Send an urgent message to Canadian legislators and courts telling them to uphold parental rights
WATERLOO, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) — An Ontario court has ruled in favor of a teacher who was silenced for voicing concerns over LGBT books in school libraries.
On November 23, Ontario Superior Court Justice James Ramsay rejected a request from the Waterloo Regional District School Board (WRDSB) to dismiss the defamation case of now-retired teacher Carolyn Burjoski. Burjoski originally filed the suit after she was silenced and publicly accosted last year for sounding the alarm over pro-LGBT books being available to young students at school libraries during a WRDSB meeting.
“What happened here should not happen in a democratic society,” Ramsay said in his decision, according to the National Post.
“The Human Rights Code does not prohibit public discussion of issues related to transgenderism or minors and transgenderism. It does not prohibit public discussion of anything,” he said.
According to the ruling, Burjoski’s case against WRDSB and its former chair Scott Piatkowski can now proceed. Ramsay further ordered WRDSB to pay $30,000 of Burjoski’s legal fees.
Burjoski, represented by Jorge Pineda, a lawyer from the Justice Centre For Constitutional Freedoms, has also filed an action against the WRDSB, appealing the board’s decision to stop her presentation.
“The Board and its Chair violated my right to freedom of expression guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” she said. “I am also asking the court to order the Board to allow me to return to the Trustee’s meeting where I hope to deliver my presentation in full.”
“I’m thrilled to announce my first major victory in my legal battle with the Waterloo Region District School Board,” said Burjoski in video update posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I am overjoyed to report the judge dismissed the board’s motion, allowing my defamation lawsuit to proceed.”
Major win in my legal battle with the @wrdsb! Justice Ramsay’s ruling affirms our right to free expression. It’s a clear message: Human Rights Codes must not be weaponized, and defamation will not be tolerated. @wrdsb @Sflecce @fordnation @ONeducation pic.twitter.com/j9u5fWUG2R
— Carolyn Burjoski (@carolynburjoski) November 27, 2023
Burjoski’s fight for justice began after she was removed from a Board of Trustees meeting in January 17, 2022 after exposing 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.”
Other problematic books included one of a 12-year-old who allegedly found happiness after undergoing a gender “transition.” Another described a Grade 3 student realizing that he was “asexual” because he was “not thinking about naked girls.”
The ten-minute presentation was shut down after only four minutes as trustees claimed that she may be violating human rights legislation.
Following the meeting, Burjoski was expelled from the classroom, despite having been a teacher in the region for 20 years. The board also began an investigation, as chair Piatkowski later told media that Burjoski’s comments were “transphobic.”
She later suffered a breakdown from the ordeal and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. Burjoski revealed that she is “still in recovery from this trauma.”
“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 shared on a website for canceled teachers.
“He attributed to me remarks that I did not make, characterized them as hateful, and accused me of violating the Human Rights Code,” Burjoski said, adding the video of the meeting was quickly removed from the WRDSB website “so people could not hear for themselves what I actually said.”
Despite Piatkowski’s allegations, Ramsay ruled in favor of Burjoski, saying, “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 justify himself with the public by assassinating the plaintiff’s character.”
“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,” he added.
Send an urgent message to Canadian legislators and courts telling them to uphold parental rights