Action4Canada Banned From School Board Meetings

Canadian Anti-Hate Network

Source: Unsplash

Tanya Gaw, and the advocacy organization she founded, Action4Canada, have been banned from attending school board meetings in Mission, BC. 

Passing the motion at a February 21 meeting of School District 75, the board passed a motion stating it “declines to recognize any delegation from Action4Canada or its representatives” that attempts to present at board and committee meetings for one year.

“The board will continue to exercise its authority with respect to recognizing delegations seeking to make any presentations before the board,” the meeting highlights read, “in a manner that affirms its commitment to inclusivity and upholding the values of the BC Human Rights Code and ensuring orderly meetings of the board.”

The motion follows a presentation to one of the board's committees by A4C on January 10, 2023. Board Chair Shelley Carter told City News that Gaw used the meeting to spread hate propaganda. 

“It was very hurtful and concerning to a lot of our parents and staff and our students for sure,” she reportedly said. “It doesn’t align with our school district. We do everything through equity, diversity, and inclusion.”

According to copies of school board documents outlining the incident in January, A4C “did not follow presentation procedure that they were informed of by staff.” 

“They then asked to screen share a targeted hateful and disturbing presentation. A trustee made a point of order to have it removed. The incident was triggering for many in the district and public. They acted in a deliberate, misleading manner to present something they knew violated the school district's values.”

Ahead of the meeting, A4C accused the board of libel and encouraged their supporters to attend and show support. 

“Tanya Gaw, founder of Action4Canada, [has] attended several of the School Board meetings as well as met with Superintendent Wilson,” reads a page published to the A4C website ahead of the board meeting in Mission. “They have respectfully voiced their concerns and requested action from the Board to investigate the pornographic books in their District.

“Excluding dissenting voices is not only discriminatory and in violation of protected constitutional rights, but is also intellectual fascism, so must be opposed.”

A4C adds that the motion to bar them is based on an amendment to the Human Rights Code that includes gender identity and sexual orientation as a protected class. They tell their followers that the amendment is being used in a “vexatious manner which is putting children at risk.”

“Does Not Constitute Child Pornography”

Tanya Gaw during a public appearance in 2022. Source: Rumble

BC school boards are a common target of A4C advocacy campaigns. These drives not only push to remove offending literature, but also seek to see trustees face potential criminal charges for distributing books A4C characterizes as child pornography. 

A national organization with chapters across the country, A4C is extremely active and visible in BC. Outside of Mission, Chilliwack’s school board meetings and trustees have been another target of the group’s activism. Gaw and several others delegated at a February meeting, attempting to broach the subject of the books.

They were repeatedly shut down by Trustee Willow Reichelt, who told the delegates the subject was not on the agenda.

On February 17, the Chilliwack RCMP report receiving a complaint that publications within the school district’s libraries contained child pornography. According to the RCMP, the department’s Serious Crime Unit reviewed the books and determined the materials do not meet the legal definition of child pornography.

“This is a serious allegation and one that caused many parents great concern in our community,” said a spokesperson for the Chilliwack RCMP in a press release. “Police have a duty to investigate these allegations but it became clear to the investigator who has years of experience in investigating Child Pornography offences, that, while the material may be deemed inappropriate or concerning to some people, it does not constitute Child Pornography.”

A broad Christian nationalist organization with chapters across the country, it lends its voice to a variety of social issues, often using overtly racist and homophobic rhetoric in the process while endorsing a number of conspiracy theories.

The Canadian Anti-Hate Network has previously reported on the history and advocacy of A4C, the most recent of which has been campaigning against family-friendly events featuring drag performers. The organization makes regular claims about a network of child groomers, using 2SLGBTQ issues – all 2SLGBTQ issues – as a means of subverting the county’s Christian values. A4C also pushes a wide range of bizarre takes relating to subjects from 5G cellular phone technology, cannabis legalization, “political Islam,” and more. 

A recent newsletter decried the impression that Canada was a “multicultural country,” claiming it was intended to “divide Canada and undermine our democracy by declaring that we are a multicultural nation.” 

The organization’s opinion of SOGI123 invokes many of the same scare tactics. 

“The reality is that this program is a Trojan horse, brought into the schools under the guise of anti-bullying and supposedly to teach children to be ‘inclusive’ and support LGBTQ2+ students,” an introduction to a series on the subject of SOGI123 reads. “However, the SOGI123 resource goes way beyond this and in fact indoctrinates children into unhealthy sexual behaviour and confuses them through lies and misinformation. It is only inclusive for LGBTQ2+ students and those who are agreeable with their twisted ideologies.”

In 2016, the BC Ministry of Education directed all school boards and independent schools in the province to add “explicit references to sexual orientation and gender identity” to the codes of conduct policies they were already required to have in place. 

This does not require school boards in BC to implement the SOGI123 resource, but it is often used to meet this requirement.