1/20 A 🧵on Culture Guard's Kari Simpson & transphobia in BC's Convoy movement. It's no surprise that Convoyers attack drag events & rally against LGBTQ2S+ communities because the movement continues to be influenced by transphobic Christofascist "activists" like Kari. #bcpoli
2/ BC has many well-funded fundamentalist churches, spaces that voraciously defend traditional family values while they rally against progressives & the LGBTQ2S+ community. For orgs already in that space--like Culture Guard & Action4Canada--COVID is an opportunity to radicalize.
3/ Dr. Henry banned in-person religious gatherings in Nov 2020 as a new wave hit. A small # of churches defied the orders, including Riverside Calvary Chapel in Langley. "Concerned citizen" Kari was there to speak to media when police fined the church. (jccf.ca/wp-content/upl…)
4/ Kari Simpson is notorious for protesting LGBTQ2S+ rights & SOGI (sexual orientation & gender identity) education in schools while she demands society accommodate Christian values above all, often through frivolous lawsuits.
5/ Kari founded the Citizens Research Institute in the 1980s and fought to prevent schools from teaching "homosexual propaganda." Their Declaration of Family Rights is a bizarre legal notice that a child cannot be exposed to anything that portrays LGBTQ2S+ people as "normal."
6/ A @UBC MA thesis has a great synopsis of activities from Kari & others in the BC Christian far-right through the late 90s and early 00s against the @bctf's LGBTQ2S+ initiatives & for @Surrey_Schools's book ban. The thesis includes CFI's Declaration: open.library.ubc.ca/media/stream/p…
8/ In 2008, Kari told Christian fundamentalists: "Unless the churches in Canada and America wake up...they're going to find themselves in a very bad position...once a worldly sort of person wakes up to God's calling, then you have a warrior." (The org is a @splcenter hate group.)
9/ In 2011, Kari founded Culture Guard. Culture Guard aims to stop SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity) education initiatives like BC's SOGI123 and incubate homophobic and transphonic Christian nationalism. They've also been fixated on PM Trudeau from the start.
10/ Kari and Culture Guard spent much of the 2010s protesting SOGI & LGBTQ2S+ rights, pandering to Barry Neufeld & Jordan Peterson, spreading Christian nationalism, and engaging in her numerous court cases and human rights complaints.
12/ After March 2020, Culture Guard added COVID disinformation to the menu. In 2021, Kari started the Canadian Voters Association (CVA), which aimed to "improve the governance of Canada." CVA project 300K repackaged Christofascim in an attempt to influence the 2021 fed election.
13/ FrontLine Canada is another a program of CVA. They made fake religious vaccine exemptions (Christians only) & ran Doctors on Tour, a disinformation parade that sent antivaxx MDs like Charles Hoffe, Stephen Malthouse & guests around BC. Events were almost always at churches.
14/ Kari & Doctors on Tour weaponized lower science literacy & worries around vaccines the same way Kari & Culture Guard weaponized fear of trans people: The gov't is coming for your children. Big Pharma coming for your children. They want you sick. Fight back. Save the children.
15/ Doctors on Tour became Justice for the Vaccinated (J4V) in September 2022. J4V is a national organization that portrays any health problem as a "vaccine injury" and features doctors who whip up disinformation. Same doctors as Doctors on Tour. More sponsors.
16/ Justice for the Vaccinated is supported by FrontLine Canada (actually Canadian Voter's Association), Stephen Malthouse's Canada Health Alliance, Odessa & Norbert Orlewicz's Librti platform, & the usual assortment of Freedom grifters. They still hate drag shows.
17/ Justice for the Vaccinated ended their tour in Nov 2022 & Kari Simpson has a new hobby: commentating on the Canadian Society for the Advancement of Science in Public Policy's* class action certification hearing for the far-right RoadKill Radio. (*CSASPP/SueBonnie-dot-ca)
18/ Kari is 1 person in a large movement. In this mix is the online trans moral panic, which gained more mainstream visibility in the mid-2010 & has spiraled into hysteria over the last few years, often in online spaces that also attract Convoyers (ie: antihate.ca/hate_tropes_fu…)
19/ The underpinnings of attacks against LGBTQ2S+ communities & Convoys are the same: far-right Christian conservatism. They aren't separate--they come from the same places & spaces. (We said a lot of things about Kari so hopefully she doesn't sue us like she does everyone else.)
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1/ SD 57's (Prince George) Board of Education dealt with significant upheaval when Chair Rachael Weber failed to shut down transphobic statements at a meeting, then just didn't talk to media. For months.
Look who's running for the notably anti-2SLGBTQ+ Conservative Party of BC.
2/ The CPBC promotes the re-emerging Parental Rights movement, which now focuses almost exclusively on sexual orientation & gender identity (SOGI) policies & resources at schools. The movement seeks to restrict diversity & inclusion at schools (though cis & hetero lessons fine).
3/ There have been a lot of hints that Weber likely aligned with at least some far-right causes through LinkedIn posts supporting JK Rowling, Rebel News & the Freedom Convoy.
2/ According to @homelesshub, an estimated 25-40% of unhoused youth identify as 2SLGBTQ+. This is likely underestimated because many young people don't feel safe disclosing gender identity or sexual orientation--if they're asked at all. cbc.ca/news/canada/no…
3/ Trans & nonbinary youth face the greatest barriers to using shelter systems when their needs are not taken into account, such as segregating sleeping spaces by sex or simply not accepting trans or nb youth. the519.org/education-trai…
1/ Wildfire safety is somehow now in the realm antifascist resistance. There were horrible far-right conspiracy theories when Lytton burned down in 2021. The conspiracies have grown exponentially this fire season, starting with the AB fires last month.
1🧵What happens when Board of Education trustees don’t act on anti-2SLGBTQ+ speech in a meeting? The Prince George District Teachers' Association (@PGTeachers) has been at an impasse with the SD57 Board of Education for over three months with no resolution in sight.
2/ In Dec 2022, Josh Silva spoke at a Board meeting, stating that children “confused about their gender” are on the rise in schools while complaining about “woke agendas.” Silva ran for trustee in the Oct 2022 elections & was part of the notably anti-2SLGBTQ+ PG Freedom group.
3/ At that meeting, Board Chair Rachael Weber thanked Silva, stating “It takes great courage to come to the mic and say what you did tonight, you were heard. Thank you for taking time from your life to come tonight to make sure that we listened.”
1/ A🧵on the antivaxx "film festival" touring Vancouver Island. What's Up, Doc? will be in Nanaimo on Feb 1 & Victoria on Feb 4. Wash that F🍁ck Trudeau shirt & put on your nicest MAGA hat because we're about to play fast and loose with the definitions of "science" and "fact."
2/ First film: Uninformed Consent, produced by Ted Kuntz (Vaccine Choice Canada) & Odessa Orlewicz (Librti). VCC is a long-standing vaccine & political disinformation org. Librti is a platform for people that were kicked off Facebook for posting memes about hanging Trudeau.
3/ Uninformed Consent synopsis: "An in depth look into the Covid 19 narrative, who’s controlling it and how it’s being used to inject an untested, new technology into almost every person on the planet." So hysterical vaccine, health & political disinformation.
1/ Hey BC, did you know a bunch of antivaxxers & far-right extremists are trying to certify a class action lawsuit on your behalf? It starts today! Since this is being foisted upon all BCers, BCers have a right to see the twisted motivations and extremism behind the case. #bcpoli
2/ The Canadian Society for the Advancement of Science in Public Policy (CSASPP) aka SueBonnie[dot]ca is led by 911 Truther Kip Warner. He thinks a cabal of bankers, likely the Rothschilds, are responsible for 9/11. (Jews. He's talking about Jews. This is straight anti-Semitism.)
3/ CSASPP filed Notice of Civil Claim on January 26, 2021 against Dr. Bonnie Henry and the Province of BC. They claim the province did not meet conditions to declare a state of emergency under the Emergency Program Act, there was no emergency, and everything was a lie.