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Alberta

Judge reverses suspension against Alberta police officer for speaking at Freedom Convoy rally

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The suspension without pay for Staff Sergeant Richard Abbott of the Edmonton Police Service was out of line and not at all ‘justifiable,’ Justice James Nelson of Alberta Court of King’s Bench ruled.

A policeman from Alberta won a decisive court victory after a judge overturned a ruling against him by his superiors that suspended him without pay because he spoke at a Freedom Convoy rally in 2022.

Justice James Nelson of Alberta Court of King’s Bench recently ruled that the punishment for Staff Sergeant Richard Abbott of the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) was out of line and not at all “justifiable.”

“While taking into account the higher standards placed by law on a police officer that can limit the officer’s freedom of expression compared to the freedom enjoyed by other citizens, we are left in my view with factual distinctions that could be drawn from the evidence,” Nelson wrote in his ruling.

The judge also noted that the “facts and evidence” in the case were not clear in justifying the suspension.

Abbott was a 26-year police veteran with a clean record and “no prior disciplinary misconduct.”

His suspension came in 2022 after he gave a videotaped speech at a local Freedom Convoy rally, of which many were being held at the time in solidarity with the truckers who descended upon Ottawa in protest of COVID dictates of all kinds.

Abbott opposed COVID jab mandates and was sympathetic to the peaceful Freedom Convoy movement.

Judge Nelson agreed with Abbott’s statements and overturned his suspension.

The now former EPS Chief Dale McFee cited Abbott with breach of Police Service Regulations, saying his actions for speaking in favor of the protests were “conduct of engaging in the political activity of the Freedom Convoy, which “interferes with and adversely influence decisions you are required to make in the performance of your duties.”

“Your actions also created a conflict of interest by using your status as a police officer in an attempt to further the cause of the Freedom Convoy. By publicly supporting a cause where the activities of this group involve illegal activities, this undermines public confidence that police will behave impartially,” McFee wrote.

The reality is the EPS had mistakenly claimed Abbott had attended a large border protest in Coutts, Alberta.

In court, Abbott was successful in arguing that the videotape of him was from a protest nowhere near Coutts and was instead in Milk River and that he never spoke in favor of the border blockade protests.

In early 2022, thousands of Canadians from coast to coast came to Ottawa to demand an end to COVID mandates in all forms. Despite the peaceful nature of the protest, Trudeau’s government invoked the Emergencies Act (EA) on February 14. Trudeau revoked the order on February 23.

The EA controversially allowed the government to freeze the bank accounts of protesters, conscript tow truck drivers, and arrest people for participating in assemblies the government deemed illegal.

Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, the main leaders of the Freedom Convoy, as reported by LifeSiteNews, will receive their verdict on March 12.

They both face a possible 10-year prison sentence. LifeSiteNews has reported extensively on their trial.

Alberta

Sylvan Lake high school football coach fired for criticizing gender ideology sends legal letter to school board

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The letter on behalf of Alberta high school volunteer football coach Taylor ‘Teej’ Johannesson mentions ‘workplace harassment’ while demanding his job back.

A Sylvan Lake high school football coach who was fired for sharing his views opposing transgender ideology on social media in a video discussing his Christian faith sent a legal demand to his former school board demanding he get his job back.

H.J. Cody High School volunteer coach Taylor “Teej” Johannesson, as reported by LifeSiteNews, earlier this month was fired by his school’s principal because he spoke out against gender-confused youth who “take their hatred of Christians” to another level by committing violent acts against them.

School principal Alex Lambert fired Teej, as he is known, as a result of a TikTok video in which he speaks out against radical gender ideology and the dangers it brings.

In a recent update involving his case, local media with knowledge of Johannesson’s issues with the principal at H.J. Cody High School in Sylvan Lake, Alberta, confirmed a legal demand letter was sent to the school.

The letter reads, “From his perspective, this opposition is consistent with the Alberta government’s position and legislation prohibiting prescribing prescription hormones to minors and providing care to them that involves transition surgeries.”

In the letter, the school board’s “workplace harassment” procedure is mentioned, stating, “Any act of workplace harassment or workplace violence shall be considered unacceptable conduct whether that conduct occurs at work, on Division grounds, or at division-sponsored activities.”

The legal demand letter, which was sent to school officials last week, reads, “Given that Mr. Johannesson’s expression in the TikTok Video was not connected to his volunteer work, the principal and the division have no authority to regulate his speech and punish him by the Termination decision, which is ultra vires (“beyond the powers.)”

Johannesson has said, in speaking with local media, that his being back at work at the school as a volunteer coach has meaning: “It’s about trying to create some change within the school system.”

He noted how, for “too long,” a certain “political view, one ideology, has taken hold in the school system.”

Johannesson has contacted Alberta’s Chief of Staff for the Minister of Education about his firing and was told that there is a board meeting taking place over the demand letter.

According to Teej, Lambert used his TikTok video as an excuse to get rid of someone in the school with conservative political views and who is against her goal to place “safe space stickers” all over the school.

Teej has been in trouble before with the school administration. About three years ago, he was called in to see school officials for posting on Twitter a biological fact that “Boys have a penis. Girls have a vagina.”

Alberta’s Conservative government under Premier Danielle Smith has in place a new policy protecting female athletes from gender-confused men that has taken effect across the province.

As LifeSiteNews previously reported, the Government of Alberta is currently fighting a court order that is blocking the province’s newly passed ban on transgender surgeries and drugs for children.

Alberta also plans to ban books with sexually explicit as well as pornographic material, many of which contain LGBT and even pedophilic content, from all school libraries.

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Alberta

Parents group blasts Alberta government for weakening sexually explicit school book ban

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The revised rules no longer place restrictions on written descriptions of sexual content.

Some parental rights advocates have taken issue with the Conservative government of Alberta’s recent updates to a ban on sexually explicit as well as pornographic material from all school libraries, saying the new rules water down the old ones as they now allow for descriptions of extreme and graphic sexual acts in written form.

As reported by LifeSiteNews last week, Alberta Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides of the ruling United Conservative Party (UCP) released revised rules outlining the province’s ban on sexually explicit content in school libraries.

The original ban included all forms of sexually explicit as well as pornographic material. However, after a large public school board alleged the ban applied to classic books, the government changed the rules, removing a clause for written sexual content that has some parental rights groups up in arms.

Tanya Gaw, founder of the conservative-leaning Action4Canada, noted to media that while she is happy with Premier Danielle Smith for the original book ban, she has deep concerns with the revised rules.

“We are very concerned about the decision that no longer places restrictions on written descriptions of those acts, which is problematic,” she said in an interview with The Epoch Times.

Gaw noted how kids from kindergarten to grade 12 should “never” be “exposed to graphic written details of sex acts: incest, molestation, masturbation, sexual assaults, and profane vulgar language.”

According to John Hilton-O’Brien, who serves as the executive director of Parents for Choice in Education, the new rule changes regarding written depictions “still shifts the burden onto parents to clean up what should never have been purchased in the first place.”

He did say, however, that the new “Ministerial Order finally makes catalogs public, and what we see there is troubling.”

Alberta’s revised rules state that all school library books must not contain “explicit visual depictions of a sexual act.” To make it clear, the standards in detail go over the types of images that are banned due to their explicit pornographic nature.

As reported by LifeSiteNews in May, Smith’s UCP government went ahead with plans to ban books with sexually explicit as well as pornographic material, many of which contain LGBT and even pedophilic content, from all school libraries.

The ban was to take effect on October 1.

The UCP’s crackdown on sexual content in school libraries comes after several severely sexually explicit graphic novels were found in school libraries in Calgary and Edmonton.

The pro-LGBT books in question at multiple school locations are Gender Queer, a graphic novel by Maia Kobabe; Flamer, a graphic novel by Mike Curato; Blankets, a graphic novel by Craig Thompson; and Fun Home, a graphic novel by Alison Bechdel.

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