Councillors, mayor receive liability notices

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This article was published 08/09/2023 (843 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A week after most members of the Brandon School Division’s board of trustees received notices demanding they cease displaying certain materials in school libraries, similar notices were delivered to Brandon City Council on Tuesday.

These notices appear to have been delivered to all 10 councillors and Mayor Jeff Fawcett, but those who spoke to the Sun about the situation said they’re not taking them seriously.

“I put no weight in them at all,” Fawcett said Thursday morning. “We receive those kinds of things regularly … quite often from that same group for different reasons.”

Coun. Bruce Luebke (Ward 6) gave the notices he received to the Sun. Like the ones distributed to school trustees, the notices come from the website of a group called Action4Canada.

Most of the documents Luebke received match those forms given to trustees, warning that the recipients could be held liable under the Criminal Code of Canada for their part in supposedly exposing children to pornography, encouraging children to masturbate and displaying images of children having sex in school curriculum and library materials.

Though the notice is almost entirely about schools, one line mentions that the materials in question are being found in public libraries as well.

The City of Brandon is one of the municipalities that helps fund the Western Manitoba Regional Library, with one city councillor typically serving on its board.

Earlier this year, the Winnipeg Free Press reported that individuals pushing for book bans at the South Central Regional Library system were using Action4Canada resources as a guide for their efforts.

Councillors also received another type of notice titled “ban non-government and special interest group flags.”

It states that “segregation, discrimination, inequality and discontent” are being promoted through flags representing various non-governmental groups being flown at government buildings.

The only examples of offending flags given in the notice are the rainbow-coloured Pride flag and the blue, white and pink transgender pride flag, which they connect to “nefarious proclivities and deviant sexual fetishists.”

The notice also questions whether pride parades should be allowed to take place.

Examples of both notices provided to the Sun were signed by Kathy Smitzniuk, who made a presentation in June calling for board chair Linda Ross, vice-chair Jim Murray and trustee Kim Fallis to be reprimanded for their conduct during a previous meeting’s discussion over banning LGBTQ, sexual and gender content from school libraries.

Ultimately, Ross, Murray, Fallis, as well as trustees Calistus Ekenna and Breeanna Sieklicki, were censured.

Smitzniuk has also continued to press for the creation of a committee to ban books after the board voted against doing so. She did not respond to a Facebook message requesting comment.

The mayor added on Thursday that he’s more concerned about safety, security and economic development than culture war battles.

“We’re all humans. We’ve all chosen to live in Brandon, and that’s what we have in common,” Fawcett said. “Let’s build on that. People who start with what we (don’t) have in common or start with our differences try to change the way you’re looking at things.”

While Coun. Greg Hildebrand (Ward 5) received a package, he wrote in an email that he had not read them yet. However, he said he had been “advised that the contents are not legally concerning.”

“I would add that it is disappointing that I haven’t even been contacted to discuss this matter before I am handed this package,” he wrote.

In an email, Coun. Kris Desjarlais (Ward 2) said he recycled the notices without reading them.

Coun. Heather Karrouze (Ward 1) wrote in an email to the Sun: “I am saddened that in a creation which includes diversity of many kinds — cultural and ethnic diversity, neurodiversity and sexual diversity — we have community members who appear to feel threatened by those who are ‘different’ from them.

“That this is springing from the Christian community, whose very basic tenet is that we must love one another, is especially disheartening to me.”

In response to the notice suggesting the flying of Pride and transgender pride flags be banned, Brandon Pride chairperson Alyssa Wowchuk pointed out that during Pride Week in Brandon this year, the flagpole flying the Pride flag also had one from Special Olympics Manitoba.

“Next week, United Way has a flag-raising,” Wowchuk said in a phone interview with the Sun. “That’s also non-government … at the end of September during Truth and Reconciliation Week, the orange survivors’ flag flies all week. That’s another non-government flag. Are they saying anything about those flags, or are they just targeting 2SLGBTQ people again without saying it outright?”

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