Opinion: Ideological extremists don’t deserve responses to election questions … but here are mine anyway
When Christian nationalists pushing homophobia and misogyny ask candidates to answer to questions, should they be addressed or ignored?
October 5, 2026
Candidates looking to become trustees on the Chilliwack School Board have received several surveys from organizations from local to national during this campaign.
These range between questions from local partners who are integral in the education system to individuals spamming candidates across Canada.
Should they answer them all? Without hesitation, obviously I answered questionnaires from the Chilliwack Teachers Association, CUPE 411 and the Chilliwack District Parent Advisory Council. You know, the teachers union, the union representing other district staff, and parents. Seem like pretty important people, right?
Despite that, several of the conservative religious candidates running on the Trustees for Change slate refused to respond to one or more of those questionnaires.
There was also one from Build Chilliwack focused mostly on city council but also some environmental questions sent to school board candidates. I responded to that as well.
We also got one from a national LGBTQ political advocacy organization called Queer Momentum, one from a local consultant focused on artificial intelligence, and one from an independent citizen who appears to be an electrician from Langley. I responded to the Queer Momentum and I will definitely get to the AI one. The citizen one feels a little like whistling in the wind and some of the questions are odd, such as asking my reading or writing speeds and how would I communicate with English- and French-speaking candidates.
Then there is the good ol’ Association of Reformed Political Action (ARPA) who send out questionnaires at pretty much all elections at all levels. ARPA is the unapologetically homophobic, anti-choice, Reformed Church organization campaigning across Canada to create a Christian theocracy.
ARPA’s campaign of homophobia and misogyny is notorious in B.C. The deep-pocketed Christian nationalists spend millions on lawyers to lobby politicians and intervene in court cases, such as when a handful of anti-science conservative Christian churches decided to defy COVID rules.
A year and a half ago, Chilliwack North MLA Heather Maahs proudly invited this hate group to the B.C. legislature but then she ran and hid when asked to stand up to defend them. Maahs invited them, lauding the group’s values saying they coincided with BC Conservative values. When MLAs later entertained a motion to condemn ARPA’s intolerant views, a great chance to stand up publicly in support of her pals, Maahs and all BC Conservatives fled into hidey holes and refused to vote.
So when I received the questionnaire from ARPA sent to all school-board candidates, I read it over closely. I decided, however, that an organization sharing bigoted, intolerant, anti-science views didn’t warrant a response. The questions they asked were almost hilariously loaded and one-by-one got progressively more stupid, culminating in a final question that mixed up the words “censure” and “censor” while grandstanding on the American concept of “freedom of speech.”
I didn’t respond to ARPA with answers to their questions. But out of an obsessive desire to be as open as possible and share information rather than suppress it, I just can't help myself. So here are their seven questions and my seven answers.
If someone from ARPA reads this, sorry I didn’t respond. You wouldn’t have liked it anyway. And here you go.
School Trustee Candidates
- Please tell us a little bit about yourself personally: Who are you? Why are you running? What values drive you in your aspiration to be a school board trustee?
"I've been a reporter for 25 years. I’ve won two dozen provincial and national awards over two decades while on the front lines of community newspaper journalism with a focus on crime and the justice system, local and provincial politics, advocacy journalism and human interest features. I’m a member of the Canadian Association of Journalists and a BC Supreme Court accredited reporter."
- What issues are you passionate about and, in your opinion, what are the greatest issues facing our public school system?
"I’m passionate (if concerned) about artificial intelligence and its use in schools and preparing children for an uncertain future in this regard. Funding is always an issue, which is related to the important issue of inclusion of all students in classrooms, a practice that can be disruptive to other students without enough educational assistants. It’s a delicate balance."
- Do you support or oppose the inclusion of SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity) in school anti-bullying policies, school activities, and teaching resources?
"Yes, of course."
- Should parents be notified when particularly sensitive material (e.g. sexual education or SOGI) is discussed in the classroom? Should parents be allowed to request that their children be absent from a class when such material is being discussed?
"Of course not."
- Should the school board, district, or division notify or obtain consent from parents when a child wishes to use a new name or pronouns at school?
"No, of course not."
- Should sexually explicit or descriptive material be available in school libraries? If so, at what grade level (e.g. in elementary schools, middle schools, or high schools)? How would you assist parents who have concerns about such materials being shared at inappropriate ages?
"Yes, there should be pornography freely flying around the school. That is, of course, sarcasm, because this is a silly loaded question, an attempt to create outrage to a problem that doesn’t exist."
- Some school boards across Canada have censured board members, school staff, or parents for controversial statements. Do you support freedom of speech, or do you think that it is the responsibility of the board to censor potentially offensive speech at school board meetings?
"I know words are hard but let me explain three things:
"1. The word 'censure' and the word 'censor' are two different words, pronounced differently, too. Censure means to formally express disapproval. Censor means to edit or ban certain materials or expressions from public view. Some trustees and teachers have been rightly 'censured' by their boards for racist (e.g. residential school deniers) or homophobic (e.g. Barry Neufeld every time he opens his mouth) expressions. This type of religious-based bigotry has no place in our education system and trustees should be creating and modelling safe, caring and inclusive spaces for all students and teachers. No trustees have been 'censored,' that’s impossible for a school board to do since any trustee who wants to spout racist or homophobic things wherever they want will be heard loudly by the media and by social media content creators.
"2. 'Freedom of speech' is not a thing in Canada, that’s an American concept. We have freedom of expression in Canada, which is overtly protected under section 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As a journalist I believe strongly in freedom of expression.
"3. As I’m sure you know, this is a trick question. This is an example of a logical fallacy, specifically known as 'the loaded question fallacy,' whereby the question contains a faulty premise or hidden information such that there is no good answer. You know, along the lines of the classic example: 'Have you stopped beating your wife?'"
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Paul J. Henderson
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