Red Deer
Red Deer’s Parker Thompson looking for strong finish to the Indy Pro 2000 season
From Parker Thompson Racing
With two events remaining in the 2019 Indy Pro 2000 by Cooper Tires Championship, Parker Thompson is focused on making a big impact. The Road to Indy veteran started the season in the best possible way, winning the opening two races with rookie team Abel Motorsports. Thompson has since become familiar with adversity. With Abel Motorsports, he has placed on the podium in six of twelve races, but struggles in other races put the team on its back foot entering the Oval Challenge of St. Louis this weekend. A strong finish was critical to maintaining Thompson’s contention for the overall championship.
After a near miss in qualifying, the young Canadian started the race from ninth position. He would work his way up to sixth place before the checkered flag fell, but failed to gain any ground on other top Championship contenders. With four races remaining, and a 64-point deficit to the leader, Lindh, Thompson knows that there is little room for error.
Parker Thompson
“On these oval tracks where there is a short 2-lap qualifying stint, we’ve got a small window to earn a good starting position. Unfortunately, I had a near miss with the wall on one of my laps that cost us a lot of time. After starting near the back of the field, we are satisfied to at least move up to sixth. That said, with two events remaining, you can bet that we are looking for a strong finish to the season. Our team knows that we can run at the front of the field on the road courses. We are not going to let the season end without a big fight.”
Results
Cooper Tires Indy Pro 2000 Oval Challenge of St. Louis – Rounds 13
Qualifying – Official (PDF)
Race – Official (PDF)
Overall Standings (PDF)
Next Events
August 30-31 – IP2000 Round 13 & 14 – Portland International Raceway, OR
September 20-22 – IP2000 Round 15 & 16 – WeatherTech Laguna Seca, CA
September 27-29 – GT3CAN Round 9 & 10 – Circuit Mont-Tremblant, QC
Red Deer
Expelled member of Red Deer Catholic School Board will have judicial reviews heard May 1-3
News release from The Democracy Fund
TDF and James Kitchen Defend School Board Trustee Monique LaGrange
Briefs were filed in Monique LaGrange’s case on the week of April 8, 2024.
RED DEER: The Democracy Fund (TDF) has partnered with lawyer James Kitchen to represent former school board trustee Monique LaGrange as she takes The Board of Trustees of Red Deer Catholic Separate School Division to court for kicking her off the Board because they took offence to one of Ms. LaGrange’s social media posts.
Mr. Kitchen filed two applications for judicial review in December 2023, challenging the Board’s decisions to penalize Mrs. LaGrange and disqualify her from sitting on the Board. Mr. Kitchen has now filed his briefs, which lay out in detail how the Board’s decisions are procedurally unfair and unreasonable and should be overturned by the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta.
The two judicial reviews will be heard virtually by a Red Deer judge over the course of a three-day hearing on May 1-3, 2024, starting at 2:00 PM on Wednesday, May 1. Members of the public are encouraged to attend by accessing this link.
In Alberta, judicial reviews are heard on the basis of a record of documents compiled and submitted to the Court by the decision-maker, which is supposed to include everything presented to the decision-maker at the time the decision was made. In this case, Mrs. LaGrange had submitted to the Board 33 pages of emails and letters from Albertans who supported her. At first, the Board failed to provide these supportive emails and letters to the Court, but that changed when Mr. Kitchen filed an application to compel the Board to do so. Redacted versions of these emails and letters, which are also quoted at length in the briefs, can be viewed here, starting at page 113 of 169.
Mrs. LaGrange was democratically elected to the Board in 2021. Despite this, the Board expelled her because she allegedly failed to comply with sanctions imposed on her by the Board in September 2023 for posting a meme to her Facebook account that some people found offensive. The impugned meme depicted two side-by-side photographs, one of children holding swastika flags and the other of children holding pride progress flags. The meme, which drew much support but also some disapprobation from the community, included a caption stating, “Brainwashing is brainwashing.”
The Board asked Mrs. LaGrange to apologize for the meme, which she declined to do because she believed she had done nothing wrong. In speaking to the Western Standard, Mrs. LaGrange stated, “I was elected to stand up and protect our children, and that is what I am doing.” Among other things, the Board, on September 26, 2023, ordered LaGrange to undergo sensitivity training at her own expense for allegedly breaching their code of conduct by posting the meme and to refrain from making public comments about sexual minorities in her official capacity as a Trustee.
The Board subsequently alleged Mrs. LaGrange had breached some of these sanctions and voted to disqualify Mrs. LaGrange as a trustee.
TDF and lawyer James Kitchen have chosen to defend Mrs. LaGrange to defend the free speech rights of all Canadians, especially in the context of statements made by democratically elected representatives.
To support Mrs. LaGrange, please consider making a tax-deductible donation on this page.
About The Democracy Fund:
Founded in 2021, The Democracy Fund (TDF) is a Canadian charity dedicated to constitutional rights, advancing education, and relieving poverty. TDF promotes constitutional rights through litigation and public education and supports access to justice initiatives for Canadians whose civil liberties have been infringed by government lockdowns and other public policy responses to the pandemic.
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