VIDEO: Carolyn Burjoski - Canuck anti-woke heroine

Walt's nominee for Canadian hero of the year is Carolyn Burjoski, then a teacher in the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB), who was silenced in 2022 after expressing to the board her concerns about library books with content supporting gender transitions (read: sex change operations) for young people.

Board Chair Scott Piatkowski halted Ms Burjoski's presentation at a WRDSB meeting for comments she rnade which he alleged violated the Ontario Human Rights Code. He later described the teacher's comments as "transphobic" and "questioning trans people's right to exist."

Ms Burjoski fought back -- a shining example of the kind of "resistance" which is Walt's theme today. In May 2022, she filed a defamation lawsuit against the WRDSB and Chairman Scott. The board responded by bringing a motion to have the suit thrown out. In this short video, Ms Burjoski speaks about what happened.

    

On November 23rd of this year, Mr Justice James Ramsay of the Ontario Superior Court dismissed the WRDSB's motion, and ordered the Board to pay Ms Burjoski's costs in the amount of C$30,000 (nearly $22,000 in real money). 

Judge Ramsay ruled that Ms Burjoski's lawsuit against the school board should be allowed to proceed, and... yes, there's more... called the comments made against her "defamatory." Said the judge, "They accused her of breaching the Human Rights Code, questioning the right of trans persons to exist and engaging in speech that included hate. She did not do any of those things. 

"The chairman of the board acted with malice or at least, with a reckless disregard for the truth. He had made an embarrassingly erroneous and arbitrary decision to silence a legitimate expression of opinion and he was widely criticized for it. It is not a stretch to infer that, realizing that, he tried to justiff himself with the public by assassinating the plaintiff s character." 

Furthermore, the judge said, human rights legislation "does not prohibit public discussion of anything," and "what happened here should not happen in a democratic society." 

Ms Burjoski's legal victory shows that parents who want to speak up at school board meetings to voice their concerns need not fear being silenced. After this excellent start to her ongoing legal battle to hold the WRDSB accountable, Ms Burjoski will now continue with her defamation suit. But she will need your help. 

In legal affairs such as this, the process is the punishment. The stress of the litigation forced her to go on leave from her teaching position, and the money she's supposed to get from the Board doesn't even cover her actual costs so far. Ms Burjoski.

But Ms Burjoski believes she must press on. Her victory (so far) shows that parents who want to speak up at school board meetings to voice their concerns need not fear being silenced. Click here to visit her website, and please lend whatever support you can. And tell her Walt sent ya!