Lawyer: Red Deer school trustee likely won’t follow through on training & apology

Board Chair Murray Hollman told rdnewsNOW following the Sept. 26 meeting that should she not complete these and other steps, additional code of conduct actions may arise.

“With the sensitivity training, she hasn’t decided yet. But the apology, she cannot, and the reason is because any apology she would give would not be honest, genuine or truthful,” says Lawyer James Kitchen of James S. M. Kitchen, Barrister & Solicitor, which is based in Airdrie.

“If we violate her conscience in making her apologize when she doesn’t believe she’s done anything wrong, she would just be making it up. People apologize all the time when they don’t mean it, but it doesn’t bother them because they don’t have that big of a conscience. They just do it to keep their position or job, and that’s normal in society, unfortunately.”

Kitchen calls the condition of an apology strange because LaGrange has made it repeatedly clear to the board she isn’t sorry.

“She’s told them this was not a lapse in judgment and not a mere mistake. She’s said that she meant what she said and said what she meant, and that she doesn’t think it was wrong. She’s made that plain, over and over,” says Kitchen.

As far as Hollman’s apparent warning that further action could occur if she fails to comply, Kitchen says everyone involved is probably on an “irreversible course.”

Kitchen says the next option available to them is a judicial review of the matter through King’s Bench, but they haven’t yet chosen that route.

Kitchen confirmed he is involved with an organization called Liberty Coalition Canada, though his work on LaGrange’s case is unrelated to that group, he explains.

Asked his thoughts on the school board’s decision, he doesn’t find it surprising and calls it unlawful.

“She posts something that upsets certain people, they complain, the school board doesn’t like controversy, they don’t want to upset the LGBT (sic) community, they don’t want to anger the left wing mob, and naturally we get this overreaction to what she said. It then manifests itself into trustee discipline,” says Kitchen. “I think they’ve overstepped, especially with the sensitivity training and the apology.”

Kitchen admits it’s still not been made entirely clear to him and LaGrange which sections of the Education Act and the code of conduct have been contravened. He does note, however, a belief that it has something to do with sections 33 and 34, the former which talks about welcoming and respectful environments for students and staff, and the latter which speaks to the responsibilities of a trustee to fulfill section 33 and comply with the board’s code of conduct.

Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides told rdnewsNOW earlier this month that section 87 may also be in play in that it sets out that a board can disqualify a member if a member has breached the code of conduct.

Within the RDCRS trustee code of conduct, it notes the Legal Reference for much of the document relates to several sections of the Education Act, 33, 34 and 87 included.

On if he or LaGrange see anything wrong with the trustee’s original Facebook post, Kitchen says that comes down to personal values.

“You know, we have six-year-olds waving Pride flags, and that’s good for sexual minorities, and rights and inclusion in society. That’s how a lot of people feel. It’s not how I feel, but I get that many have that perspective. But a lot of parents these days, a lot of Catholics, or someone like me, they look at that and say, ‘No, that is not okay. The Pride flag does not stand for me or equality or tolerance,'” Kitchen stated.

“There are all these ideologies wrapped up in it, particularly the transgender ideology, this whole ideological belief that you can switch genders and boys should be allowed in girls washrooms and stuff like that. That’s indoctrinating children, to teach them this ideological belief that they can’t possibly comprehend.”

Kitchen says that’s why what LaGrange posted isn’t saying that members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community are like Nazis; only that like kids in the time of WWII, young children in 2023 can’t grasp what the Pride flag means.

“They’re way too young. It’s way too complex,” he says. “For some people, that’s emotionally disturbing or intellectually uncomfortable or whatever, but that’s what she [LaGrange] meant. This is not people trying to say gay people are the equivalent of Nazis.”

Kitchen concludes that despite LaGrange’s absence at the Sept. 26 meeting, in which the sanctions were announced to the public, she likely will attend future meetings of the board.

In a post on X, Kitchen also said he’s, “Honoured to have represented,” LaGrange and to, “defend her courageous opposition to the sexualization of and indoctrination of children.”

On a related note, rdnewsNOW heard back from RCMP Thursday. Mounties had previously confirmed that complaints had been made to them with respect to the trustee’s social media post, and that it was “under review.” They now state that they have closed their review and deemed that the Facebook post was non-criminal in nature.

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by Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Lawyer: Red Deer school trustee likely won’t follow through on training & apology

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