HILTON-O'BRIEN: Is 'Wokeness' burning out?

John Hilton-O'Brien is the Executive Director of Parents for Choice in EducationLike a roaring fire, "Woke" ideology has burned through Western institutions. We've dedicated bureaucracies to "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion." We’ve seen “equitable math instruction.” We’ve painted classrooms in rainbow colours, as activist librarians encouraged children to attend drag queen story hours. Woke school boards have attempted to remove entire libraries in the name of "equity." It’s even colonized Dungeons and Dragons. But perhaps not for much longer. Woke ideology is burning itself out, as society wearies of it. In response, its adherents take ever more extreme positions, competing for dwindling reserves of money and influence. The wind is shifting as the overreach of woke bureaucrats and activists provokes an inevitable response. That may come into sharp focus in the new year as Alberta holds school board elections.The most radical woke idea is that teachers and bureaucrats, rather than parents, should be in charge of children. Power-mad bureaucrats and activists have proclaimed that teachers are agents of the state rather than agents of the parents. They proclaim their absolute right to provide children with explicit sexual instruction and refer them for "gender-affirming" medical care without even informing parents.The backlash is dramatic, albeit not well reported. One student in ten has left Alberta's Public and Catholic school boards for home education, private schools, or Charter schools. Moreover, as Alberta's Charter schools must report their waitlists, we know that twice as many students are waiting for space as there are in the programs. If these numbers apply to private schools — and anecdotes suggest that they do — a quarter of all students have either left public schools or are actively trying to. The public system is only stable because families cannot leave fast enough.Not just in Alberta. France launched Le Laboratoire de la Republique to counter le wokisme. The United Kingdom removed contracts for "equality and diversity services." And, it closed Britain's child gender identity clinic in response to a medical review. Australian parents are departing public education for homeschooling. In the United States, Donald Trump's campaign easily capitalized on woke excesses by promising to ban lessons on gender identity. Individual states are also on board: Florida, for instance, now has legislation prohibiting universities from funding DEI programs, and amended curricula to lock out critical race theory. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's 2024 legislation fits in this pattern of governments beginning to resist woke bureaucratic overreach. Smith's legislation requires transparency and parental notification, limits transgender participation in girls' sports, and puts a stop to teachers secretly referring children for gender treatment. Some of these bills could be taken as responses to parental concerns articulated in columns by this writer. However, the bureaucrats and activists of the woke movement are ensconced in places of power. Activist groups have vowed Supreme Court challenges to Smith's legislation. One cannot blame them: activism is big business. Charitable foundations operating in the United States and Canada apparently give billions of dollars to radicals. And woke elites don’t like losing power.The current Canadian government invests heavily in woke initiatives. In addition to "fighting heteronormativity" in the Canadian Armed Forces, the federal government has a "Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Program" (MARP) which funds "anti-racism" and "anti-hate" initiatives. The precise amount of funding it gives out is fuzzy, but it recently received an additional 25 million dollars for the "anti-racism strategy." The money has partisan uses: one federal grant to the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, created an "anti-hate toolkit" that identified Conservative Party members, Campus Conservative Club members, and Catholics as potentially being "infiltrated" by "hate-promoting groups." The prime minister has even appointed a Senator known for the promotion of transgenderism and progressive sex education in schools, as well as radical anti-Catholicism. His "Online Harms Act" threatens Canadians with a woke police state, complete with thought crimes. His strategy is failing: the current Prime Minister is more unpopular than any politician since Mao. One might argue that this results from poor handling of the economy rather than his embrace of woke causes. Even here, however, his anti-energy commitments are complete with "Gender-Based Analysis" by Natural Resources Canada. Trudeau is not becoming more strident in realistic hopes of winning an election: he's doubling down because he's desperate. If that's the case, the next battle over education may be revealing.The Alberta Teacher's Association has announced plans to be heavily involved in next year's school board elections. They claim it is necessary to "safeguard" public education from parents for the benefit of oppressed groups. Their plan includes candidate recruitment and training for candidates, as well as a website and "targeted advertising campaign." It's unprecedented. It's also no joke: in 2021, they spent $1.1 million as a third-party advertiser to attack Kenney's curriculum reform, and they aren't averse to dirty tricks. The ATA is among those who have advanced woke doctrines such as in parens patriae to advance their power. It’s cynical: despite a relentless focus on "diversity" for others, their leadership remains utterly uniform — their officers are all middle-aged white men. The ATA, like all woke elites, exploits the image of oppressed groups, demanding power and wealth so they can "benefit" the downtrodden. It's political pornography.They have driving reasons to intervene. Kenney had ripped up a contract from Rachel Notley that would have given union brass control of the Alberta curriculum. And now, parents are mobilizing. The woke fire is down to smoke, and they feel power slipping away.They're right to think so. Trudeau's decline, Trump's election, and Smith's legislation are signs of an underlying social change.As far as this election goes, Parents for Choice in Education alone has trained scores of candidates and volunteers. And we're going to train more — a lot more. The winds are changing — and we’re going to help drive the flames the other way. And frankly, we hope you'll join us. John Hilton-O'Brien is the Executive Director of Parents for Choice in Education, www.parentchoice.ca

HILTON-O'BRIEN: Is 'Wokeness' burning out?

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