Former Education Official Fined $750K for Passionately Opposing “Trans” Agenda

If you think wokeness is dead, one Mr. Barry Neufeld might like a word. After all, the Canadian ex-education official has been ordered to pay $750,000 to sexual devolutionary (“LGBTQ”) teachers in his district. The reason?

It’s for “injury to their dignity, feelings and self-respect.”

The Christian Post reported on the story Tuesday, writing:

In a decision issued Wednesday [2/18], the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal [BCHRT] ordered former Chilliwack Board of Education trustee Barry Neufield [sic] to pay $750,000 for purportedly discriminating against trans-identified teachers and staff in the Chilliwack School District by expressing opposition to efforts to push gender confusion, and by expressing on social media his belief in the scientific reality that there are only two sexes.

The tribunal claims the astronomical fine is justified to compensate the LGBT-identified district employees for “injury to their dignity, feelings, and self-respect.”

Since the estimated number of teachers in Chilliwack School District who identified as LGBT from 2017-2022 was between 45 and 163, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal estimates that each will receive between $4,601.23 and $16,666.67.

Now, one may wonder here: How is it that this one district has up to 163 sexual devolutionary teachers? Someone could almost get the crazy idea that modern society is rewarding such statuses.

Aside from the monetary fines (and the $750K is just the major one), Neufeld is also, The Christian Post further informs,

barred from engaging in actions that violate provisions of the British Columbia Code of Human Rights that prohibit discriminatory publications, hate speech and discrimination in employment.

Translation: They want to muzzle him, too, so that he can no longer propagate unwoke truths.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Neufeld was first apprised of “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI)” in 2017, Fox News adds. The outlet then reported that on

Oct. 23, 2017, Neufeld posted on Facebook describing SOGI, as a “‘weapon of propaganda,’ which instructs children about the ‘absurd theory’ that ‘gender is not biologically determined, but a social construct.’ He said ‘allowing’ children to ‘change gender’ was child abuse.’”

Of course, the above may be illegal under Canadian law. But all this means is that the nation has criminalized positions embraced by the vast majority of humanity.

Neufeld later spoke approvingly of Russia’s and Paraguay’s rejection of the sexual devolutionary agenda and called its activists “cultural nihilists.” He also made numerous other statements over the next five years in opposition to that agenda. Note, though, that these all appear to be mainstream John Q. Public positions as well.

This is not the case with the BCHRT’s positions, however. For example, consider the following bizarre passage from the ruling:

If a person elects not to “believe” that gender identity is separate from sex assigned at birth, then they do not “believe” in transpeople. This is a form of existential denial…. It is not, as Mr. Neufeld argues, akin to religious beliefs. A person does not need to believe in Christianity to accept that another person is Christian. However, to accept that a person is transgender, one must accept that their gender identity is different than their sex assigned at birth.

“These People Are Crazy”

So the BCHRT is saying that Neufeld’s analogy fails. Yet what certainly does is its own reasoning. To illustrate the point, let’s again consider religion, which actually is assigned at birth.

Imagine I’m “assigned” Hindu upon being born, but later transition to and identify as “Christian.” Accepting this new identity is reasonable because my old one was not biologically determined; it was defined by the embrace of certain beliefs and practices. And all that was required for the change was the embrace of new beliefs and practices.

Even so, some may not accept my new “Christian” identity. I may, for example, refuse baptism and/or may deny central Christian dogmas. And you can’t not be Christian and still make valid claims of being Christian.

Apropos here, there are major religious groups in the U.S. that claim to be Christian, but that many others claiming to be Christian don’t consider so. Is this “existential denial”? Should the doubters be compelled via state coercion to accept these groups’ chosen identities?

In point of fact, no one is saying these groups’ members don’t exist as people. They’re saying they don’t accept their identification as valid. And likewise it is with the MUSS (Made-up Sexual Status, aka “transgender”) agenda. The difference:

Sex is determined biologically and can’t be changed merely by professing different beliefs.

Thus is it rational and correct to say that “transgender” people cannot and do not exist.

Despite this, the BCHRT is saying that you must accept the MUSS agenda’s central falsehood, what some may call its central dogma. Its members have drunk the MUSS Kool-Aid completely — and they would enforce their delusion on everyone.

So is it any wonder President Donald Trump characterized leftists as he did in his State of the Union speech? “These people are crazy,” he said.

The Karen Inquisition

And who are these “crazy” people? Not surprisingly, the BCHRT is replete with “Karens.” In fact, close to 80 percent of its members appear to fit that profile. Pictures of three of them follow.

And how can we conceptualize their actions? National Post’s Lisa Bildy likens what they’re enforcing to “blasphemy laws.” As she put it, “disparaging gender ideology — even when targeting ideas, not people” — was found discriminatory by the BCHRT.

Really, though, even this gives the BCHRT too much credit. After all, say what you will about blasphemy laws, they weren’t enforced by relativists and subject to change with fashions. The idea was: These are God’s immutable strictures, and we mustn’t violate them.

But today’s thought police don’t even pretend to be defending eternal truths. Their business isn’t virtues, but values — and they really are their values, as opposed to anything transcendent. What’s more, what could get you in trouble tomorrow may be different than what will today. What if they suddenly decide that “species dysphoria” is as valid an arbiter of reality as they fancy “gender dysphoria” is currently?

Then you may be charged for claiming that a man can’t transition into a ferret.

What Happens in Canada Doesn’t Stay in Canada

The reality is, too, that, as previously stated, claims of wokeness’ demise are greatly exaggerated, even here in the U.S. There are countless people in pseudo-elite institutions — in academia, legacy media, entertainment, Big Tech, and corporate America — completely aligned with BCHRT thinking. And if and when the Democrats regain executive power, they’ll be fully activated like sleeper cells.

Moreover, consider Western nations’ hate-speech laws. It is entities such as “human rights” tribunals (or “human rights” commissions) that often enforce them. It has become a norm. Now ponder this:

These commissions exist in the United States as well.

It’s almost a given that your state has one, and your county, and maybe even your locality as well. They have metastasized all throughout the Anglosphere, even present in heartland states such as Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Kansas.

Of course, the U.S. doesn’t have “hate speech” laws (yet). But what if the Constitution-spinners and left-wing judiciary manage to massage them into legality? Then know this:

The government machinery for enforcing them will already be in place.

For this reason and others, “human rights” tribunals/commissions should be completely eradicated.

Of course, this won’t solve the deeper problem of having tens of millions of citizens with moral compasses so warped that they mistake virtue for vice. Institutions can be created or destroyed quite quickly, but restoring hearts and minds can take decades.