Road Warrior of the Week

Heroes and Good Samaritans

Nov 302012
 

RKR News (RoadKillRadio.com)

The Associated Press is following the lead of Roadkill Radio’s own Kari Simpson by nixing the slur “homophobia” and a number of other terms from its Style Book in recent months.

AP’s online Style Book now says that “-phobia” is “an irrational, uncontrollable fear, often a form of mental illness” and should not be used “in political or social contexts,” including “homophobia” and “Islamophobia.” It also calls “ethnic cleansing” a “euphemism”, and says the AP “does not use ‘ethnic cleansing’ on its own. It must be enclosed in quotes, attributed and explained.”

AP Deputy Standards Editor Dave Minthorn was quoted as stating ”Homophobia especially – it’s just off the mark. It’s ascribing a mental disability to someone, and suggests a knowledge that we don’t have. It seems inaccurate. Instead, we would use something more neutral: anti-gay, or some such, if we had reason to believe that was the case.”

“We want to be precise and accurate and neutral in our phrasing,” he said.

The changes made to the online Style Book will appear in next year’s printed edition.

RoadKill Radio was one of the first media campaigners to start confronting those who relied on this slur, a slur used typically to denigrate those who would not be bullied into the sex activist political agenda.  The campaign began after RoadKill Radio host Kari Simpson attended a meeting at the Vancouver School Board and was appalled by the sex activist rhetoric being used by students and certain school trustees.  Simpson immediately sent a letter to Patti Bacchus, Chair of the Vancouver School Board and a vocal supporter of students engaging in activities sponsored by the Queer Film Festival.  In it, Simpson wrote:

I was disappointed and offended to see you allowed hateful and contemptuous slurs being used that night: slurs made by trustees, teachers, students and PAC representatives. The terms “homophobe”, “homophobic” and “homophobia” are well-known hateful words, typically rooted in bigotry or ignorance and used to target, demean and bully into silence and compliance individuals and/or groups opposed to the public dissemination of false and propagandist information related to homosexuality and other allegedly “fluid” sexual determinations.

Simpson didn’t stop there.  Next in her sights was then BC Education Minister George Abbott.  In her letter she demanded change and that government officials cease using slurs.  It had an effect.  Simpson says that the use of terms like “homophobia” has been dramatically reduced since.

Simpson is pleased with the news about AP and admits she has been instrumental in providing “corporate America” with information about the tactics of sex activists.  She refers to a recent victory with VIMEO over complaints made by a militant homosexual activist.  “The situation Mr. Flanders presented to us has not only served to educate some of the top legal firms and media outlets in the United States and Canada but also the courts about how sex activist use unsubstantiated terms, lies and threats to get their way.”

Apr 182012
 

Culture Guard news release

April 18, 2012

For immediate release

 

Culture Guard charges School Board with promoting hatred

 

VANCOUVER, April 18, 2012 (CultureGuard) — Culture Guard has filed a human rights complaint against the Vancouver School Board, charging that the VSB has used and promoted in its meetings, policies and its schools, the use of hateful, defamatory and demeaning terminology and has facilitated and endorsed the “Out In Schools” program, a program that is designed to promote hatred and contempt for identifiable groups, contrary to the BC Human Rights Code.

 

The offensive terms specified include (but are not limited to) terms like “homophobe”, “homophobic” and “homophobia”.

 

“Such terms are designed to promote hatred and contempt, they are used to isolate, marginalize, and belittle individuals and groups that hold opinions at variance to those of the sex activists within the education establishment,” Culture Guard president Kari Simpson stated. “They have no legitimate use; they give the appearance of medical or psychological terminology, but they don’t appear in recognized medical or psychological dictionaries. They are simply slurs invented for hateful propaganda purposes.”

 

The Culture Guard complaint asks the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal to instruct the VSB to immediately cease the use of materials and policies “that project, advise, counsel and/or indoctrinate students, staff or the broader community, in any manner, that the terms ‘homophobe’, ‘homophobia’, ‘homophobic’, etc. are acceptable.” It also seeks an official apology from the VSB to “all individuals and groups harmed, belittled, demeaned and/or otherwise adversely affected by the Vancouver School Board’s failure to respect all individuals and groups, by cultivating hatred, ignorance and contempt for their opinions, religious beliefs and/or cultural practices as they pertain to issues directly related to biologically and economically harmful sexual practices and the requirement of students and staff to ‘celebrate’ the aforementioned practices.”

Ms. Simpson is acting on behalf of Chinese Christians but anticipates a number of other groups and individuals will be added if the Vancouver School Board fails to remedy the situation.   

 

                                                =30=

 

Contact:      Kari Simpson

                   cultureguard@gmail.com

                   www.CultureGuard.com

                   (604) 514-1614

Apr 142012
 

Kari Simpson and Ron Gray detail the new complaint filed with the BC Human Rights Tribunal against the Vancouver School Board’s calculated and deliberate agenda to cultivate an environment of hate, contempt and discrimination against staff and students who, for religious and cultural reasons, oppose “celebrating” homosexuality and other harmful sexual practices by allowing programs like Out In Schools to be incorporated into public schools. This is an important case and show! A must log on and watch!

Apr 102012
 

This Week On RoadKill Radio! (April 9 – 14, 2012)

Human Rights, Euthanasia, 21st Century Minutemen, Philosophers,

and the End of Days!!!

Monday, April 9, 2012

Flash Drive with Ron Gray: Hierarchy of Rights

Family Freedom Fighter host Ron Gray spells out the natural hierarchy of human rights, which have been recognized as far back as Aristotle’s time. Why has Canada strayed from this irrefutable hierarchy?

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

RoadKill Radio News: Alex Shadenberg on Canada’s Latest Push to Legalize Euthanasia

Will a provincial judge go rogue and rule against the Supreme Court’s decision that euthanasia is illegal? He may, if he changes the definition of euthanasia to a medical treatment! Team RKR says this issue is crucial, get informed – it is a matter of life and death!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Flash Drive with The National Absurder: End of Days

RoadKill Radio’s National Absurder, Jim Lawter, tries to make sense of all of today’s signs of a coming Apocalypse. Gird your loins, my friends, gird your loins! RKR team can hardly wait to see this one!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

The Mark Hasiuk Show: The 21st Century Minutemen

Join Mark Hasiuk as he speaks to Hal Washburn, former Vetting Director for the Minutemen, a civilian organization that helped guard the north and south U.S. Borders against drug smuggles, illegal immigrants, and potential terrorists.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Flash Drive with Ron Gray: Canada’s Best Philosopher!

Ron Gray announces his nomination for Canada’s best philosopher, based on his unwavering eloquence, logic, honesty, and patriotism. Log on to find out who it is!

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Culture Guard: Human Rights Tribunal Complaint Against the VSB

Kari Simpson and Ron Gray detail the new complaint filed with the BC Human Rights Tribunal against the Vancouver School Board’s calculated and deliberate agenda to cultivate an environment of hate, contempt and discrimination against staff and students who, for religious and cultural reasons, oppose “celebrating” homosexuality and other harmful sexual practices by allowing programs like Out In Schools to be incorporated into public schools.  This is an important case and show!  A must log on and watch!

 

 

Mar 032012
 

Ron Gray and Kari Simpson speak to Helen Ward, President of Kids First Parents Association of Canada. Why do parents have to fight so hard in the courts to retain their authority over their childrens’ education? Do special interest groups, misguided political correctness, an out-of-control anti-parent court system, and not enough parents standing up for their rights spell doom for parental rights? Helen Ward offers an online petition at TheParentsVoice.org that helps parents fight back.

Also, Ron and Kari have updates concerning the Vancouver Police Department, the Vancouver School Board, and ill-conceived Gender Switch Days in public schools.

Mar 032012
 

Culture Guard

Join Kari Simpson & Ron Gray

Tonight, Saturday March 3, 2012 at 7:30 pm

Parents need to Unite and Fight!

On

RoadKill Radio

Ron Gray and Kari Simpson speak to HELEN WARD, President of Kids First Parents Association of Canada.

Why do parents have to fight so hard at the polls and in the courts to retain their authority over their children’s education?  Do special interest groups, misguided political correctness, an out-of-control anti-parent court system, and not enough parents standing up for their rights spell doom for parental rights?  Helen Ward offers an online petition at TheParentsVoice.org that helps parents fight back.

Also, Ron and Kari have updates concerning the Vancouver Police Department, the Vancouver School Board, and ill-conceived Gender Switch Days in public schools.

WHERE: Listen/watch – http://www.roadkillradio.com

EMAIL THE SHOW: RoadkillRadioNews@gmail.com

Your Calls, Your Thoughts,
Your Opinions, Your Outrage is welcome!

Feb 152012
 

CultureGuard

Tel: 604 514-1614 ~ Fax: 604 514-1669

News release

February 15, 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Culture Guard files formal complaint

to VSB about Out In Schools program

VANCOUVER, Feb. 15, 2012 (Culture Guard) — Kari Simpson, president of Culture Guard, filed a formal complaint this morning with the Vancouver Board of School on behalf of concerned Vancouver parents, after VSB Chair Patti Bacchus claimed at the last public Board meeting to have “no knowledge” of complaints about the Board-endorsed “Out In Schools” program.

Mrs. Simpson said she wasn’t surprised by Ms. Bacchus’s claims of ignorance: “Ms. Bacchus admitted, at that meeting, to endorsing the notorious Out In Schools program without knowing anything about it.”

Kari Simpson further states: “It appears that Ms. Bacchus is comfortable operating in a vacuum—devoid of knowing what is really transpiring in the classrooms of the Vancouver School District. Clearly, she has abdicated her duty to be the guardian of the public’s trust, and has placed the health and well-being of students in harm’s way.”

The filed complaint states: The Vancouver Board of School Trustees (VSB), by endorsing the OIS program and allowing it to be advertised, published and taught in the classrooms and/or other facilities of the Vancouver Public School District, is complicit in distributing false, dangerous and misleading information to students and parents—thus endangering the health and well-being of children, and breaching the public’s trust.

The complaint then identifies many of the more obvious failings of the program, including the goal of encouraging students to call people names by using hateful terms like “homophobe”.

Simpson goes on to say that parents will be horrified when they find out who is “sponsoring” this program in Vancouver schools. These sponsors include a “queer” sex festival and XTRA!—a division of a so-called “not-for-profit” publishing company called Pink Triangle Press, that operates (among other lucrative ventures) a casual homosexual “hook-up” site called “Squirt”.

The Out In Schools program has been able to operate under the public radar by claiming to be an “anti-bullying” program. Thus misrepresenting the goals of the program, it also made false claims that the resource had been sent to the Ministry of Education for approval, this assertion has been proved to be a lie. The VSB and the sponsoring teachers have also failed to inform parents that sex activists like Jen “Jenderf**k” Sung were “educating” their children.

The complaint sent to the Vancouver Board of School Trustees follows this release.

For more information on OIS, watch the two-part video presentations, updates, and a letter that remains unanswered by Ross Johnstone, OIS program director; all are available at www.cultureguard.com Warning: the videos contain graphic content not suitable for minors.

=30=

Contact: Kari Simpson

telephone: 604 514-1614

e-mail: cultureguard@gmail.com

CultureGuard

Tel: 604 514-1614 ~ Fax: 604 514-1669

Vancouver Board of School Trustees

C/O Vancouver School Board

1580 West Broadway

Vancouver, BC

V6J 5K8

Via Email

February 15, 2012

Re: Out In Schools

Attention: Board of School Trustees SD No. 39


Complaint to the Vancouver Board of School Trustees

I, Kari Simpson, President of Culture Guard, make this formal complaint on behalf of Vancouver parents and tax-payers who have fulsome knowledge and concerns about the Out In Schools (“OIS”) program.

Specifically that:

The Vancouver Board of School Trustees (VSB), by endorsing the OIS program and allowing it to be advertised, published and taught in the classrooms and/or other facilities of the Vancouver Public School District, is complicit in distributing false and misleading information to students and parents—thus endangering the health and well-being of children, and breaching the public’s trust.

The Preamble of the School Act states:

WHEREAS it is the goal of a democratic society to ensure that all its members receive an education that enables them to become literate, personally fulfilled and publicly useful, thereby increasing the strength and contributions to the health and stability of that society;

AND WHEREAS the purpose of the British Columbia school system is to enable all learners to become literate, to develop their individual potential and to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to contribute to a

healthy, democratic and pluralistic society and a prosperous and sustainable economy;

But by engaging in the aforementioned conduct, the Vancouver School Board has acted contrary to the lawful mandate given to the Vancouver School District, and in violation of the spirit, purposes and goals of the BC public education system as established in law.

Further, Section 76 (2) of the School Act requires that “the highest morality” must be inculcated, but no religious dogma or creed is to be taught in a school or Provincial school. The OIS program, and its affiliated contests and goals, breaches Section 76 (2).

 

Part 1: False and misleading information to parents and students

The Vancouver Board of School Trustees has engaged, whether wittingly or not, in scamming parents and students by facilitating a program that has been falsely marketed to stakeholders.

Specifically that –

a) the OIS program has been presented as an “anti-bullying” program, which it is not;

b) the OIS goal has been alleged to be to “reduce” instances of bullying, but officers of OIS have stated other goals;

c) the OIS program was alleged to have been sent for approval, or approved by the Ministry of Education—neither of which is true;

d) the OIS program was presented as “age-appropriate”;

e) the OIS program is purportedly in compliance with the VSB policies on discrimination, but violates them;

f) the OIS program is presumed to be in compliance with the BC Human Rights Act, but it is not;

g) the OIS program and sponsoring teachers are purported to be in compliance with the BCTF code of Conduct, but they repeatedly violate it.

Part 2: Endangering the health and well-being of children

The Vancouver Board of School Trustees have recklessly breached their responsibility and duty to be guardians of the public’s trust and to protect the health and best interests of minor children, by failing to perform their due diligence in properly researching a program that actually involves the promotion and celebration of dangerous sexual practices. Further, by failing to have full knowledge about this program—a program rooted in political rhetoric, false information, and militant sex activism—the VSB has facilitated a gateway to give access to minors by sex activists, for the purpose of luring and exposing them to sexually explicit material and sexual practices known to be harmful.

Specifically that –

a) By promoting, hosting and endorsing the OIS program—a program that lures and facilitates minor students into being tricked, seduced (by “prizes”!) or scammed into attending sexualized pornographic environments under the guise of an “awards” party—the VSB is complicit in corrupting the morals of minors, and violating the trust of parents.

b) By promoting, hosting and endorsing the OIS program—a program that lures and facilitates minor students into being tricked, seduced (by “prizes”!) or scammed into attending sexualized pornographic environments under the guise of an “awards” party, the VSB has violated the public’s trust.

c) By failing to advise parents, after being informed that students were encouraged and invited to play sex games at an event publicized by OIS program via the VSB, the Board exacerbates the harm.

d) By failing to advise parents that students were possibly exposed to terms that approve of dangerous sexual practices—terms like “rimming”, “butt pirate” and other dangerous sexual acts—the VSB is failing to reduce the harm that could come to students, and is in contravention of the lawful requirements of the School Act for promoting a healthy society.

e) By promoting, hosting and endorsing the OIS program, the VSB has knowingly (or ought to have known) that minor students would be exposed to information that creates an environment of discrimination, hatred and contempt for individuals whose religious beliefs and/or cultural values and/or fact-based commonsense requires a refusal to “celebrate” sex activism or sex activist politics within the schools. These facts contravene the lawful requirement of the School Act that the VSB enable students to “…acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to contribute to a healthy, democratic and pluralistic society…”

f) The OIS program cultivates hatred and contempt for students, teachers, other individuals and groups who are opposed to sex activist propaganda. These include groups and individuals whose convictions are protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as well as groups and individuals who are factually informed of the medical, psychological and societal consequences of dangerous sexual acts and other behaviours that include, but are not limited to sodomy, drug use and promiscuous sexual practices and/or other sexual practices that result in harm; e.g.: multiple partner fellatio (blow jobs) among homosexual males has led to throat cancer at levels higher than lung cancer in smokers.

g) That by engaging and indoctrinating minors in propagandist material, exemplified by the VSB’s endorsement and use of the OIS program and other similar material, the VSB is failing to educate students as to the serious implications to the health of individuals (and the obscene costs to our economy) that are a direct result of sexual promiscuity, and the VSB’s requirement of staff and students to “celebrate” these practices among identifiable groups. This violates the legislated mandate of the public schools.

h) Further, by lying to students about the proven health consequences associated with these acts, as documented by the Centres for Disease Control (and both provincial and federal budgets), the VSB is failing to achieve the established goals of fostering “socially responsible” and “informed” citizens. This failure contravenes the lawful requirement that the VSB ensure that students acquire the necessary knowledge to be a positive contributor to a healthy and sustainable economy.

i) By failing to advise parents of the true facts associated with their children’s attendance and involvement in the OIS program—and the ensuing sex party—the VSB fails to mitigate the harm. Students and parents deserve the truth.

j) Trustees approved the OIS program, relying on unidentified Pride Committee members and/or unidentified staff to determine the alleged appropriateness of a program which was in fact designed to foster values and views that conflict with and undermine the Charter-protected cultural and moral values of important stakeholders.

Part 3: Cultivating ignorance (and ignorant bullies)

The OIS program provides obvious clues that it is unsuitable for school use. The words “homophobia”, “homophobe”, “homophobic” and other similar words are used in conjunction with sex activist propaganda; this cultivates harm, hurt and contempt for individuals and/or groups who oppose the propagation of false and misleading information and/or the promotion and “celebration” of the medically harmful sexual practices and diseases typically associated with sodomy and/or other promiscuous sexual behaviours. The OIS program, as presented, violates the BC Human Rights Code by including words and actions that discriminate against identifiable groups based on their religious beliefs; and also discriminate based on age, race and ethnic background.

Specifically that:

a) The OIS program relies on the repeated use of slurs, such as “homophobia”, “homophobe”, homophobic” and “heterosexist” to demean, demoralize and to cultivate contempt and hatred for Charter-protected groups opposed to homosexual behaviours. These terms violate the spirit and letter of the law; the School Act demands the cultivation of a pluralistic society. The courts have held that the school must protect all students, including those whose religious beliefs oppose homosexuality and students whose fact-based commonsense and well-informed knowledge militate against accepting sex activist propaganda.

b) The OIS program relies on the repeated use of slurs, namely “homophobia”, “homophobe”, and “homophobic” to demean, demoralize and to cultivate contempt and hatred for individuals and/or groups who seek factual discourse on the politics of sex activism.

c) The OIS program relies on the repeated use of slurs, namely “homophobia”, “homophobe”, homophobic” to demean, demoralize and to cultivate contempt and hatred for medical and/or psychological professionals who seek to provide factual research on issues relating to homosexuality and other issues related to sexual identity.

d) The videos used in the OIS program promote hatred and contempt for those who oppose the abuse of children by indoctrinating them with false and misleading information. Further, encourage the use of slurs to demean others.

e) That one of the videos used, distributed and shown in OIS presentations, Peking Turkey, incites contempt for an identifiable group by mocking Chinese-Canadian culture.

f) That a number of the videos seemingly approve of sex activists’ bully tactics, used to make individuals accept them. In one video, a frail 91-year-old man is bullied by a relative into “accepting” her lesbian “identity”. The man dies before the film is finished; but any objective observer would be horrified at the tactics used—and seemingly approved of—by these activists.

g) The OIS’ own promotional videos, published on their website, feature young students resorting to being “bullies” against other students; this behaviour is presented as being acceptable.

Part 4: Partnering up

Unbeknown to parents, the VSB is facilitating the for-profit interests of money-making business endeavours to recruit minor children as future consumers.

Specifically that -

a) The VSB is allowing children to be used as a captive audience in a number of for-profit marketing schemes associated with the OIS program.

b) The VSB has failed to inform parents that their children are being exposed to marketing schemes that seek to recruit a new generation of sex-based consumerism. By endorsing the OIS program, the VSB is “partnering up” with other OIS-sponsoring partners, including XTRA!, a publication owned and operated by Pink Triangle Press, a so-called “non-profit” society, whose mission statement reads in part:

‘Set love free’—We honour lust and seek a world where sex is valued as a human trait, no more no less than any other, and all are free and equal, no matter whom they love.

c) The VSB has failed to inform parents that, in keeping with their mission statement of honouring “lust”, this “non-profit” organization (functioning like a for-profit corporation, except for not having to pay taxes) also operates—as one of many possible examples—a lucrative casual homosexual sex “hook-up” site called “SQUIRT”; and that students are introduced to this profitable marketing strategy through the OIS program, contests and associated parties.

d) The VSB has failed to disclose to parents that XTRA! is also a sponsor of the Queer Film Festival, and has recently ramped-up their public endorsements of OIS, thus integrating themselves deeper into the OIS program—and the influencing of students as a direct result thereof.

e) The VSB has failed to inform parents that the VSB facilitated the use of students as a test market for a new “Dirty, Silly Drinking game” called Lesbian Debauchery during a party that is hosted by OIS and in conjunction with the queer sex festival.

f) Parents have a right to know that the OIS program is a school-based marketing tool for sex consumerism; the VSB has failed to so inform them.


Part 5: Remedy –

1) That a moratorium be placed immediately on any use of the Out In Schools program in schools or on school property;

2) That parents be notified forthwith that the VSB has failed to advise them of the true nature of this program; specifically that:

a) a moratorium be placed immediately on any use of the Out In Schools) the OIS program is a political indoctrination tool;

b) their children may have been exposed to a false understanding of issues involved in homosexuality;

c) that children were exposed to hate slurs like “homophobe” and “homophobia” as being acceptable, contrary to Charter of Rights, and contrary to policies of mutual acceptance made by the VSB and the BC Human Rights Code;

d) their children may have accessed, through a VSB-approved “youth-link”, a site featuring a hard-core homosexual porn;

e) minor students may have accessed, while researching the OIS program information and the PSA contest rules, information about the Queer Film Festival and the pornographic films associated with that sex festival. These films contained promotional information and material linked to hard-core homosexual porn, violent sex, sex with dead people (necrophilia), sex with animals (bestiality) and other graphic sexual depictions that are unacceptable for minors and unlawful;

f) their children may have been taught to believe that the use of slurs promoted by this program is acceptable;

g) their children may have acquired a false understanding of the dangerous health issues related to homosexuality;

h) their children may have been given a false knowledge base relating to homosexuality, transgenderism and other issues purported to be related to sexual identity.


3) That the Board of School Trustees issues an apology to parents and students for failing to protect their interests.

4) And other provisions to be agreed upon.


Failure to place an immediate moratorium on the OIS program will result in legal action. Further, the failings of this program are not limited to the information contained herein.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of Vancouver parents, students and stakeholders,


Kari D. Simpson

President, Culture Guard

May 022011
 

The proposed new Vancouver School Board ‘diversity’ policy, recognizes that “race” is an arbitrary social categorization—correctly, for the Human Genome Project has informed us that the physical characteristics which we have customarily called “racial characteristics” comprise only 0.012 per cent of the human genome. There is, in fact, only one “race”: the human race (GASP!: a position consistent with biblical ethics, which proclaims that “God has made all men on one blood.” (Acts 17:26) )

However, the Social Responsibility and Diversity (SR&D) team that drafted the proposed new policy then blithely proceeds to re-introduce “race” as a policy concept, adding “racial and” to the phrase “cultural diversity”. And the Aboriginal Educational Enhancement Agreement, to which the SR&D team says the VSB is committed, of course, defines the target beneficiaries by traditional concepts of “race”, which this paper correctly says are obsolete.

Of course, the distinctions implicit in the Aboriginal Educational Enhancement Agreement can be, and should be, understood to be rooted in culture, not race.

The prohibited grounds of discrimination under the BC Human Rights Code, which provided the basis for this draft, urgently need to be reviewed in light of three decades of study that now reveal that some of the protected categories and practices are in fact harmful to society and to the individuals who engage in them.

Some of the terms used in this report require definition – e.g., “ethnocentrism”. What, exactly does that mean? The roots of the word would seems to mean a focus on ethnicity—but the implication of its use here is that one ethnicity is given preference, and that’s bad. Well, if ethnicity means “race”, we have already demonstrated that such a focus would be wrong; but if it means culture, then the SR&D team has descended into the absurdity (very popular in some circles today) of declaring that “all cultures are equal.”

But clearly, they are not: some cultures embrace cannibalism, female genital mutilation, “honour” killings, child marriage, forced marriage, and slavery. Those cultures are demonstrably inferior to others which have transcended such savagery.

Again, the policy statement that “welcomes diversity” is not clear about what aspects of cultural or behavioural diversity are to be welcomed. Some behaviours are vectors for lethal diseases; others are rich artistic expressions. Some are barbaric; some add welcome dimensions to our own culture. In both parallels, the former should be discouraged, and the latter welcomed.

But the proposed VSB policy does not seem willing to make such distinctions, fearing to appear “Euro-centric”; but there are cultural divides according to which some cultural practices conform to or enhance Canadian society, and others are deleterious or even criminal.

The failure to make such distinctions is the result of a common and widespread misunderstanding of the word “discrimination” – a misunderstanding that is vividly apparent in this proposed policy statement.

Discrimination is, at its heart, the ability to tell good from bad, and better from best. In previous generations, discrimination was regarded as a good characteristic; we spoke of “a discriminating gentleman,” and it was meant in praise. Today both words are considered terms of opprobrium.

Prejudicial “discrimination”, of course, is wrong: to pre-judge without information, and then arbitrarily to classify people as “good” or “bad” is, in fact, the very obverse of true discrimination. True discrimination is beneficial, to both the individual and society. Prejudice, meaning pre-judging, or judging before the facts are known, is wrong; discrimination is good. This policy statement wrongly equates the two words. Such inability to use words correctly is one of the results of the deterioration of public education in recent decades, or a wilful attempt to deceive).

The policy draft falls into a similar trap when it mandates an “inclusive and multi-centric” curriculum.

But a primary goal of education is to transmit the national culture from one generation to the next, thus providing a moral framework from which other cultures can be evaluated when they are encountered later in life.

There’s a classic example in a story from the days of the British Raj in India. The Governor wanted to abolish the custom of suttee, by which, when a man of rank died, his widow was consigned, alive, to the flames of his ghat. When the British Governor sought to outlaw the practice, one of his Indian advisers cautioned him, “This is an established tradition in our culture.”

The British Governor replied, “It is an established tradition in our culture that whoever does such a thing is to be hanged.”

Suttee was eventually stopped.

The British Governor’s moral values were rooted in his culture, and he sought to guide India into governance that conformed to those values. He was also able to appreciate Indian art and cuisine; he was a discriminating gentleman.

Today’s “multi-culti” and post-modernist administrators – and the graduates of curricula such as the VSB is proposing – would not be able, with consistent cultural logic, to say that burning a widow alive was wrong; they would fear being considered “judgemental”. To them, suttee would be defensible because “all cultures are equal.” But they are not.

The SR&D team would probably excoriate the British Governor’s actions as “Euro-centric bias”, and would teach our children that he was wrong. But simple humanity screams that he was right.
This faulty perception of culture extends, in this policy statement, even to staff development: the proposed policy says, “All staff members need the knowledge, skills and attitudes to understand and accommodate diversity and difference.” That is fatuous, errant nonsense.

They need the knowledge, skills and attitudes to enable them to discern between diverse ideas and practices, to select the good and eschew the bad.

If the attitudes proposed in this policy proposal become the template of public education, there will be no people in the future equipped with the necessary discernment between good and bad cultural practices. If the Vancouver School Board wishes to destroy our society and culture, then let them campaign clearly on that theme rather than impose a regulatory agenda by bureaucratic deception.

~ Ron Gray