DEI lies dying on the ground, writhing in pain at U of Alberta

 

U of Alberta President Says DEI ‘Polarizing,’

Moving to Another Model

By Chandra Philip

1/2/2025Updated:1/2/2025

University of Alberta president Bill Flanagan says the school is moving away from

its diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI) objectives, and towards a new model

focused on fostering community.

Flanagan made the comments in a Jan. 2, 2025, opinion piece for the Edmonton Journal.

“It is not the university’s role to take ideological positions but rather to create an environment that encourages dialogue, mutual respect, and the pursuit of knowledge,” he wrote.

“As the first major Canadian university to embrace access, community, and belonging, we are leading the way in reimagining how universities can foster excellence, open inquiry and rigorous debate.”

He said the decision came after “extensive consultations” with more than 1,000 community members.

He added that for some, the language of DEI had become “polarizing,” and focused “more on what divides us rather than our shared humanity.”

Flanagan also said that some saw DEI as an “ideological bias at odds with merit.”

“Words matter, and this evolution aims to craft a shared narrative with aligned actions that resonate more universally, emphasizing common ground and fostering authentic connections,” he wrote.

At the university, the terms diversity, equality, and inclusivity will be replaced with “access, community, and belonging,” he said.

“Access signals our ongoing work to remove financial and social barriers, ensuring equal opportunities for all. Community underscores our belief in collective well-being and shared purpose. Belonging reflects our goal to cultivate spaces where individuals feel valued for their unique contributions,” Flanagan wrote.

Flanagan said that the university’s DEI efforts were initially aimed at advancing the university’s mission as articulated by the first U of A president, Henry Marshall Tory, who wanted to “create an intellectual and spiritual atmosphere in which prejudice and hatred could not live, a just institution whose work would be to assist in the unification of the diverse elements which enter our national life.”

Flanagan said the time had come for the university to “evolve” to “better reflect the kind of community we strive to be.”

Flanagan, who first became president and vice-chancellor of the University of Alberta in 2020, was re-appointed to a second term in June 2024.

A number of U.S. universities have abandoned their DEI practices for hiring and promotions in the past year, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and the University of Michigan.

Some large corporations have also recently announced they will cease their DEI programs, including John Deere, Tractor Supply Co., Harley Davidson, Lowes, Ford Motors, and Toyota, among others.

Good for you, U of A. Any ideology developed by special interest groups has the likelihood of becoming divisive and leading to violence. Will the woke crowd respond to this?                                                                                                                                 

Islam > Their up-side-down theology - An Arabic speaking Jew

I have not read this book yet, but the ad for it is so brilliant I have to share. 

Sneak Peek Into the Book

“Why is your head covered?” asked the young Bedouin girl in Arabic.

“Because I’m religious,” I replied in Arabic that flowed almost as smoothly as hers.

She looked confused. “Are you a Muslim?”

“No, I’m Jewish,” I answered with a smile. “Religious Jews also cover their heads. Like Muslims.”

“Wait,” she said, scratching her head. “Do you believe in God or in Satan?”

“In Satan?” This time it was my turn to be confused.

“Of course not! I believe in God. In One Supreme God.”

The girl stared up at me again

and declared, “Then you’re a Muslim!”

 

Want to read the first chapter for free?

Sign up here!

Canadian Convulsions > Ideology masking as leadership killed the Canadian dream! - General Rick Hillier

 

Yes indeed!!!

Ideology masking as leadership killed the Canadian dream!

"Enough of the gaslighting, evading, blaming and deluding.

Canada needs to be made ours again"

By Gen. Rick Hillier

The Canadian dream, so wonderfully launched in 1867 with the partnership that was the Dominion of Canada, is dead.

Killed by ideology masking as leadership. Slaughtered by economic suicide posing as climate control.

Bled by crushing taxes wasted on scandalous and foolish endeavours. Crushed by debt that compromises long-term fiscal viability.

Wounded by battles over responsible care for children. Frightened by our abandonment of some 300,000 Canadians, attacked not because they’re bombing Gaza, but because they’re Jews.

Coupled with increasing brain drain, capital flight and failing infrastructure, we face a harsh reality: the great experiment, a federation of like-minded peoples that was the Dominion of Canada, is failing.

Our responses are feeble. More regulations. More and higher taxes.

Massive amounts of immigration, without a plan to integrate.

Decrying American politics without acknowledging that our dirty politics are homegrown, with leaders dividing instead of uniting.

Think of former governor general Julie Payette, who as head of state mocked religious Canadians by complaining that “we are still debating and still questioning whether life was a divine intervention or whether it was coming out of a natural process let alone, oh my goodness, a random process.”

The cure for what ails us is simple to say, but difficult, perhaps impossible, to implement: leadership.

Real leaders have a vision for what we can be, a strategy to get there, a plan to execute the strategy and priorities to get things done daily.

Those who wish to be political leaders should articulate what their leadership will mean and how it will function, including how they would hold the public service accountable for delivering priorities under the plan.

Equally crucial to a leader’s vision is the economy. In the federal domain, any strategy should consider how to unfetter and inspire a private sector that delivers transformational technology, investment opportunity, well-paid employees and hope for a better future.

Underscoring all of this should be a rethink of how, and how much, we tax. Canadians are tired of “tax and spend” policies.

Canada should also have a plan to develop, rather than dismantle its energy sector....Last on this incomplete list is the empowering of personal ambition, initiative and ingenuity.

De-regulate, remove red tape and stop being an obstacle. Our current housing crisis, our inability to dream of owning a home, can be traced in large part to the red tape and taxes with which we have handicapped both builders and buyers.

It all starts with responsible leadership.

We have succeeded in tough times before. As Canada’s prime minister during the First World War, Sir Robert Borden led through a brutal conscription crisis. During the Second World War, then-prime minister Mackenzie King became a powerful influencer to two of the greatest leaders ever, Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt, shaping the world to Canada’s advantage.

Strong prime minsters continued to strengthen the nation in the decades that followed: Lester B. Pearson in the ’60s, Brian Mulroney in the ’80s and ’90s and ruthless Jean Chretien in the ’90s into the early 2000s.

We need that leadership now. Enough of the gaslighting, evading, blaming and deluding. The mission is clear: make this our Canada.

(Rick J. Hillier is a retired Canadian Forces general who served as the chief of defence staff from February 2005 to July 2008.)

Why 'LGBT-Free Zones' are on the Rise in Poland

Far-left backlash in a far-right country

Nationalist ruling party calls 'LGBT ideology' a 'threat'

amid growing number of Pride marches

CBC Radio 

On stickers distributed in weekly conservative magazine, Gazeta Polska, this week, the phrase 'LGBT-free zone'

circles a rainbow with a cross through it. (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

Activists in Poland say so-called LGBT-free zones across the predominantly Catholic country point to efforts by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party to stoke anti-LGBT sentiment ahead of a parliamentary election this fall.

Local media reports suggest that across Poland, more than two dozen cities and towns — some led by PiS members — have declared their regions LGBT-free zones in recent months. The majority are situated in the historically conservative southeastern part of the country.

While the declarations are not enforceable, activists say they signal a targeted effort to exclude LGBT residents.

"It's a statement saying that a specific kind of people is not welcome there," said Ola Kaczorek, co-president of the Warsaw-based Love Does Not Exclude Association.

The number of supposedly LGBT-free regions has grown since Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski signed a declaration in February supporting sexual and gender diverse communities in that city, Kaczorek said.

Ola Kaczorek, second from right, waves a flag during the pride parade in Warsaw,

representing Love Does Not Exclude Association. (Love Does Not Exclude Association)

Officials of the nationalist PiS party, which won a majority in 2015 running on an anti-immigration platform, have been vocal in their opposition to LGBT rights. Activists say that with migration to Poland slowing significantly since 2015, the party is looking for a new group to target.

Because a political party has to have people to demonize in order to win an election.

At a rally ahead of European Parliament elections in May, PiS president Jaroslaw Kacynski told a crowd that "LGBT ideology" was a "threat" to Polish society.

"They are not saying LGBT+ people are a threat, but they're saying that LGBT+ ideology is a threat," said Kaczorek. "Then people who are taking part [in pride marches] are not seen as humans, but as a part of some kind of ideology … [and] that is terrifying for some people."

Violence at pro-LGBT march

On July 20, advocates took to the streets of Białystok, a city in the Law and Justice party stronghold Podlasie Voivodeship, for the region's first-ever Pride march, and were met with violence from conservative and religious protesters. 

Białystok is considered an LGBT-free zone, according to a map plotted by LGBT advocacy group Lambda Warsaw.

Protesters chanted slogans, including 'God, honour, motherland', and burned a rainbow flag, at the first-ever

Pride march in Białystok, Poland on July 20. (Agnieszka Sadowska/Agencja Gazeta via Reuters)

Video from the event shows firecrackers exploding throughout the crowd and homophobic chanting from a group of men burning a rainbow flag.

"I have never seen anything like that before," said Małgorzata Mróz, a 20-year-old University of Warsaw student who travelled to join the march.

"People shouted at me that I'm a bitch, that I should die," she said adding that counter-protesters threw rocks and bottles at LGBT advocates. 

It's been just this great grassroots movement

that's been growing and expanding

- Ola Kaczorek

Both Mróz and Kaczorek told Day 6 there wasn't enough of a police presence.

Police arrested 25 people following the attacks, according to a Reuters report.

While the Polish government did not respond to a question about accusations that they support anti-LGBT sentiment, they did address the violence in Białystok.

"In Poland, there is no acceptance of behaviours slighting the rights of other persons," said Elżbieta Witek, the minister of the interior and administration, in an emailed statement to Day 6.

Małgorzata Mróz, 20, covers her mouth after tear gas is dispersed during the first-ever Pride march in Białystok, Poland, on July 20. The protest became violent when conservative and religious counter-protesters intercepted the march. (Agata Kubis/Submitted by Malgorzata Mroz)

But while the country's Education Minister Dariusz Piontkowski told private broadcaster TVN on Sunday that LGBT people shouldn't be excluded in Poland, he questioned the intent of pride marches.

"These kinds of marches... awaken resistance"

Education Minister Dariusz Piontkowski

"These kinds of marches, initiated by groups that are trying to force through their non-standard sexual behaviours, awaken resistance ... it's worth considering if such events should be organized in the future," he said. 

Mróz, who grew up in Częstochowa, organized a pride march in the small, southern city last year. There was no violence like that in Białystok, but the march was unwelcomed.

"Częstochowa is also my city," she said. "I will be there because it's my place and I have a right to be there."

Church and state

Ahead of last weekend's events in Białystok, Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda opposed the march, in a statement, calling it "foreign" to the region. Wojda also expressed "gratitude" for those who "defend Christian values."

According to 2016 numbers from Statistics Poland, more than 90 per cent of Poles identify as Roman Catholic.

"The church has a huge influence on people and it's a great outlet if someone wants to use it — and the ruling party is using it because lots and lots of people are regularly going to the church," Kaczorek said.

Though Kaczorek believes the Law and Justice party will win a second term in an election to be likely held in October, she has hope the LGBT community's activism will pay off.

Participants attend the city's first Pride march in support of the LGBT community in Bialystok, Poland, on July 20. (Agnieszka Sadowska/Agencja Gazeta via Reuters)

When Gazeta Polska, a conservative weekly magazine, included stickers emblazoned with the words "LGBT-free zone" in Wednesday's issue, a Polish judge ordered a ban on distributing the stickers any further Thursday.

Kaczorek believes if the ruling party continues to oppose LGBT rights, it will encourage the community to fight back. 

This year, there were more than 20 pride marches across Poland's 16 voivodeships.

"It's been just this great grassroots movement that's been growing and expanding — and there are new young people in smaller towns that don't want to migrate to bigger cities," Kaczorek said.

"They want to show themselves in their local communities and do something to show that we are here; we are everywhere. We are normal everyday people."

Why do Catholics and most Christians have a problem with LGBTQ ideology? Is it because God called it an abomination? Is it because He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and a couple other small cities because of their sexual license? Does it have to do with their Pride Parades, which are often obscene and yet tolerated by police and parents of small children? Is it because God hates 'pride' in any form? 

There should be absolutely no tolerance for violence against gays and lesbians and trans. But neither should they be flaunting their stuff in the face of God and man. As the Education Minister said, 'These kinds of marches... awaken resistance.'

A little common sense and modesty would go a long way toward peace and coexistence.