Re: “Hanover trustees pass motion to delegitimize mature minor designation,” (June 11, issue of The Carillon).

To the trustees of the Hanover School Division, I commend you for respecting the choice of parents over that of health-care providers and resources workers. These organizations and their employees are government-funded and should not try to parent our children. It is the role of a parent to parent. The role of the government is to govern – to keep law and order. Government does not have the right to impose their dogma onto our children – that is not their jurisdiction. Go away.

I write to the children who are confused about their identity. I’m sorry you have no one you can confide in. Listen to the Good Shepherd. He is kind and loving and sees and feels your pain. Don’t let anyone deceive you. God loves you. Let him cradle you in his arms and carry you. You don’t have to change anything about yourself. Don’t get a sex change! You are perfect, just the way you are.

You don’t have anyone to confide in? Confide in God! He’s already cried buckets of tears for you. He bled for you. Listen to that Imagine Dragons song, “bleeding out.” He bled out for you, my friend. Even our parents and caregivers fail us – but Jesus will never do that to you – Never! Please, I plead with you to follow him. That’s what I’m doing. I still have pain, but that’s okay. Life is good.

A recent Carillon article reported that Hanover School Division trustees have decided to address establishing a policy to regulate activism in schools. The board will determine what kind of activism by students and teachers is appropriate or inappropriate.

Trustee Jeff Friesen said a teacher’s beliefs might cause kids to engage in activism which “goes against the beliefs of the family.” Sometimes however, the reverse is true. The beliefs of families can cause students to engage in activism that is inappropriate according to school and legal guidelines.

That happened at the Steinbach Regional Secondary School in February of 2022 when over 100 students whose families were against pandemic restrictions, left classes to stage a protest. Parents, not teachers, came out to support the protest. Some protestors became disruptive and tried to enter the school, which made it necessary to lock down the building and have all exterior doors monitored by teachers and the RCMP.

A Winnipeg Free Press article said the student protesters were supported by parents who knew ahead of time about the event and helped supply signs, heaters, food, mittens and flatbed trucks. Learning was disrupted as the students inside the SRSS were forced to shelter in place. The school had to close for one day after the protest as staff and administrators assessed how best to respond to the troubling event.

“Abled does not mean enabled. Disabled does not mean less abled.” ― Khang Kijarro Nguyen

Recently I officiated at a funeral for a woman who lived with Down Syndrome. She had a quiet courage in living each day with challenges others did not see or understand. Her courage was not loud or boastful. It did not demand recognition. It simply endured - and in that endurance, it became sacred.

Those who walk this path remind us that life is not about mastering everything, but about receiving each moment with trust. Last week we looked at how asking thoughtful questions can help us go further than ‘why me’ questions. This week we will look at what we can learn from people like my friend.

Here are some thoughts for your reflection:

A two-vehicle accident claimed the life of a 20-year-old Ontario man on Wednesday morning and left a 13-year-old boy battling for his life.

St Pierre-Jolys RCMP issued a press release on Wednesday, saying they responded to the crash just after midnight on Highway 59, near Prefontaine Road in the RM of Tache.

“A vehicle with two occupants was traveling north on Highway 59 when it crossed into the path of a semi-truck traveling south,” the release stated. “The vehicle collided with the semi-truck pushing both vehicles in the ditch.”

The driver of the vehicle was pronounced dead at the scene.

Flooding in Manitoba has been a part of life for its residents since its existence. People still tell stories of the flood of 1950 and the many local buildings at the time that benefited from salvaged wood from flooding in Winnipeg. The destruction was so catastrophic that it resulted years later in the construction of the Red River Floodway. Criticized by many at the time, the vision of Premier Duff Roblin has saved countless millions of dollars in property damage.

Following what became known as the Flood of the Century in 1997, an expansion of the floodway was undertaken which was a significant benefit during the 2011 flood. The protection that Winnipeg has enjoyed from the floodway has not gone unnoticed. Further south along the Red River, the City of Fargo is expecting their new floodway (officially known as the Fargo-Moorhead Area Diversion Project) to be operational by next year. This multi-billion dollar project was built using a public-private partnership and has been supported by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Floodways are not the only form of flood protection in the Red River Valley. Many communities along the Red River utilize community or personal ring dikes to protect towns and individual homes. None of this prevents flooding from happening, but it has reduced the financial and personal loss by extraordinary amounts over the past century.

Of course, flooding from the Red River from the south and the Assiniboine River from the west is not the only type of flooding that Manitobans experience. In recent years, we have seen torrential rainfall events result in significant overland flooding that has overwhelmed local drainage capacity and flooded basements. In fact, this was the case the past two years in the City of Steinbach and just over the last week in other parts of Manitoba.

Now that the spring session of the Manitoba legislature has come to an end, I want to provide residents of Dawson Trail with an update on the work I have done on their behalf at the Manitoba legislative assembly.

Throughout this session, my focus has remained on ensuring that the voices of Dawson Trail constituents are heard, and that the concerns raised by our communities are brought directly to the provincial government.

Since becoming an independent MLA, I have had the opportunity to work directly with government ministers and members from all sides of the legislature to advance the priorities of Dawson Trail. Being an independent allows me to focus solely on what is best for our communities, advocate for local concerns without partisan restrictions, and build support wherever it exists to achieve results for constituents.

During this past legislative session, I had the privilege of advocating for Dawson Trail constituents in a number of ways. Firstly, I brought forward a private members resolution regarding the rights of an independent member of the legislative assembly. While my experience as an independent MLA has been very positive and I have been able to actively advance the priorities of Dawson Trail residents, that hasn’t always been the case for every independent member. Unfortunately, there has been instances where independent members have not been granted equal privileges, access to resources, and procedural opportunities that other members have been afforded. This resolution ensures that all independent MLAs are receiving the same fairness, transparency, and consistency as any other member, so that we may continue to best represent and serve our constituents.