The site of flags, signs and marchers through downtown is hardly an unfamiliar site for Guelph, and it will be seen again this coming Wednesday as a group of people will gather at City Hall and undertake a long march to College Avenue in the name of “Uniting diverse backgrounds and faiths” to eliminate “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) curriculum, pronouns, gender ideology and mixed bathrooms in schools.” But what does that mean?

“We are not discriminating against anybody and we want this to be known very clearly that this is not against the LGBTQ community,” said Amber Everleigh, one of the organizers of Wednesday’s march. “It really is more to do with what our children are being taught in schools and the fact that we need to unify with each other so that we can have our parental rights and our family rights back, and to be respected as parents.”

Sounds reasonable, but for much of the last couple of months there’s been a growing concern about the planned series of nation-wide events called the “1 Million March 4 Children”. According to the website, about 90 different events are planned across Canada with the highest concentrations in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia, all to raise concerns about what children are being taught in school with an apparent lack of input from parents and guardians.

“The government feels that our young children should know more about their bodies and they’re kind of being forced to talk about about masturbation, oral sex, anal sex… there’s books and videos that are teaching our children and that’s just a prelude to the gender ideology,” the co-organizer Denyse Denny explained.

“This is not a march against the LGBTQ, they have children and they have families and they are parents. So my question would be, if you’re not supporting children’s futures and children’s rights and children’s innocence, what are you supporting?”

This seems to be the question. While people like Everleigh and Denny believe that their march is about protecting the innocence of children and raising concerns about school curricula, others have their doubts.

“It depends on what they mean by ‘parental rights’, you know, because I feel like I’m very informed about my daughter’s day,” said Ward 1 City Councillor Erin Caton, who identifies as non-binary.

“I also think that if my daughter had an issue she wouldn’t keep it from me because we have a very open communicative style in our house,” they added. “So if the main concern is that your children are keeping things from you then you should be looking more about your parenting style and what you’re doing that makes your children feel like they can’t talk to you.”

The idea of any organized protest or demonstration that might appear to embracing either homophobia or transphobia is very concerning for a lot of area residents, especially considering recent acts of violence aimed at the 2SLGBTQ+ community. Nearby Norwich County has been the site of repeated Pride flag thefts after a town council there voted against flying the flag on municipal property during Pride month. The Elora Distillery was swarmed with hate and threats for hosting a drag show in January.

Perhaps most concerning though was an attack on the campus of the University of Waterloo back in June. A former grad student stabbed three people, including two students, in a philosophy of gender class after confirming the subject matter with the professor. Waterloo Regional Police called it a “hate-motivated attack.” Geovanny Villalba-Aleman has been charged on a number of counts including federal terrorism charges.

Everleigh and Denny re-enforce that the intent of the march is peaceful. “We want the LGBTQ+ community to be involved with us, absolutely,” Everleigh said. “We’re not saying that their existence is wrong or that they shouldn’t exist at all. That’s not at all what this is about. It’s just about what schools are trying to teach our children at such a young age.”

Denny explained that her and Everleigh started organizing after being inspired by a woman named Dana Metcalfe. In a 2022 article posted by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, Metcalfe is described as a former People’s Party candidate and was at one time a representative for Canadian Frontline Nurses, an anti-health mandate and vaccine conspiracy theory group. Last fall, she caused a deluge of attention on school boards in Newfoundland and Labrador after saying that students there were being allowed to identify as demons, and that schools were putting out litter boxes for students identifying as animals.

Metcalfe’s group, Project Indigo, is on the main “1 Million March 4 Children” website listed as one of over a dozen different sponsors including the Canadian Democratic Defense Association, Hugs Over Masks, and Mama Bears Project, all of which have spread misinformation about the effectiveness of COVID-19 protection measures and COVID vaccines. Several of the groups listed were participants in the 2022 “Freedom Convoy”, or were otherwise active supporters. One specific sponsor seems represent a New Zealand variation of the Convoy.

So it should not be surprising that some of the boogeymen from those movements have returned for this one. “I don’t think a lot of people really realize what the government involvement is here. It goes a little deeper than the government as well because the World Economic Forum is also involved,” Denny said.

“You might want to look up the World Economic Forum on their website and you can actually look at their plans and what they believe and what they feel is right and appropriate for children,” Everleigh added. “Basically, family and parental rights are being dissolved right now in this educational system and this this is part of what we’re trying to make people aware of.”

Everleigh referenced a specific page on the World Economic Forum’s website called “The Partnership for Global LGBTI Equality” which she said outlines the organization’s “intent to dissolve parental rights”. The actual point of the partnership though is to accelerate global protection for the rights of LGBTQ+ people by focusing on inclusion in the business community, especially noting that LGBTQ+ discrimination costs the global economy $100 billion per year. The World Economic Forum and its founder Klaus Schwab are central characters in many conspiracy theories.

It’s hard to discern what exactly the organizers are concerned about once its separated from players like the World Economic Forum who don’t have any say on educational policy in Canada. What you’re left with is vague terms like “explicit materials”, and even vaguer descriptions about unnamed books that describe in detail what an erect penis feels like.

“I’ve seen various materials that my daughter has brought home and all they’re trying to do is let children know what’s an ‘okay touch\ and what’s not an ‘okay touch’ because the main thing that comes out of these classes is that they’ll find out which students are being abused,” Caton said. “They want to give the kids the language to be able to recognize abuse. That’s the only thing that’s going on, and no one shouldn’t want kids to be aware of that.”

Scanning the posts in the “1 Million March 4 Children Guelph” Facebook page offers mixed messages. One post offers support for Josh Alexander, the 16-year old student in Renfrew, Ontario who protested trans students being allowed to use the washroom of their choice at his Catholic High School. Another post questions the appropriateness of books like It’s Not the Stork, Amazing You, and Only For Me, books meant for per-pubescent children to help them understand reproduction, puberty, and protecting oneself from abuse. There’s also a post quoting comedian Bill Maher where he equates gender reassignment surgery with being made to look like a pirate.

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“We don’t want to talk about how we’re going to solve the LGBTQ crisis or whatever you would like to call it,” said Denny when asked about the Maher quote. “Children have the right to grow organically in the time that they choose themselves and not be forced by government because government thinks they have more rights over our children than the parents do now, and that’s wrong.”

The concern, according to Everleigh is that young people are being given access to puberty blockers or gender reassignment surgery on a whim. “You don’t consider your sexuality when you’re eight years old. You don’t sit there and say ‘Well, I feel like a boy, I’m not a girl. I want to have a mastectomy done. I want to have all these things done,'” she said. “They (children) can be supported but without going straight to medical castration, then surgeries. There are other ways that they can be supported in how they feel and try to figure  themselves out with guidance.”

A group called the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, which is made of up of over 3,000 doctors and social scientists, recommended that young people can start gender-affirming treatments as early as 14 years old in a report last year. They also added that age should be one factor for consideration alongside emotional maturity, parents’ consent, longstanding gender discomfort and a careful psychological evaluation.

The big question here in Guelph is how many people are going to show up and march with the “1 Million March 4 Children”. Everleigh and Dennis didn’t want to say how many people they were expecting, and they were also vague about what groups they were working with. Now a counter protest is being planned, so there’s a concern about potential confrontation and the “1 Million March” Facebook group has encouraged a policy of non-engagement.

Guelph Police Service media relations co-ordinator Scott Tracey confirmed to Guelph Politico that they’re aware of the march and that there’s no co-ordination between the organizers and police.

The Upper Grand District School Board is also aware of the march. The lengthy route will leave City Hall, go down Gordon Street turn at College and continue the march to Edinburgh when it returns downtown via Waterloo Avenue. The march won’t pass any schools, but it will pass near Central and John McCrae Public Schools and Centennial and College Heights Secondary Schools.

“We are aware of the protests planned for next week,” said Heather Loney, communications manager at the Upper Grand District School Board. “The UGDSB respects people’s right to peaceful protest. Student and staff safety is our primary concern. We will work with local police services to ensure safety at any UGDSB sites that are planned stops for the protests/march.”

As to the content of the march, Loney point to the Board’s policy of Equity and Inclusive Education. “It is the policy of the Upper Grand District School Board to ensure a safe and inclusive learning and working environment for all students, staff and the community, regardless of age, ancestry, colour, race, citizenship, ethnic origin, place of origin, creed, disability, family status, marital status, gender identity, gender expression, socio-economic status, employment, housing, sex, and sexual orientation,” Loney said.

So what happens after Wednesday?

“We do have a lot of energy and a lot of passion for the topic, that’s for sure,” Everleigh said. “After the march, we’ll have to go by ear. We’re hoping a lot of people’s eyes are opened, that a lot of parents know what is going on and how kids in junior kindergarten up to grade eight are being targeted. And basically, if you want to use the word grooming, you can go ahead and use that one because that’s the word I use.”