BURLINGTON, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) — An Ontario school board employing a high school teacher who scandalized students and parents by teaching in massive prosthetic breasts complete with protruding fake nipples says educators should be able to express their “lived gender,” as not allowing so could lead to lawsuits.
The November 8 memo allowing teachers to effectively wear whatever they feel conforms to their “lived gender,” came from the Halton District School Board’s (HDSB) superintendent of human resources, Sari Taha, and director of education Curtis Ennis, and was sent to HDSB staff and the board’s chair Margo Shuttleworth.
The HDSB memo reads: “It is clear from the above analysis the implementation of a formal staff dress code or grooming standards would likely expose the board to considerable liability. Even if a dress code is implemented for non-discriminatory reasons, it would likely be found to be discriminatory where it adversely affects an employee or group of employees on the basis of their code-protected grounds.”
The memo goes on to state that the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario says “an employer will have to be prepared to establish any sex-linked differences in its dress code are bona fide occupational requirements, or they will likely be found to be discriminatory,” while making special mention that “it’s important to recognize the impact” dress codes in general, can have on the so-called “transgender community.”
According to Quillette editor Jonathan Kay, the memo was sent in response to the September incident involving a biologically male Oakville Trafalgar High School shop teacher – who goes by the name Kayla Lemieux – who sparked outrage after videos of him wearing unrealistically large fake breasts with protruding “nipples” while in school went viral online.
At the time, hundreds of students and parents held a protest outside Trafalgar High School to express their opposition to the teacher.
Later in the memo, both Taha and Ennis went on to say that employers should “make allowances to ensure these employees are able to express themselves in accordance with their lived gender,” with Shuttleworth saying it is the school board’s “stance” to stand “behind the teacher.”
This is the second time the HDSB has supported the controversial teacher, writing shortly after the initial incident that “As a school within the Halton District School Board, Oakville Trafalgar High School recognizes the rights of students, staff, parents/guardians and community members to equitable treatment without discrimination based upon gender identity and gender expression.”
“Gender identity and gender expression are protected grounds under the Ontario Human Rights Code,” the board added in its email to parents.
While the Ontario Human Rights Code policy on dress is being deployed to defend a male dressing as a woman, the policy was actually created with the intention of protecting women from being coerced into dressing in a “stereotypical” or “sexualized” manner.
The HDSB teacher’s dress became a wide-reaching spectacle when the footage first appeared earlier this fall, with Maxime Bernier, the leader of the People’s Party of Canada, blasting Lemieux as a “pervert” who should “stay home.”
Fox News host Tucker Carlson also chimed in, calling the school board “disgusting” for not doing anything about Lemieux. Carlson also called Lemieux “a man abusing children in the classroom.”
The push to normalize radical aspects of gender ideology in Canada largely began its ascent to the mainstream in 2017, when the federal government passed Bill C-16, formally adding “gender expression” and “gender identity” to Canada’s Human Rights Code and to the Criminal Code’s hate crime section.
Jack Fonseca, Campaign Life Coalition’s director of political operations, warned at the time that the new law would lead to attacks on the family unit and to Christians in particular.
“Mark my words, this law will not be used as some sort of ‘shield’ to defend vulnerable transsexuals, but rather as a weapon with which to bludgeon people of faith and free-thinking Canadians who refuse to deny truth,” he told LifeSiteNews.
Recently, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal government has doubled down on its promotion of the LGBT agenda, announcing $100 million in funding for activist groups within the movement.
The massive funding came shortly after parliament passed a law banning so-called “conversion therapy,” which included in its broad definition any form of talk therapy, even with a consenting adult who freely wants to overcome unwanted sexual attractions.