Yawning Snorlax Profile picture
Often tired, always anti-fascist. Keeping an eye on the local chuds, fascists, and transphobes. Tips? DM or yawningsnorlax@proton.me

Sep 23, 2022, 22 tweets

Now more than ever, it’s important to know your school board candidates. In OCDSB Zone 2 (Kanata), Ashley Darling is running for an open seat. Her website seems pretty bog-standard for someone running for school board, but is there more going on? #ottawa #ottvote🧵 1/

Ashley Darling has been endorsed by the Campaign Life Coalition, and has been rated “Pro-life, pro-parental rights,” having given “perfect answers” to their 2022 questionnaire. 2/

The CLC questionnaire in 2022 consists of three questions, basically asking candidates what they feel about allowing parents to pull their students out of anything involving "controversial issues such as abortion, contraception, and homosexuality" 3/

When asked on twitter why she agreed with a statement considering homosexuality to be a “controversial issue” she didn’t really have a response and dodged the question. 4/

Now let’s take a look at her social media. There is the standard “liking anti-LGBT dog-whistling tweets from transphobic candidate Chanel Pfahl from your campaign account” that we’ve seen from a lot of these candidates. 5/

Ashley Darling also goes by Ashley McCallum. She did a decent job cleaning up her socials before running; she deleted her personal twitter (@darlingmccallum) and unfortunately all I have is one screenshot of her liking anti-mask nonsense. 6/

She didn’t get everything though. Some of the things she likes on her personal facebook are interesting. True North is one of only two media outlets that she likes. TNC is a far-right outlet aspiring to be Rebel News with a hint of plausible deniability. 7/

Though I actually think a bigger crime may be that she liked The Emoji Movie. 8/

She also likes Liberty Coalition Canada, another far right group whose facebook page is full of all the usual tropes – anti-vaxx, anti-LGBT, etc. 9/

Here she is supporting GEDSB trustee candidate Luanne Ashe. 10/

Luanne Ashe is deep into all the far-right nonsense. Anti-mask, anti-vaxx, supporting Pat King, mad at pronouns, WEF conspiracy theories, comparing abortion to the holocaust, James Topp, and of course, the latest in post-convoy conspiracy bullshit, eat zee bugs. 11/

Luanne is also a member of sovereign citizen cult groups like Canada Unity (remember, the guys that came to Ottawa explicitly to overthrow the government?) and Stand4Thee, so… any Snorlax fans in Norfolk and Brant county, keep an eye on her. 12/

But back to Ashley. Here she is supporting a lawsuit over vaccine passports filed by the far-right JCCF. The JCCF was a major legal backer of the convoy and has been involved in anti-LGBT and anti-choice legal work since 2010. 13/

She is also a member of the facebook group “Free in the 613,” which is a minor hub for anti-vaxx, anti-mask, and other far-right so-called “freedom” nonsense in Ottawa (albeit overshadowed by TUPOC, S4T, and FFC). Here’s a sample of what they get up to over there. 14/

Ashley has been participating in this group leading up to, through, and after the convoy occupation. Here’s a sampling of some of her posts and comments. Ashley does not seem to like mask or vaccine mandates. 15/

Here she is praying that restaurants refuse to follow COVID public health measures that were in effect in October 2021, and attempting to advise anti-vaxxers where they can go to skirt those measures. 16/

And here she is cheering on Texas governor Greg Abbott for not only lifting vaccine mandates but banning any business from implementing one. Remember, this was shortly before Omicron came around. 17/

She’s not just anti-vaxx, she’s anti-mask as well. Here she is counselling on how to get exemptions to OCDSB mask mandates based on flimsy justifications, as well as supporting teachers not wearing masks. 18/

During the convoy, she didn’t seem concerned about the impact that it was having on Ottawa residents. Rather, she was more concerned that occupiers may have their accounts frozen. 19/

Finally, Ashley also predicted in 2021 that this government would end up with the highest level of unemployment in recent history. She literally could not have been more wrong. 20/

Putting this all together, we can see a pattern. She may not be as out there as others, but it's clear that Ashley is not open about some of her views on vaccines, masks, the convoy, and LGBT issues, because she knows they would harm her campaign. 21/

Anyways, if you’re in OCDSB Zone 2 (Kanata), you’ve got a great candidate in Alysha Aziz, who is not afraid to express her support for equity and for the 2SLGBTQ+ community. Why take a chance on someone like Ashley Darling?
22/

Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.

A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.

Keep scrolling