Education
Teacher refuses to give up fight for free speech after being canceled for objecting to LGBT books

From LifeSiteNews
Ontario’s Divisional Court dismissed Carolyn Burjoski’s application for a judicial review of the January 2022 decision by school trustees to kick her off the board, but she will appeal the decision.
A now-retired Canadian teacher who was silenced for voicing concerns over LGBT books in school libraries vowed to continue to fight for her right to free speech after she was muzzled by her board.
Last year, longtime Waterloo Regional District School Board (WRDSB) teacher Carolyn Burjoski was stopped mid-presentation by then-board chairman Scott Piatkowski at a Board of Trustees meeting on January 17, 2022, because she was criticizing LGBT books in school libraries.
Piatkowski went as far as to expel Burjoski from the meeting. The next day she was made to work from home and told to keep her mouth shut under the threat of losing her retirement benefits. Piatkowski then told legacy media that Burjoski was “transphobic” and was using “hate speech” in the board meeting. Of note is that Piatkowski is a longtime supporter of the socialist NDP party.
Burjoski’s fight for justice began after she was removed from the board meeting because she exposed the dangers of LGBT books in school libraries. According to court documents, during her presentation, Burjoski revealed that some of the books made it “seem simple or even cool to take puberty blockers and opposite sex hormones.”
“I was ejected from a Board of Trustees meeting for criticizing the age appropriateness of sexual content in children’s books in elementary school libraries,” she said.
In May 2022, Burjoski filed a $1.7 million defamation suit against the WRDSB and Piatkowski that remains before the courts.
In June 2022, Burjoski applied for a judicial review of Piatkowski’s decision to suddenly stop her presentation, claiming it violated Ontario’s Human Rights code.
On November 29, three judges with Ontario’s Divisional Court dismissed Burjoski’s application for a judicial review of the January 2022 decision by her trustees to kick her off the board.
School board showed ‘display of authoritarian speech suppression in a public forum,’ says canceled teacher
Burjoski, in an update to social media last Thursday, said she would fight the dismissal of the judicial review with an appeal.
“I was silenced and removed for voicing my concerns about age-inappropriate content in some elementary school books. My respectful presentation was cut short by the chair who wrongly accused me of violating the Human Rights Code,” Burjoski said.
“This was not just a violation of my right to free expression, but a stark display of authoritarian speech suppression in a public forum where diverse viewpoints should be welcomed and discussed.”
Burjoski said that her judicial review being dismissed “is deeply concerning” and could set a “troubling precedent for free expression in Canada, empowering school boards and other public bodies to silence and censure every voice they disagree with.”
“So today, I am escalating this matter to the Ontario Court of Appeal by filing a notice of motion for leave to appeal. This is not just about a school board meeting. It’s about the integrity of open dialog on important issues in our educational system and other public forums.”
Burjoski noted how a true democracy “thrives on diverse opinions and the freedom to express them.”
“It’s vital that our judicial system protect our charter rights against administrative overreach that stifles our free speech,” she noted.
“I am fully committed to this cause and am deeply grateful to the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms for sponsoring this appeal pro bono.”
She encouraged “everyone” to support JCCF financially in its “relentless work to safeguard Canadian freedoms.”
Burjoski suffered a breakdown from the entire ordeal, which was so bad that she had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. She said she is “still in recovery from this trauma.”
She has documented her ordeal on her website cancelledteacher.com.
Yesterday, LifeSiteNews reported that the WRDSB recently decided to get rid of the word “parent” on a slew of official documents and replace it with “caregiver” or “family.” Not all WRDSB members were on board with the change, however.
Alberta
Parents group blasts Alberta government for weakening sexually explicit school book ban

From LifeSiteNews
By
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.
All Alberta schools have until October 31 to provide a list of books that will be removed under the new rules, with the ban taking effect on January 5, 2026.
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.
Crime
Canadian teacher showed Charlie Kirk assassination video to young students, said he deserved to die

From LifeSiteNews
A Toronto teacher was suspended after reportedly forcing students to watch the assassination video while lecturing them about ‘anti-fascism, anti-trans, and how Charlie Kirk deserved this to occur.’
A Canadian teacher from the Toronto area has been suspended after showing the assassination video of Charlie Kirk to children aged 10 to 11 in his class, allegedly telling students Kirk deserved to die.
The teacher, from the Corvette Junior Public School in Toronto, Ontario, has been suspended and is under investigation by officials at the Toronto District School Board.
According to a Toronto Sun report, a source close to the situation said that several students from the teacher’s class “went home and complained to their parents, traumatized at witnessing the on-camera death, which they were forced to witness numerous times over.”
The source added that “parents subsequently reached out to school administrators, who will be putting him on leave at the start of the school day, September 12th, 2025.”
According to the source, while the teacher was playing Kirk’s assassination video, “repeatedly, he gave a speech to his students regarding anti-fascism, anti-trans, and how Charlie Kirk deserved this to occur.”
This past Friday, school officials sent parents a letter about the incident, calling the teacher’s alleged actions “extremely troubling and completely disturbing.”
“During class, students were said to have been shown a portion of a violent video in response to questions being asked about a recent tragic event in the United States,” reads the letter, which was signed by Corvette Junior Public School Principal Jennifer Koptie.
The letter confirmed that the video was allegedly shown to kids in grades 5 and 6 by a staff member at the school, who was supervising a French immersion class, but was not the student’s regular teacher.
“While an investigation must still be conducted to learn all of the details, the report of this incident is extremely troubling and completely unacceptable,” the letter continued.
Koptie wrote that the teacher has been “relieved of all teaching responsibilities pending the outcome of the investigation and will not be at the school.”
As reported by LifeSiteNews, Kirk, who was the CEO of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), was shot in the neck during an event on the campus of Utah Valley University last Wednesday and later died.
Law enforcement has Kirk’s alleged shooter in custody, as reported by LifeSiteNews.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, the roommate and alleged “partner” of Charlie Kirk’s assassin suspect has been confirmed to be a man who identifies as transgender.
Canada’s Conservative Party leader, Pierre Poilievre, last week, gave a touching tribute to Kirk, saying he was “mercilessly assassinated” for simply expressing his “contrary views.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, after a long delay last Thursday, broke his silence on the assassination of Kirk, saying he was “appalled” by his murder while calling for “prayers” for his family.
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