Trustees say protesters turned Winnipeg school board meeting into 'venue for hate'

Leaders of a Winnipeg school board say their meeting became "a venue for hate" when dozens of anti-LGBTQ protesters showed up and disrupted the proceedings, prompting a call to police.

"The environment was very hostile," Louis Riel School Division board chair Sandy Nemeth said Thursday morning about the Tuesday evening meeting.

"The group that was there was extremely disruptive. They were disrespectful, they were rude [and] there were homophobic and transphobic comments made."

The protesters were objecting to a board decision earlier in the month to suspend trustee Francine Champagne, who the board says made social media posts that "targeted the 2SLGBTQIA+ community" with transphobic and homophobic comments.

Nemeth described the protesters' conduct as aggressive and threatening and said the situation "was starting to feel very unsafe," so the board took a brief recess.

When they returned, trustees had slashed the agenda down to priorities that needed to be addressed because it was the final meeting of the school year.

A couple of trustees opted to join remotely from an adjacent room rather than go back into that space, Nemeth said.

The protesters settled down to allow the business at hand to be dealt with, but at the end of the formal meeting, during a public forum where trustees take questions, things erupted once again, she said.

"There was tension and there was great discomfort and there was were a lot of really unkind, unnecessary, disrespectful and inappropriate things said," Nemeth said.

After 15 minutes of open forum, the meeting was adjourned, but the protest didn't cease, she said.

"It took a while for us to be able to exit the boardroom, given the number of people that were standing at the entrance and attempting to engage with trustees."

Police were in the parking lot when the meeting adjourned and spoke to people, Nemeth said.

A police spokesperson confirmed officers were present but said no charges are pending.

Although the Louis Riel School Division allows the public to be present at meetings, its policy is for people to register in advance to have a record of attendance.

The protesters showed up unannounced and filled the boardroom at the Monterey Road office, Nemeth said.

In a statement issued Wednesday, she and superintendent Christian Michalik offered regrets and apologies "for allowing our board meeting to be a venue for hate."

Trustee Ryan Palmquist, who came out as bisexual in response to Champagne's comments, said protesters hurled a number of offensive slurs at him.

"They called me a groomer, a pedophile, a bigamist and an adulterer. These comments were made both whispered, spoken in clear and earshot to me, as well as shouted in the room and in the hallway to me as I passed," he told CBC News.

"Obviously it was upsetting to me. However, what's more upsetting and disturbing is to consider the notion that this is what they're willing to say in a public meeting, in a public forum."

Patrick Allard, who was among the approximately 40 people at the meeting, said Wednesday that about 12 people tried to speak as delegates at the meeting but were denied. 

"I think as public servants, they need to listen to all constituents on all matters, no matter how insignificant it is to them or how much they may agree or not. I think it's their duty to listen," he said.

There's no LRSD bylaw or rule that gives the board authority to deny people an opportunity to speak, he said.

Palmquist and Nemeth said that's not true. Both said people can only ask to speak to things on the agenda, and the Champagne decision was not part of it.

Allard, who helped organize anti-lockdown rallies against COVID-19 public health measures — and was arrested for violating the pandemic rules — said the Tuesday protest was not organized.

People opposed to the Champagne suspension showed up because it was the first meeting since it happened, he said.

Allard said people were simply exercising their freedom of speech.

"There is nothing anywhere that gives people the freedom to speak with such hateful language anywhere, not just a boardroom, but anywhere," Nemeth said. 

"If they define freedom of speech as hateful and vitriolic, then they have learning to do. That freedom does not extend to hurling abuses to any marginalized group or people."

Nemeth said what happened Tuesday will make the board re-evaluate how it allows the public to engage in the meetings.

"There will never be another meeting that looks like that, because we're not going to allow it," she said.

"If people want to stand outside and protest, they can do that, but it can't enter our building. All it's doing is inviting hate in through the door, and that's just not an option at all."

The public has always been welcome to learn about and participate in the civic process of school boards, Nemeth said.

Her choice to allow the crowd into the boardroom on Tuesday was done in the hope there would be courteous discourse and a sharing of opinions, she said.

"Clearly it was not the right choice," she said. "There was no interest in understanding the reason and the process that we followed in the suspension. It was everything else around it."