Bobbi Sue Thompson and Kelly Waters of Battlefords Area Pride hold up a flag with a history during the No Space for Hate Rally on Sat., Oct. 5. (Julia Lovett-Squires/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Julia Lovett-Squires

No Space for Hate

No Space for Hate: NB protestors take aim at Bill 137

Oct 5, 2024 | 5:45 PM

Editor’s note: The following story contains strong language and sensitive subject matter that may be disturbing to some readers.

Standing outside SaskParty candidate Jeremy Cockrill’s campaign headquarters, Bobbi Sue Thompson, president of the Battlefords Area Pride and a member of the transgender community, held a large burlap flag.

Sewn onto it were the words ‘Never Again’ next to a large, inverted pink triangle. The symbol behind its meaning has a history that stretches back to Nazi Germany when gay men were identified by the patch on their chest in the concentration camps.

“At the end of World War II, the concentration camps were liberated, if you had a pink triangle, they put you back in,” she said, referring to the country’s anti-gay laws that kept gay prisoners in jail – some of whom stayed in until the 1970s.

“We’re heading back in that direction. Not just Canada, much of the world is, so, we need to fight that, we need to stand up against it now before they start trying to justify it.”

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Jackie Kroczynski waves her flag during the No Space for Hate Rally on Sat., Oct. 5. (Julia Lovett-Squires/battlefordsNOW Staff)

Thompson, along with a small group of members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, allies and NDP Candidate Tom Kroczynski gathered outside the headquarters on the cold and blustery Saturday morning for the No Space for Hate Rally to protest Bill 137 or the Parents’ Bill of Rights. The bill, enacted last year, invokes the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian constitution and would require parental consent if a child wanted to be known by a different identity.

According to Ed Kroczynski, the bill serves no function.

“It doesn’t protect kids like it’s supposed to or how it claims to,” he said, noting he and his sister Jill were also in attendance to support their candidate dad.

“Some people just don’t have safe situations in which they can come out in, so it…forces kids out of the closet.”

He explained that for parents who don’t believe children below the age of majority have the capacity to understand the decision they’re making, Ed said they don’t understand the feelings involved and it takes time.

“It’s not like somebody goes to the doctor and like ‘Hey, I’m trans, I want to transition’ and then it happens right then, it’s a huge, long process, you go to therapists, you talk to a whole bunch of doctors, it’s a very long thing,” he said.

NDP Candidate Tom Kroczynski wears his message during the No Space for Hate Rally on Sat., Oct. 5. (Julia Lovett-Squires/battlefordsNOW Staff)

According to Erik Hansen, he came out from Unity to show his support as an ally.

“I believe we don’t give diversity enough space,” he said, noting he’s not just referring to the LGBTQQ2S+ community.

“That means blacks, browns, Indigenous, Oriental, all different races and colours and creeds. If we don’t start addressing our fears about differences, we’re in a lot of trouble.”

Wearing a shirt with the words Repeal Bill 137 in rainbow lettering, Tom, a 20-year educator, spoke shared a story of one of his music students who asked to be called by a different name than the one on the register.

“At first, I’m confused so, I double check,” he said noting her friends confirmed it.

“OK, I can go with that. I don’t call the office say, ‘We’re changing this register’, I don’t make a call and say ‘make sure we don’t tell parents’ none of that right? I need her to play the trombone.”

He said when the SaskParty came out with their bill last year, the NDP proposed a similar bill with one difference: the section that requires teachers to apprise parents of their child’s preference was not in their version.

“This has led to people saying, ‘Oh, well teachers are promoting this in their classrooms, in their schools, promoting an LGBTQ agenda and their keeping secrets from parents’ and neither one of those things is true,” he said.

Kelly Waters of Battlefords Area Pride holds a flag against the wind during the No Space for Hate Rally on Sat., Oct. 5. (Julia Lovett-Squires/battlefordsNOW Staff)

“Our number one goal in the classroom is to get kids learning though, they have to feel comfortable.”

According to a statement from Battlefords Area Pride, the bill dishonours the human rights of youth who identify as a member of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ communities and “condones oppression of students that are gender non-conforming, transgender and Two-Spirit.”

Thompson said she sees the bill as reminiscent of a period in history when prior to Nazi control, Germany was one of the most progressive countries in the world and Berlin once had a thriving gay community.

“We can’t be silent on human rights abuses,” she said, referencing Martin Niemöller’s 1946 poem ‘First They Came.’

“When are they gonna come for you? If they’re deciding they’re going to be starting with us, you think they’re going to stop there?”

Throughout the rally, as attendees waved Pride flags, held signs or flags, vehicles passing by honked horns in support. While the event was peaceful, it was not without incident.

As the small but united group posed as one for a final photo, a car drove by. When it was passing, the rear passenger window was rolled down and in the backseat a man had what looked like a camera phone. Then making their way down the road, the man yelled for the “f***ing fags or “faggots” to get off the street.

The protestors during the No Space for Hate Rally on Sat., Oct. 5. (Julia Lovett-Squires/battlefordsNOW Staff)

It was that vitriol on display that made the protesters more determined to fight for the repeal of the bill and in a message directed to Cockrill, Thompson said if it’s not, a tragedy will happen.

“There will be blood on your hands and Shakespeare knew it when he wrote ‘Macbeth’: that stain does not come out,” she said.

“There’s already children suffering, there will be death. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.”

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julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

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