A Quebec school district spent over $1600 on a drag queen conference with infamous children’s drag performer Barbada de Barbades.
Barbada is the drag personification of elementary school teacher Sebastien Potvin. He has been doing story hours for children as young as three years old since 2016, as previously reported by True North.
According to Rebel News, the Centre de services scolaire de la Capitale, which is responsible for Quebec City schools, paid the drag artist $1400 for a one hour and 35 minute drag conference. $209.65 in provincial and federal sales taxes was applied to the amount, making the total $1609.65.
The amount is seen in an invoice from Potvin’s agency, Iel.
Rebel News attempted to find out further information about the conference but was unsuccessful amid the school district not replying to requests for comment. True North also reached out for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
Drag shows for kids have been controversial in Quebec, as the province has been less keen on embracing woke ideology.
A Leger poll commissioned by the Conservative Party of Quebec earlier this year found that Quebecers are divided when it comes to funding drag shows for kids using taxpayer dollars.
46% of those surveyed say they are fine with public dollars going towards drag shows for kids, while 42% said they are opposed to it.
When asked by True North about the expense, Conservative Party of Quebec leader Eric Duhaime said “do you realize that a drag queen is being paid more than a teacher or even a school principal to talk about a highly controversial ideological gender theory?”
“These activities have no business in schools, where instruction and the transmission of knowledge must be the mission.”
A petition against drag shows being held in public libraries, schools and daycares started by Duhaime received over 40,000 signatures, while several prominent Quebec media figures came out against drag queen story hours, with some calling drag queens sexual, and others implying that they are caricatures of women.
In an exclusive interview with True North last year, Potvin defended doing drag shows for young children.
“It’s important (for children) to see and understand and know… any type of art, any type of job… especially in a world where they will be living with so many different people from so many different views.”
“I think it’s important for them to discover as much as they can… I wouldn’t say earliest as possible, but yeah, definitely at an early age,” he added.
