Unravelling Fraser Valley MLA’s political posturing & teachers’ union president’s soft response

When influential people don’t explain what they are actually talking about, it’s no wonder people tune out

A lot of political discourse in our world is so intentionally unclear to the majority of the population who are just trying to work hard, raise kids, enjoy life, that I suspect it gets ignored.

That is to say, people don’t say precisely what they mean for fear of being labelled as something – homophobic or woke, far right or far left. 

That’s why political correctness is a thing. A lot of political correctness is simply correctness, if a tad pedantic. An obvious example is the term “Indigenous” to replace “Indian,” which was used for five centuries because Christopher Columbus couldn’t read a map. More subtle is the term “unhoused” instead of “homeless,” which is just more accurate or “stay-at-home parent” instead of “housewife.”

All that is to say that if people saw or read about Chilliwack North MLA Heather Maahs voting against the Safe Access to Schools Amendment Act and/or Chilliwack Teachers’ Association president Reid Clark’s statement in response, I bet a lot of people don’t really know what either of them were talking about. 

Let me translate Maahs’ words that sidestep the real issue, that mask deeply held beliefs, and Clark’s important but all-too gentle response: This is about anti-science agitators and religious homophobes.

Parental rights?

Maahs and others in her right-wing religious circles constantly talk about “parental rights.” What’s that about? Parents have all the rights they’ve always had. The reality is that the anti-bullying resource SOGI 123 in schools means that if and when it is used, teachers might explain to children that lesbian, gay, bisexual. trans people exist and that they are allowed to be who they are and not be bullied. 

Doesn’t sound controversial does it? 

Maahs and others fear-monger with straw-man arguments claiming that teachers are trying to turn your kids gay and they are indoctrinating them with “gender ideology.”

They’re not. 

Safe schools?

What is the vaguely named Safe Access to Schools Amendment Act about and why would someone be opposed to safe schools? 

This, too, is about SOGI. But it’s also about other issues near-and-dear to far-right politicians in B.C. 

Readers might recall four years ago, two years into the maddening and stressful COVID-19 pandemic, when an angry parent was banned from Sardis Elementary property for intimidating other parents, protesting pandemic mandates, and driving around with a F*ck Trudeau flag on his pickup truck. 

Nicholas Epp was his name and he also offered to fight another parent who disagreed with his politics. Another parent was later arrested on school property for similar behaviour. Mark Alexander Van Heek was arrested for ignoring his ban on being on the property after he participated in anti-vaxxer trucker convoy protests. 

Even these raging right-wingers were tempering their language and declining to openly say what they were really so upset about.

“It was a little unclear about exact messaging,” Crown counsel Aaron Burns said when Van Heek was in court on April 25, 2022. “But it appeared to be linked to the trucker convoy (protest) going on at the same time in Ottawa.”

So there are those protests that this Safe Schools act hopes to deter, at least by keeping it 20 metres away from school properties. 

Again, a modest demand in a democracy. 

But of course this is also, and mostly, about SOGI and the rallies and protests held in various places, including near schools. 

Maahs’ stances on various issues over the years represents deeply disturbing ideas or she’s just constantly engaging in political posturing, dog-whistling to a constituency, a group that Justin Trudeau once called a “fringe minority with unacceptable views,” a statement that prompted the famous bumper stickers.

Maahs has long been enraged by inclusive education and she hates the anti-bullying resource SOGI 123, which by definition means she wants to normalize bullying of LGBTQ students, teachers, and school staff.

Hilariously, in her statement to The Progress she said the Act will continue to prevent “parents or tax payers [sic]” from yelling and chanting and waving signs around public schools “for any reason, SOGI 123, busing, boundary changes.”

Have you ever seen a protest in front of a school over busing or boundary changes? 

Maahs claims this bill, which was only opposed by her and fellow BC Conservative Korky Neufeld from Abbotsford West, is an affront to the Charter and is “clearly censorship.”

More hilarity from Maahs who blocks constituents on social media who she doesn’t want to hear from. As in, Heather Maahs censors voices she doesn’t like. 

CTA response

In responding to Maahs, Clark wrote a lengthy missive saying essentially that the MLA is choosing political posturing over student safety. 

Clark’s response was strong and mostly clear, stating that because Maahs and Korky Neufeld were school trustees in the past, during the pandemic, this shows behaviour that “is not a departure from past practice.” 

“When given another opportunity to stand up for safer schools, they have once again demonstrated remarkable consistency.”

Here too, however, the reader is left to interpret and make inferences about what exactly he is talking about.

Clark is pointing out that Maahs and Neufeld were involved in the anti-vaxxer/mandate community, and support the ability of people such as Epp and Van Heek from bullying and intimidating parents and children and students to get their voices heard.

And he is pointing out that Maahs and Neufeld want parents (and taxpayers) to have the right to wave signs and yell at teachers and parents and children in the LGBTQ community. 

This isn’t about a vague notion that we should have safe schools, or legislation to ensure some non-specific group of people should not protest some indeterminate issue.

This is about keeping disruptive anti-vaxxers and homophobes away from school entrances and parking lots. 

Heather and Korky either support bullying and intimidation or are political posturing over a non-issue. Folks can and will still go wave signs on overpasses and scream obscenities at intersections. 

Just stay the hell away from schools. It’s that simple.

-30-

Want to support independent journalism?
Consider becoming a paid subscriber or make a one-time donation so I can continue this work.

Paul J. Henderson
pauljhenderson@gmail.com
facebook.com/PaulJHendersonJournalist
instagram.com/wordsarehard_pjh
x.com/PeeJayAitch
wordsarehard-pjh.bsky.social