goes into things like how to teach mathematics or science or technological studies through a gender affirming lens.
So it's essentially an ideological purity test that teachers and educators are being asked to abide by without question.
Yeah, it alludes to guiding questions, which sound like grooming questions once you get into them a little deeper.
Teachers are asked to pose a number of questions to students pertaining to hiding their gender identities or transitioning from their parents or guardians.
And they sort of get together with the students that they've kind of identified as being on a broader gender spectrum, I guess, to use the language of the left.
And then they sort of plot together about how we're going to deal with this when it comes to your parents, ahead of the parents even knowing about any of this stuff, and make a plan with the students about whether we're not, whether we're going to tell your parents or not tell your parents while your children are manifesting this stuff at school.
Yes, and it all hinges, it says directly in that document that self-identification is the sole measure of a person's gender.
So not their biological sex, but how they feel in that moment.
So essentially, teachers are being asked to abide and respond to the whims of students depending on their mood or gender flavor of that day.
I'm not sure whether this is a sustainable or a good approach considering I was a teenager once and I was moody and changed my mind all of the time.
So are we really going to create policies and ways we educate kids based solely on this?
I don't think it's such a good idea.
No, you touched on this briefly, but students themselves can initiate changing their school records based on how students self-identify.
And the school will just go along with this.
And this was kind of shocking to me because my daughter can't change her address without me having to sign off on a piece of paper saying, yeah, this is where we live now.
And so the students can actually change their own name and sex on their government documents or their official school records.
And the only way the parents would ever know about this is if the parents access the school records on their own at some later point.
So you could, you know, be asking for your kids' marks later on down the road and you're like, oh, who's Susie?
I sent Johnny to school.
Who's this little girl?
And the teachers have just gone and changed it.
Yes, exactly.
That's the sort of technicalities they use to say, well, we're not hiding this.
Parents can access this information.
But they won't be given that information immediately, right?
So they have to go and dig for it.
And as your viewers probably know, here in BC, there was a big case of a young girl who is transitioned into a male.
And this fact was hidden from the father.
And he only realized, I think, if I recall correctly, when he saw her school pictures and she was dressed as a boy on that day.
So up until then, up until he accidentally discovered this fact, it was hidden from them.
So from him.
So I wonder, if they're willing to hide something like name changes or changes of sex on school records, what else are they willing to hide from parents?
Now, can you tell me, did they give an age range in this document?
Is this for all students, just high school students?
When does this apply?
When does it kick in?
As far as I can tell, it applies to all OCDSB schools.
And that includes elementary, secondary schools within the district.
So these could be kids as young as 10 saying, actually, I'm not John, I'm Susie, and I'm a girl now.
Yeah, I don't think there's any age restrictions.
It's pretty much a blanket way to deal with kids of all ages who have these sorts of gender changes.
And people are going to ask about the washroom issue.
It sounds like the second a student identifies as the opposite gender or somewhere on that gender spectrum, they can use the washroom that they identify with as opposed to their biological washroom.
Yes, it's not only washrooms, it also includes changing rooms.
And there's discussions about what to do on school field trips that are overnight stays.
But that document does not exclude the possibility of a student saying, yes, I want to go into the ladies' change room, even though I'm a biological male and do my business there.
It actually states explicitly, do not question, teachers are not allowed to question or surveil washroom use.
So I think there are in some cases, genuine people who view themselves in a different way and want to be accommodated.
But the problem with this policy is that it creates a condition where a potential bad actor could take advantage of this very loose and hard to enforce thing.
And it could create some serious problems for parents and children themselves and the school board in the future.
We can see this playing out in the United States.
There was a case where the school essentially hid a sexual assault that was committed by a student in a similar situation as the one I'm discussing right now.
Yeah, and I think for me as a parent, I see this as the parents are being excluded from this conversation.
We are being put on a need to know basis.
Well, it's my kid and I need to know everything.
And I don't think the school should ever be the arbiter of the information that I receive from them about my child.
I think that's a really concerning thing outside of all the other issues at play here.
Isolating parents from information they must have about their children is a real problem here, especially when we know the rates of suicide and attempted suicide for kids who are struggling with their gender identity.
You'd want to flag this issue to a parent so that they could be on the lookout for anything manifesting at home.
Absolutely.
I don't think the teachers or educators, the bureaucrats will do anything to change this.
It is entirely up to parents.
And until now, they haven't been very aware of what's been going on because the media would happily like to ignore it.
When push comes to shove, they do report on it because it's very hard to ignore when it's all over social media.
But yeah, you're right.
Parents have a right to know they have a right to have a say in their kids' education, and they need to be made aware of this.
endemic problem throughout Canada.
It stretches across the country.
I would say probably every school board has some sort of similar equity, gender, critical race theory inspired policy.
I think it's everywhere.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think keeping this sort of information away from parents flies in the face of the reason they say they're doing it in the first place, and that's safety of the student.
You know, if your child is experiencing a condition that puts them at risk of self-harm, you would want extra eyeballs on that student and carving parents out of the equation really doesn't do that which they say the policy is designed to do.
Now, I want to talk to you more about the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, because as we said off the top, this is an ongoing issue with this school board that they've adopted basically every leftist bad idea and said, perfect, let's run with that.
And so they, you have a report.
Again, I think you're the leading reporter on school board issues in the entire country because I don't think anybody's really digging into this.
We all sort of look at the macro issues of bad federal government, bad provincial government, but we never look at the government that we can really affect the most because it's the closest to us.
And that's the school board, that's municipal politics.
Indigenous Students and Mob Rule00:06:32
Anyway, getting back to what I wanted to ask you about, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board's Indigenous Education Advisory Council debated whether making students sing O Canada at the start of the school day was distasteful or should be replaced.
This is crazy, but it's also just unsurprising at this point.
Yes, and there's very little lack of self-awareness.
That was, you know, I think within a month or so of Remembrance Day, and they were talking about this as if, you know, singing O Canada is some horrible evil thing and that Indigenous students, you know, present must feel, you know, terrified or ashamed every time they sing O Canada, which I think is just a ridiculous idea.
So yeah, that's it did happen.
It was one member in particular of that committee or council who brought this issue up.
And she, yeah, I think it was as it was a she, but she explicitly stated, yeah, it's this distasteful and should be replaced, replaced with what?
I'm not sure, you know, the communist anthem, whatever.
Yeah, it's funny because that's actually the law in Ontario, right?
That opening or closing exercises must include the singing of O Canada and may include the recitation of a pledge of citizenship in the form set out in the regulation.
So this is the law in Ontario, and there's nothing wrong with that law, but the chair suggested that Indigenous students, and as I read this, I'm like, this is soft bigotry, actually.
This is thinking that Indigenous students are some sort of victimized monolith that all feel the same way about certain things and they all just, they must just hate Canada by virtue of being Indigenous, which is racist.
But she suggested that Indigenous students be permitted to sit and not participate in the singing of O Canada.
Elder Dumont expressed the opinion that the government of Canada needs to hold people accountable for the deaths of students at residential schools.
What has that got to do with the school presentation?
I don't understand how any of these things mesh and teaching little kids that maybe you have a reason to hate Canada.
I don't think that's a great idea for the future of this country.
Yeah, so even legally speaking, there is exemptions within the Ontario law for singing O Canada.
But as it was stated by the OCDSB, you know, you don't have to give any reason to be exempt from singing O Canada if you just want to sit down and they won't question you.
So it is technically legal, what they're saying, but the type of attitude they're taking, willing to trash the country, bring it down, bring the nation down and paint it as some inherently evil, systemically racist thing.
Yes, this is happening in a lot of school boards and a lot of educators and teachers, not all of them.
I know teachers, I speak to them, but they do have this belief, this mentality, this sort of ideology that's kind of swept the country under our noses.
Now, Cosmo, before I let you go, because this is still staying with the Ottawa Carleton District School Board, back in September, you reported that they removed Lord of the Flies from the English curriculum based on a complaint from a student who noted that she does not need to learn more about white male supremacy,
which tells the story of a group of boys in a hierarchical order who fight for power and degrade one another.
I think the story of Lord of the Flies has a lot to do with mob rule.
And this one little girl is the mob that got a book burned.
Tell us about this.
Yeah, so that was included kind of off the cuff in one of the board meetings minutes.
And basically what was described there was, yeah, the fact that this student in particular complained in an article written in a local or student newspaper about that book.
You know, in my eyes, completely missing the point of the story, which is actually a critique on power structures like that.
So yeah, based on this, you know, the school decided to essentially remove it from the curriculum.
Now, the OCDSB claims, you know, it's still available as an option of study, but it's not being taught to students.
You know, I went to in high school, I read Lord of the Flies.
It's a very popular book to read, and it is a good book.
It teaches important lessons.
But, you know, wokeness wins the day and it was completely removed from its curriculum as it states in that document.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's just crazy what's unfolding at the school board level.
And yeah, I'm afraid that a lot of parents are just sort of asleep at the switch.
They're going through the motions.
You send your parent or you send your kids to school thinking that they're going to learn actual valuable things that will help them in their future.
But the brainwashing apparently starts younger and younger and younger.
Cosmo, how can people find your work?
Because like I said, you are one of the only journalists in the entire country doing this important work.
So how can they find your work and how can they support the work that you do and the work that TrueNorth does?
Sure.
Yeah.
You can read our stories at true north at tnc.news.
Or alternatively, you can follow me on Twitter at CosminDZS.
Yeah, and we regularly report on this.
We try to, you know, maintain and constantly check up on school boards.
I think it's important work.
And I think, you know, I'm happy that you're shining a light on this issue.
Yeah, I think this is one of those places where the culture war can actually be won in the direction of freedom if we sort of nip it in the bud before the little brainwashed people get into the power structures.
So I'm glad that you're recognizing this.
And I know you have a little one at home.
So I'm sure you have personal motivations for doing this kind of work.
Shining a Light on School Boards00:00:57
And I thank you for it.
Cosmon, I'm very disappointed myself that I've never had you on the show before, but hopefully we'll have you back on again very, very soon.
I would love to.
That'd be great.
You know, friends, other school boards might be equally as far left and crazy, but the Ottawa Carleton District School Board is probably the most upfront about it in the entire country.
So I think as parents, we probably should appreciate the honesty and we should be grateful for the work that Cosmo and Georgia is doing over at True North to shine a light on some of this stuff because it should not be allowed to happen in darkness and without the knowledge of parents.
Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
I'll see everybody back here in the same time, in the same place next week.