As British Columbians await the final provincial election vote count, BC Conservative Leader John Rustad challenged a CBC host for doubting the presence of pornography in schools as well as fears over rising crime.
During a post-election interview with CBC News’ The Early Edition host Stephen Quinn, Rustad attributed his party’s success to British Columbians’ desire for change.
“Whether it was the drugs and crime problems, whether it was SOGI in our schools, there’s a lot of things that were driving people that wanted to see change,” Rustad said.
SOGI refers to the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity curriculum introduced in BC schools by the province’s NDP government.
Quinn pushed back against the BC Conservative leader, claiming that bringing up crime and SOGI were just ways to scare the public into voting for his party. Rustad said parents and British Columbians were already concerned about their kids and safety without him needing to highlight the issues.
“When you look at also, quite frankly, the pornography that is in our Schools, that’s a question, I think, that the electorate as looks at and says they don’t find that acceptable,” Rustad said.
In response, the CBC host asserted that there was “no pornography in the SOGI program.” Still, after pushback from Rustad who told Quinn to show the books that have raised concerns from the community on their program to let the viewers decide, Quinn admitted that the books were made available in the schools but not part of the curriculum.
“They came from the SOGI initiative, which is not a curriculum. It is a philosophy that has been brought in schools,” Rustad said.
Several books in BC schools have been flagged by activist groups such as Action 4 Canada as inappropriate for the ages that the books advertise due to sexually explicit content or pornographic materials.
One such book available in three elementary schools in Richmond B.C. titled, “It’s Perfectly Normal: changing bodies, growing up, sex, gender and sexual health” instructs readers on how to perform gay and straight sex masturbation and how such activities make people feel good and “sexy.” The book shows pornographic cartoons depicting different kinds of sex, including two males engaging in anal sex and males and females masturbating.
K.L.O Middle School in Kelowna, B.C. made the graphic novel book “Fun Home: A family Tragicicomedy” available to its students. The book features cartoon depictions of two females engaging in sex and clear depictions of same-sex oral sex between the females.
The book “Sex is a Funny Word” was also available in 38 B.C. elementary schools. The book describes genitalia getting erections and mentions erections being caused when readers “touch themselves to feel good.”
Other books flagged by AC4 in secondary schools included instructions of how two males could pleasure each other, descriptions of incestuous rape involving children, an author’s experiences with gay oral and anal sex, depictions of oral sex including with a strap-on, and a depiction of a man appearing to touch a male child’s genitals in an ancient greek style of artwork.
In October last year, BC Conservative MLA Bruce Banman was told by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia to “not use that kind of language” after he read a vulgar excerpt from the book “Eleanor & Park,” which he said was made available to children as young as 11 in Abbotsford, BC schools.
The Chilliwack RCMP were alerted to some of the books and determined that the books do not “constitute” child pornography or a criminal offence.
Rustad and Quinn also fought over the perception of rising crime in B.C. under the NDP government. Rustad noted the concerns of B.C. residents over rampant drug use, the proliferation of tent cities in Vancouver and people feeling unsafe in downtown areas.
Quinn noted a recent report from the Vancouver Police Department in September, which said that year-to-date overall crime statistics have dropped by 7.4%. However, Rustad rebuked by saying that due to the widespread prevalence of crime, police no longer pursue charges in many cases.
According to VPD stats available online, 5297 violent crimes were reported in the city in 2018. Compared to stats from 2023, 6256 violent crimes were reported in the city, a rise of 18.1% since the BC NDP took office in May 2017. 4910 assaults were reported in 2023, while that number was 4039 in 2018, An approximate 21.6% rise in assaults.
A VPD representative could not share stats on unprovoked stranger attacks with True North beyond the last three years when the VPD began manually reviewing samples of cases from each year.
