Ezra Levant’s guest, David Menzies, exposes Ontario’s school boards as "woke tyrannies," citing Doug Ford’s PC government’s failures to curb critical race theory and 128 gender identities taught over basic literacy. Banned from DDSB and WCDSB after challenging trustees—like Wendy Ashby, who resigned over a tweet calling white Christian males "the most dangerous creature"—Menzies demands accountability, including Halton’s Carrie Lemieux’s removal for alleged hypocrisy. In York Region’s July 15th trustee by-election, only Robert Kolowowski and Sarah Mian opposed gender ideology, while others like Sadra Naseri (tied to pro-Iran MP Majid Johari) ignored outreach. Meanwhile, France’s leftist coalition, despite Marine Le Pen’s National Rally victory, risks instability with anti-patriotism protests—Antifa flags at Place de la République, vandalism of eco-friendly bikes—and parents must act to prevent Marxist education dominance. [Automatically generated summary]
Tonight, sadly, most people don't give a rodent's rectum when it comes to voting for a school board trustee.
I'm going to tell you why you should care.
It's Monday, July 8th, 2024.
I'm David Menzies, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Shame on you, you censorious bug.
Regular viewers of this news channel know that yours truly has done numerous stories on school boards in Ontario that are A, behaving badly, B, do not treat parents with respect, and C, are hopelessly woke.
Oh, there's plenty of blame to go around, all right.
And most of that blame, I would argue, goes to the former Minister of Education, Stephen Lecchie.
This ineffectual wimp simply turned a blind eye to school board shenanigans during his term, even when he had the power to dissolve such boards.
It's baffling.
Most parents are repulsed when it comes to school boards embracing ideology over education.
Little Johnny or Janie can't spell cat if you spotted them the C and the T.
Oh, but they can name all 128 gender identities, all right?
Even more remarkable is that one of the key policy issues the Doug Ford PCs ran on back in 2018 was that they were going to rein in the school board nonsense that festered during the reign of liberal premiers Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynn.
But talk about bait and switch, I would argue that the school boards are more out of control than ever under the Ford administration, doubling down on everything from critical race theory to radical transgenderism.
Please correct me if I'm wrong here, but doesn't the C in PC stand for conservative?
Let's start right out.
Hey, what happened?
By the way, not only do the school boards not answer questions that they deem to be too impolite, but these woke Educrats actually ban journalists under threat of trespass for having the temerity to ask prickly queries.
I'm personally banned from the Durham District School Board, presumably for life, because they won't provide a date when that ban ends.
The reason?
Well, I asked a trustee in the parking lot, no less, why this school board is allowing pornography to be accessed by elementary age students at their school libraries.
Oh, and I do not exaggerate.
Here is one demonstration that we covered in Durham Region a while back by concerned parents and grandparents who were met with a counter demonstration by unhinged members of the rainbow mafia and Antifa types who are, oh, I don't know, pro-pornography for minors?
Unbelievable.
Check it out.
I'm not sure.
But that's okay.
I mean freedom of speech, right?
I'm a transgender man and I feel that people are trying to take away my right to have my representation in a classroom.
The statistics don't lie.
We know that the majority of people who detransition do so because of a lack of access, because of a lack of support.
This time it got out that we're transphobic and we're anti-LGBTQ.
That is not why we're here.
Some of our members are gay.
My daughter is gay.
And to that, I would say, I'm not sure what they're consuming, but that is propaganda.
Crazy.
And yet, for bringing this issue up to a sensitive school board trustee Snowflake, I'm now banned from DDSB properties.
Really?
Who do these people think they are?
And then there was our reporting last year regarding the Waterloo Catholic District School Board, who employed a trustee by the name of Wendy Ashby, who took to Twitter to proclaim the following: quote: The most dangerous creature on the planet is the white Christian male.
They're a threat to anyone who is not them, end quote.
That's right.
She's racist, sexist, and despite being employed by a Catholic school board, she's also a Christian phobe.
By the way, whether you're a devout Catholic or a staunch atheist, you know the woke rot is out of control when it seeps into a Catholic school board.
Anyway, we figured this was a job for our super truck here.
Check it out.
We're back at the Waterloo Catholic District School Board.
I gotta tell you folks, as soon as I pulled in, a couple of security guards came up to me and they said, sorry, you're persona non-grata.
You're not allowed to be in the boardroom or even on the parking lot.
Can you tell me why that is?
It's the board who actually asked us.
Okay, so when I was escorted out last week, that wasn't just for that day.
Yeah.
Can you tell me, sir, how long I'm banned from the premises?
I have no information about that, sir.
So I had to move my car and I'm on another property right now.
Our Jumbotron-equipped truck, it is sending the message to the school board.
Hopefully they're looking out the window and reading that message, namely, get Wendy Ashby to tender her resignation.
Now, I'm delighted to report that Ashby soon resigned due to public pressure.
And that was a good thing, too, because despite her hateful rhetoric, the chair of this school board and several trustees were not demanding her resignation, but they were actually defending this hater.
But again, just because I asked questions about a trustee who soon became a former trustee, I was banned also from the WCDSB and its properties.
Like other boards, the solution to independent journalists asking insensitive queries is censorship.
Now, perhaps the worst example is the Halton District School Board.
Last year, the Busty Lemieux fiasco made headlines the world over.
Carrie Lemieux is that crackpot shop teacher who presumably pursues a sexual fetish by showing up to class dressed as a grotesque caricature of a female, complete with Zed cup-sized breasts.
It was gross, but in the name of the unholy trinity of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the Halton District School Board thought this was an example of gender expression, and it was a good thing for the kids.
Oh, but alas, when I donned Lemieux's identical costume and showed up to a school board meeting, suddenly these woke joke educats weren't down with diversity when a drag queen show was happening in their inner sanctum as opposed to inside an Oakville high school.
So they ended the meeting prematurely and even called the police.
Check it out.
Can you believe the transphobia here, folks?
Can you believe it?
I'm trying to deliver a petition.
Which one of you is going to take it?
Which one of you is going to take it?
What's that?
For you to leave the room.
Why?
Why did you leave?
What are you doing, Bro?
You have to be in your hand under the box.
No normal person in a red guy would dress up like that and go teach kids.
Come on.
Are you guys okay in your head?
Why is Oakville becoming the mockery of the world?
What's wrong with you guys?
Come on.
You stop this.
Get this digit out of here.
Get him out of that school by Monday for sure.
What are you going to do?
Drew's going to take this.
Who is going to take this petition?
Wow.
Clearly not a matter of what's good for the goose is sauce for the gander, eh?
And yes, I am now, presumably for life, banned from all Halton District School Board properties.
Nice.
So why am I rehashing school boards acting badly, especially now that school is out for summer?
Well, I happen to live in an area of Richmond Hill, Ontario that is having a by-election for a school board trustee next Monday.
That would be July 15th.
And given the shenanigans I have witnessed firsthand with so many other school boards, I decided to take a very deep dive vis-a-vis researching the candidates who are vying for a trustee position for the York Region District School Board.
Nine Candidates, No Emails00:06:55
For starters, there are nine candidates running, and I wanted to personally contact each candidate to see where they stand on some specific issues that are, well, concerning to my family.
Now, before I recite the email I sent to most of them, three candidates were immediately disqualified, namely Peter Adams Luchowski, Dennis Bailey, and Bai Ying Lam.
Now, these three gentlemen might be superb candidates indeed, except for one thing.
On the official candidates list, none of these individuals offer an email address or a phone number.
That's crazy.
If I can't even contact them when they are campaigning for my vote, what would it be like getting in touch with them if one of them were to become the actual trustee?
Unbelievable.
So it was that I reached out via email to the remaining six candidates.
Here is my email verbatim.
Quote, good afternoon.
Hope all is well.
My name is David Menzies and I live in Ward 2.
As such, I shall be voting in the upcoming school trustee by-election.
A big issue that concerns my family right now is the radical transgender ideology that is being pushed by many schools and school boards.
Thus, I am reaching out to all the candidates who have contact information to find out where they stand on this issue.
Your answers will determine whether or not my family will vote for you.
Here are my questions.
Thanks for your time.
True or false, trans women are real women.
Secondly, do you believe it is acceptable for biological males to play on the same sports teams and use the same change rooms as biological females?
And three, do you think it is acceptable for teachers to keep secrets from parents?
I look forward to your response, end quote.
Now, I can tell you folks that within five minutes of pressing the send button, I received a phone call from Robert Kolowowski.
And Robert answered all the questions with clarity.
No, he does not believe trans women are real women.
No, he does not think it is acceptable for males to invade female safe spaces.
And no, he does not think it is okay for teachers to keep secrets from parents.
That's a hat trick for Robert.
A close second was Sarah Mian.
She was sympathetic with Robert regarding questions one and two and agreed, in her words, 98% with query number three.
But she loses points because I had to get in touch with her with a follow-up phone call as she never planned to return my email, which strikes me as really weird given that I am not a psychic.
How would I ever know her stance on those issues?
Now, I did get an email from candidate Susan Joseph.
Here it is, verbatim, quote, thanks for reaching out.
I know that this is a complex issue and there are many different viewpoints.
I support equal rights and freedom of expression, parental rights, as well as full disclosure of all information pertaining to one's children.
And I also feel that schools should be inclusive, supportive, and free from discrimination.
The trustee role is to advocate for students, parents, and educators at the board level.
After reviewing areas of concern, my own opinion is irrelevant.
If a situation arises that involves gender expression, I would learn as much as I could about the situation as with any other and try to be as fair and balanced as possible.
I would consider all viewpoints and be as kind as possible to all parties involved.
End quote.
Now, as much as I appreciate Ms. Joseph getting back to me with all due respect, her answer is what we call in the journalism business, a heap and helping of word salad.
I mean, it's a bunch of several feel-good sentences linked together, meaning absolutely nothing tangible.
Oh, except for one statement, namely, quote, my own opinion is irrelevant, end quote.
Sorry, Susan, but your opinion as a school board trustee is entirely relevant.
And if you think otherwise, I don't think you should be running for trustee.
So it was there were three candidates I did not hear from, Sadra Naseri, Ali Nikju, and Danny Yoon.
And just in case my emails to these individuals went to the junk file, I phoned all three and left voicemails.
Surprisingly, weeks later, I've yet to hear any responses.
Now, again, if you are not going to be accessible to a constituent when courting my vote, how accessible will you be once you're in office?
I also started doing my own research and I discovered some red flags when it came to Mr. Nasseri.
From a York.com article a few years back, I discovered the following: quote: Previous political experience, both a volunteer and an advisor to various federal, provincial, and municipal campaigns across the greater Toronto area since 2019, end quote.
Oh, that's interesting, but which politicians, which campaigns?
Well, I discovered from one source that Mr. Nasseri is connected to none other than Richmond Hill Liberal MP Majid Johari.
Now, given the popularity of the Liberals right now, and given the disdain for Johari, who is a supporter of the Iranian regime, this is not a good thing to have on one's resume these days if you're running for public office.
I was also tipped off that Naseri has allegedly scrubbed the web of all incriminating evidence, but not quite, because as the saying goes, the internet is forever.
So, check out these three images of Naseri getting chummy with, well, none other than Majid Johari.
Oops.
Now, I did reach out to Nasseri for the purposes of getting his side of the story for this monologue.
And alas, the radio silence continues.
I wonder why.
Concerns About Immigration00:13:31
Here's the point, though, folks.
I am going to make a prediction that when this school board trustee by-election takes place next Monday, the turnout will be absolutely abysmal.
And that's a shame.
The reason why so many school boards have gone hopelessly woke is that these boards have been effectively colonized by the far left.
The only way to counterbalance this and bring about effective change is to elect trustees who are non-woke, who put education above ideology.
We need a big reset here.
That is why it is incumbent on all of us, on all parents, to not only come out and vote, but to do our due diligence in researching exactly who these candidates are and what they stand for.
If not, no matter where you live in our great dominion, expect more of the same, which is to say, expect the Marxists to continue setting the educational agenda.
And you know, our children deserve better, much better.
On Sunday in France, a coalition of French left parties banded together and the result was Marine Le Pen's National Rally Party fell far short of winning an absolute majority.
And now, in an attempt to make sense of it all, is rebel news reporter Alexa Laval, who is in Paris right now.
Well, Alexa, I've been watching your reports from France with great interest.
First of all, what did you make of the election?
There was so much hoopla that this is it.
There's going to be regime change.
Maureen Le Pen is going to form the next government.
Didn't work out that way, did it?
So what I make of all this, first of all, they don't have the majority.
So of course, it would be difficult to do any change in the system or to vote any law or regulations.
So a lot of people on the ground, they believe that France will just be our friends for the next year because it would take a year before the government in place will be allowed to dissolve the parliament again.
So right now we have a left government.
A lot of people think that it was vote on democratically because of course Marine Le Pen won way more vote than anybody else.
It's just the fact that the vote was not as much concentrated in some areas.
So it was spread all over France.
And the thing is, they have a two-round system.
So for them, it was easier to plan like a kind of strategy to make sure that they would counter the right-wing party of Marine Le Pen.
And Alexa, this election was the result of Mr. Macron saying, you know, calling a snap election, which is always very risky.
I imagine he must have some buyers' remorse too.
But in the same time, yes, probably, because, you know, he called for a snap election.
A lot of people on the ground say he did the worst mistake for himself because last election he had a hard time to get to get vote.
Like he didn't have as much a stronger support from French people on the last one.
So of course, with the fact that Marine Le Pen was polling so high and the fact that she had like so many seats at the European Parliament, I think he did a great mistake.
But I think he was playing his card as if I don't do it now, I'm going to lose and stronger if I'm not doing it now.
So now I think he's trying to do a coalition with other left party, I would say, because right now, as I say, it decided to keep the prime minister in place at all for making sure that the country is still stable over this crazy chaotic election.
So we'll see if they will keep him like in place or they will change it after a while.
But a lot of people on the ground, what they express is like they think that next year or in two years from now, they will have another election.
That's almost for sure.
You know, that's interesting, Alexa, that you say that there are people saying that there's some stability right now.
But I see a lot of reports of observers saying for the next several months, maybe even for two years when the next election takes place, that there is a lot of political and even economic uncertainty.
France is the second biggest economy in Europe.
What are you hearing from your sources there?
Of course, there is some concern, especially about immigration, I would say.
A lot of people are kind of scared that they will have more immigration.
So of course, a financial cost that will come with it.
They will have like probably, you know, probably spending for climate change or other policy that the nouveaufant populaire stand for.
Days, I would say Paris is really from the left.
So, on the street doing streeter, it's almost one side of the story.
So, trying to dig and to dig and to find some people who are in the other side, it's really difficult.
What I saw so far, like, you know, like on the night of the election, when I arrived on the scene, because they were supposed to have a gathering at the National Assembly, afterwards, they didn't have like the permission to do it.
So, they moved to the Place de la République.
And my first impression when I arrived there, first of all, the crowd was really, really young, and there were a lot, a lot of Antifa flag and Palestinian flag, but I didn't see that much France flag.
That surprised me because we know how France is.
Like, France used to be so patriotic, so like proud to be French, you know?
And it's not what I felt.
It's not what I felt at all on that crowd of young people.
So, I was able to interact with some of the people on the ground to ask them a couple of questions.
But it seems that, first of all, because Marine Le Pen have expressed that with the government of the Nouveau Front Populaire, the right of the property, the property rights, might be reviewed under the Nouveau Front Populaire.
So, I asked them if they have any concern about it because they are young people, you know.
And what I receive as they enter it, they say, I don't care if you don't own anything.
Like, I don't care if you don't own like a property or a home.
Anyway, right now, I cannot afford a home.
So, I was like, I find that pretty shocking because, you know, as a young person, you want to work hard, you want to own like your own home, you want to be independent, you don't want to just keep like renting all the time.
So, I don't know what you make of it, but I was kind of surprised because, you know, Quebec is kind of like a small detach of like France, but we have like the same kind of patriotic feeling.
And I know that a lot of French Canadians want to have a home, they want to have a property, and to hear that from really young people, like I would say they were like 18 to 21, 22 years old, to hear that from them, I find that kind of shocking.
Yeah, you know, that is incredibly interesting.
I mean, of course, Alexa, the globalist, they say you'll own nothing and be happy.
Looks like mission accomplished in France, at least for the young people that are on board.
But you did mention immigration.
This is a very hot button issue, as it is in so many other Western nations.
And I really thought this was going to be the policy platform that would swing the pendulum for Miss Le Pen.
I've been watching your reports.
I saw one.
I'm paraphrasing here, but I remember you interviewing a gentleman originally from Africa.
And I'm, you know, the gist of it was the French, you know, centuries ago came into Africa and stole from us, exploited us.
And now we're coming here, I guess, legally or not.
I was uncertain.
And we're, you know, trying to get a bit of the pie back.
And, you know, I just found that disturbing that, you know, it was, you're almost a citizen based on a confrontational revenge kind of basis as opposed to being a proud new Frenchman.
As you comprehend, Immigration, they are not because immigration is the immigration immigration.
You don't think that it's in a relationship with the fact that just the immigrants who rentrent have access to all the services that make a fiscal fardeau to the population?
Well, now we're in the politics of the fin fonds.
I'll explain what the fin fonds is.
Who brought the war in Africa?
It's the French.
Why?
We're going to buy our goods.
Now, we're here to come and we're going to buy our goods.
So you don't want to chase us like that.
So you think you have a right to who?
Well, of course, we have a right to who?
Because here, we're in the country of the human rights.
Can you weigh in on why I guess immigration, well, according to the numbers, it isn't as much of a concern that so many observers thought it was in terms of giving Le Pen the government?
But I would say that it is a concern for everybody because so far they say, yes, we want like a legal way of immigration.
Of course, we should like be more have a structure for immigration and we should be like more focused on like you know growing economy with our immigration.
But the thing is, they say that, but what they say also is say that Marian Le Pen, she's a Nazi and she's a racist and that she doesn't want any immigration.
And they say that she's the kind of person that wants to deport everybody when she never, never ever said that.
She never mentioned anything to deport massively everybody.
She didn't mention to completely stop immigration.
She just said that we need to be more careful.
We need to have like a stricter immigration policy.
She said that they will remove the right of the ground or the right of the sword, that we say.
And she said also that some of tentative work will not be permitted to people with double nationality.
So it's what she says so far, but she never said we will stop completely immigration.
And she also said that people who want to apply for having like French citizenship at 18 will be allowed to do it and they can receive it if they didn't have any criminal record.
So if they have criminal record, they cannot have their French citizenship.
Well, you know, Alexa, I'm always baffled by this, you know, moral equivalence on the left that if you want strong, secure borders, therefore you are a racist.
I would argue if you don't have strong, secure borders, that's the very first litmus test of being a nation.
And if it's a porous boundary or border, then you really aren't much of a real nation to begin with.
Paris Nights and Homeless Encampments00:07:34
But moving on, I think we discussed in the morning meeting, you were going to ask, I thought, a very interesting question in your next round of streeters.
I don't know if you've done it already, but it was the idea of if Napoleon were alive today, what would he say about the situation in France?
What say you, my friend?
Oh, yeah.
So some people have said that it would be probably terrified, or some people say probably disappointed.
Some people have bring the fact that he was a dictator and that he was not really a good man.
Of course, like that's come from, you know, the leftist people.
Some people have said that they have no clue about it.
It was really a diverse kind of opinions.
But I want to add something.
Today I went to homeless encampment.
And what I want to bring into the viewer is like, since it's like the Olympic Games, I don't know if you can see like the Olympic Games coming up.
First of all, they have moved all the encampment of homeless people.
But what I saw so far is like in the homeless encampment, it's mostly migrant.
That is different of what we see in Canada.
the people in Canada, I saw a lot, a lot of like just, you know, Canadian, but here it's mostly migrant.
And today I spoke a long time with someone from Nigeria and is here since four years, but since two years, his refugee claim was rejected.
And so he's living in France illegally since two years.
And only now that encampment's removed because in less than three weeks, the Olympic Games takes place in Paris.
And I got to tell you, Alexa, with all the problems France is struggling with, the idea of hosting the Olympics, I mean, what were they thinking?
Talk about bread and circuses as opposed to using this money because like all host cities or nations, it's going to be a multi-million or perhaps even multi-billion dollar debt.
What is the mood of the people in France in terms of, as I said before, given all the problems affecting everybody who lives almost, I would say, in France, that there's enough money for this extravagant sporting event?
I would say some people have expressed that it's not the good time because the nation is not really stable.
There is a lot of polarization, a lot of split in people into kind of party.
Someone today answered to me, like not only record, but he was explaining that now the center, when you are from the center, it's that the right wing hates you, the left wing hates you because you're not taking like any side.
And so this is the opinion of one man in the street, but I know that a lot of people today censor themselves.
They don't want to show their color.
They don't want to show their political color.
They don't want to speak that much about everything that is regarding politics.
I think a lot of people are struggling to pay rent and to pay like daily life bills.
It's really sad because when I asked them if they are ready to pay more tax to receive more immigrants and most of them were leftists, some say yes and some say no, we cannot afford it because right now I have a hard time to pay my bill at the end of the day.
So hosting an event like Olympic, and by the way, I don't know if you know about it, but at night, apparently, coming from some of the people I know in Paris, the FL Tower is not safe at night.
Apparently, there is a lot of theft.
There is a lot of criminal activity.
And so, and some of the people are concerned about maybe like the fact that a big concentration of tourists will be in Paris and in France.
Some of the people will come into Paris that live like in the suburb or in the neighborhood, and there will be a lot of increase of maybe theft or other like kind of, you know, like incident.
And I don't think the France, that French people wants to see more and more media attention on the bad side of Paris, France.
Well, Alexa, we're running out of time.
One quick question, especially pertaining to Paris in the nighttime and criminal activity.
The antifat types amassed and they were ready to riot if Le Pen got that majority.
That coalition of leftist parties, as we mentioned right off the hop, they were successful.
But these guys still went out and did some rioting, I understand.
Can you explain to me what the mentality of these people are?
Maybe it's a little mom-paw business.
They can't afford the plywood to put up in front of their shop window.
And these hooligans and thugs kick in the window, steal the inventory.
I just think that's an absolute disgrace.
And I've heard of sore losers, but sore winners.
Alexa, last word goes to you.
Yeah, so I spoke with one of the shop managers and they say that 4,000 Euro was spent for plywood for their window.
Like every shop, mostly in Champs-Élysées, they prepare themselves because it's not their first rodeo, I would say.
But where they actually did the riot was at the Republic Place.
So I saw a lot of city bikes.
You know, the city bike that you pay and you take and you just like bring it back afterwards.
A lot of them were just, I don't know if they were ripped off because I'm pretty sure they didn't put, I'm pretty sure they didn't put like the credit card for it, but some of the city bike were start, they started in fire in the middle of the street or they were found everywhere just like throwing away and like really just for damaging them.
I saw like window being smashed.
They were throwing a glass bottle of beer to the police officer.
I saw trash everywhere.
So my point is like I thought that the left people were caring about climate change or being environmentally friendly, but it's not what I saw yesterday.
It was like, you know, like just putting trash everywhere, graffiti, vandalism.
And they were just like, you know, this street is at, it's for us, you know?
Completely Opposite Virtually00:00:25
And I was kind of shocked because it's completely the opposite of what they used to virtually stand for.
Unbelievable, Alexa.
Well, listen, I want you to stay safe.
You're sending in some fantastic reports.
You're doing great journalism on the streets of Paris.
So again, Alexa, be safe and we'll look forward to more of your reports in the days ahead.