Shaun Newman Podcast - #639 - Dave Petriew

Episode Date: May 15, 2024

For over two decades he’s been a public school teacher. During the 2022 school year he was teaching in Leask, SK when he wrote an email to his fellow teachers encouraging them to teach truth above all else and for this he was removed from his job.  Let me know what you think. Text me 587-217-8500 Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcast E-transfer here: [e-mail] Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/ Email: [e-mail] Text: [phone] – and be sure to let them know you’re an SNP listener.

This is Brett 14. This is Doug Casey. This is Tom Romago. This is Alex Kraner. This is Viva Fry. You're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Wednesday.

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He's been a public school teacher for over two decades, both Alberta and Saskatchew. We're talking about Dave Petru. So buckle up. Here we go. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast today. I'm joined by Dave Petru. So, sir, thanks for making the tour to Lloyd Minster to be here today. It is good to be here.

Thanks for inviting me. Now, tell us all about yourself. By now the audience knows you know everybody knows I didn't know who you were until I got sent a letter that you wrote and I want people to you know we can read off the letter for sure so people get understanding of it. But before we get to anything there, who is Dave? And just give us some of the story. Okay, well, who's Dave? I'm a lot of different things. Most of my career has been teaching.

I grew up in central British Columbia and ended up going to Caramport High School, Briarcress Bible College down in southern Saskatchewan. I went to University of Alberta, got my teaching degree, and taught for nine or ten years in Alberta, and then ended up moving to Saskatchewan where my dad had been from. He had gone back to the family farm after his dad had died, and we ended up moving back to the small town of Radisson and lived there for. for a while and I started doing some teaching in this province, eventually ended up in Leask where we're living now and taught there for several years. I'm not very good with dates, so I can't tell you exactly how many. And so yeah, and I done a bunch of different things. Teaching is what I've been doing ever since. It's what I decided I wanted to do already in high school. And I've been doing that for the majority of my adult life. And of course, like doing other things. I like paddling a

canoe and going camping and all sorts of outdoor stuff like that. I like making things with wood. The end of my teaching time, I was a shop teacher among other things. So I like playing with wood. That's why I like your table so much. And yeah, that's, I guess, a little bit of who I am. How many years did you teach? I don't know. You may have said it and I may have just misheard. It was probably about 10, I think it was about 10 years in Alberta, and it's probably been another 10 to 12 years here in Saskatchewan. So it's been a fair amount of time. So closing in on 25 years, but not quite. Yeah, somewhere in that ballpark, you bet.

Tell us about, you know, if I fast forward to where you are now, are you teaching anymore? A lot less formally than I had been before. I had been teaching, you know, as a regular public school teacher until some of this stuff happened we're going to be talking about. And but now I've been helping out some homeschool students. I've been doing some substitute teaching. So it's been a nice driving tractor. Maybe even a nice little change, do I dare to say. Well, it's definitely different and I've really been enjoying a bunch of the stuff that I've been doing.

So that is good. And it's kind of been really cool because, you know, I went from a fairly significant salary. I always consider my teaching salary plenty and down to, well, a lot less. But God's really been taken care of us in that, you know, all of our needs have been met. We've had, I got an offer of a job driving tractor for a hay farmer and, you know, that was keeping us going. And just all sorts of other things where people have jumped in and done cool stuff for us that we haven't had to worry financially about stuff even without the big salary. So it's been really neat that way. and it's been really cool to kind of see how God takes care of people that are trying to do what he says.

So, yeah. Well, before we go any further, one of the things for people coming into the studio, this way I can get it off my plate and I don't forget about it. This is for you. Every person that comes in the studio, we give them a little gift for coming all this way. It's not a whole heckful lot, but at the same time, It's something, and it's a silver one-ounce coin from silver gold bull. So there's a... That's really cool.

Appreciate you making the drive and making time for this because I'm sure on your docket of things to do, driving the Lloydminster was probably not high on the priority list. Well, yeah, I thank you very much, by the way. And it was nice to visit with my wife as we were driving out. She came along with me, and it's nice to have those time to just sit and talk. We're often busy with other things. And so having that time was nice. Do you own any silver?

My dad used to collect coins. And after he died, myself and my sisters kind of divvied up his collection. And I think there's some old silver coins in there that, you know, from before, was it, 1963 or something, quarters and whatnot were made of silver. So I think I have a few of those around. But this is really nice and shiny. It's really cool. Yeah, I think it's 19, is it 65 folks, or is it 68?

Somewhere in the 60s. Somewhere in the 60s where they're not fully, they're not 100% silver, but they're like 87% silver of the coins before that year. Yeah, that's a fascinating little tidbit. Okay. I got sent a letter you wrote. I want to hear the story about it. I don't know if you want to read the letter.

I don't think it's a terrible thing for people to hear. exactly was wrote. Or if you want to give the lead-up and then read the letter, I don't know, you tell me how you want to go both of this. I think maybe doing the lead-up will be good because I was teaching at a school and already I got the impression that some of the higher-ups in the division maybe were a little bit annoyed with me because I did ask some questions during the whole COVID thing.

And even before that, a couple things that happened at school. But, you know, I was asking for, you know, Can you explain why or what's the evidence? It was my big question. What's the evidence that masks do any good? And I never got an answer. And I eventually ended up writing a letter and eventually the answer came back. It's like we're just doing it because the province is telling us to.

So there was no one, no reason for it other than we're being told to. Before that happened, even before COVID, I think it was a year before, we'd had a presentation come to the school from a group called, I think it's called Out Saskatoon, basically a LGBTQ advocacy group and they came in and they were talking to groups of students in the school. And it was kind of weird how it happened because the class I was teaching in normally I would hand out the notes to go home at the end of the day but somehow they were handed out with the other teacher who taught the kids in the morning and so I'm not sure if that was deliberate or what but we had this presentation and they were telling kids that yeah you can be something different from what you really are.

and all this sort of thing. And as a result, I ended up writing an email to my principal saying, I don't think this is a good idea. My wife ended up writing a letter to our MLA, who happens to also be the premier, and saying, hey, you know, this stuff shouldn't be at schools. I didn't get much of a response from my administration. She got a form letter coming back saying,

we trust that, you know, we trust the divisions, do what's good for the kids and that was that was the kind of the end of it from the provincial level so so that had happened uh i'd been questioning things about covid uh not getting any answers and then we ended up getting a uh an email from the school counselor saying it said welcome and then the name well it was a student name but it wasn't the name of any students that we had um but what it was is the email was telling us that this student in grade six i believe was now going to be going by a different name and using different pronouns and that she'd be using the staff bathroom rather than using the, you know, the girls' bathroom kind of thing.

And so this came out and so it was like, this isn't good. You know, reading stuff, hearing stuff, thinking about stuff, knowing biology. biology is one of the things I've taught in my career. You know, you can't, a girl can't become a boy. It just isn't possible. And so I wrote an email to our staff. The email from the counselor had come to school staff. I replied to school staff to say, I don't think this is a good idea.

And here's why. So if you want, I could read that. I brought it along. I could read out what I wrote. Is that something? Yeah, I don't think it's, that way people can understand because there's going to be a lot of people who have not seen this. Yeah.

And yeah, it's not like it's 12 pages long, so by all means. Yeah. So here we go. We'll try to get through without stumbling. When I was younger, there were a lot of young people, mostly girls, who believed that they were fat even though this was not the case and proceeded to starve themselves. There were even terms for this, anorexia and bulimia. Recognizing that they were believing lies about themselves and that this was harmful,

adults helped these kids by helping them to see the truth about themselves. More recently, there were a few years where a lot of young people, again, mostly girls, who were involved in cutting. They believed that by cutting themselves would help to relieve stress, and of course there's a lot more to it than that as well. Again, no one thought it was good or appropriate to encourage the lie that cutting was somehow helpful. We all recognize that it was not a good thing and that these young people needed to be guided and helped to recognize the harm. Now we seem to have another cluster of young people. people believing a harmful lie, and yet the response is to encourage and celebrate it.

This makes no sense. I understand that there are groups in our current society that wish to shape culture to their own image. This involves changing definitions and expecting everyone to buy into their every whim, no matter how much contradicts reason, science, and common sense. In the English language, he and him refer to a male, a man or a boy, and she and her refer to a female, a girl or a woman. To use pronouns not consistent with a person's biology is not being truthful.

So it is important that we teach our students truth above all. Truth is simply that which conforms to objective reality. Like the fable of the emperor's new clothes, truth does not change because a person or group, or even the majority, believe it to be so. So some objective truth. Number one, humans like all mammals, are male or female. Whether a person is male or female is a detainer.

determined at conception by their genes. This is our biological sex and our gender. Number two, of all traits that we use to identify ourselves, gender is the one thing we cannot change. Every cell in each person's body, our bone structure, our reproductive organs, our binary. We are either male or female. If human remains are found, they will be identified as male or female by those immutable properties. Number three, dressing up or putting on the social norms of the opposite gender does not change who you are. When Grey Owl dressed and lived as a First Nations man in Saskatchewan, it did not change the fact that he was English. When Justin Trudeau painted himself black, it did not change the fact that he is a French English, he is a French-English Canadian. In the same way, no matter what a person changes about their dress or behavior, it does not change their gender.

Number four, believing lies is dangerous. In spite of what some will say, transgender, in quotes, people have a much higher suicide rate than the general population. When students are doing drugs, breaking the law, thinking suicide, or doing other things that we know are bad for them, we step in and try to help and guide them to do what is right and what is best for them. We need to do the same when kids start thinking and believing that they are something that they are not. We cannot stand by, certainly should not encourage them in believing these lies. And then I signed off David Betrue and our school. And then my little tag at the end said, teach truth.

And that was the end of my email. So, you know, when it first got sent to me, the thing we said is, you know, if you'd sent that five years ago, there's nothing in there. It's almost, Dave, it's almost a nothing burger, except exactly is today there like there would have been no reason for me to write a letter like that true enough this is what everybody in the world believes other than a few people who have come to dominate a lot of what we're talking about and so um that was uh i sent that out on wednesday morning uh believe it was may 4th of 2022 i have the date here on this other letter um at the end of the

school day. So I sent that out first thing in the morning. The email, I think, had come to us. Were you, were you nervous at all about San Antonio? I was a little bit. Like, did you deliberate on, like, I did. I had, the email had come like the night before. And like, I'd been thinking about these things a lot. Sure. I'd been, I don't think I'd read Abigail Shears Schreier's book yet at that point, but I'd heard her speak and I'd, you know, heard the ideas and it's like, no, this stuff isn't good. It's like, it's silly to be thinking this. So I'd, you know, mulled it over a lot. And even with the thing that had happened a couple years before with the organization coming into the school and teaching stuff, it's like, no, we can't just sit back and let this stuff happen. Like when that happened, I didn't really do much.

I kind of was like, I don't know. And okay, I'll write my principal and so on. And so I was just kind of still fairly wishy-washy, I think, at that point. But, you know, through COVID and stuff happening and all these, you got to believe this. and then there was no evidence for what they were believing or telling me I had to do. Then it was like, you know what, I need to say something about this. And so I was a bit nervous about writing it, I guess, but it was like, okay, I'm just writing this to my staff.

And it's like, I'm not writing anything radical. This is not like some crazy out there idea. This is just common sense that, you know, I'm writing. And it was interesting because it had been, you know, maybe a year or so before is, I think, the fall before COVID hit that, you know, we'd been in a staff meeting. And it was, you know, Monday afternoon, everyone was like, oh, I don't really want to be here. And we had to give some sort of a statement about, you know, what our purpose was there at being a school. And my brain was working a little bit that day.

And so, you know, I'd come up with a statement that I thought was pretty cool. And I shared it. And everyone else was like, oh, yeah, we don't feel like thinking. We'll put that down. And the idea was about how we should be teaching kids to think and teaching how to recognize and learn truth. That idea of, you know, figuring out what was true was, was in there. and all the staff was, yeah, that sounds good. Let's, sorry, let's put that in there.

And so, you know, this letter just seemed to me a continuation of that. It's like, well, let's think about this. Let's actually do something that, you know, this doesn't seem like a good idea to me. I think we should rethink it. So, yeah, I was a little bit nervous maybe, but, you know, I'm kind of disagreeing with, you know, what's coming down, but, well, it seemed to be a reasonable thing to do. So that was in the morning Nobody said a thing to me all day

I didn't get any replies to my email No one said I think you're crazy by writing that to us So the end So this is an internal email to just this The staff and school staff is what it was Leask? Yeah that's the town I'm from And so and forgive me where exactly is Leesk? Okay so you go north of Saskatoon you go to Blaine Lake

Okay and from Blaine Lake you start heading toward Prince Albert, and it's beyond Blaine Lake on Highway 12. So in the middle of nowhere? Yeah, it's... I mean that the best possible way to all use Saskatoon. It's about an hour and 10 minutes to drive to Saskatoon. It's about an hour to drive to Prince Albert. It's about an hour and 20 minutes to drive to North Balford.

We're kind of... But in my brain, in my brain, I'm picturing a small farming community. Three hundred people, a few big farmers. That's where most people are, a lot of people are employed. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Carry on.

Yeah. Like to me, I'm, I'm originally from Hillmond, you know, and then people go, well, where's that? I'm not even sure where that one is. Well, it's, it's 20 minutes northeast of Lloydminster. So, like, and it's a small farming community. He's got a K to 12 school with about 160 kids maybe, you know, in a good year, 180. Yeah, our town is like, I think it's. And I apologize, Helmand if I'm lower high on that.

I can't remember where the numbers are now. Same with me on Leaks. I think Leask is around 300 people. living in the village. So a small place. We have, you know, a lot of the staff in the school are, have moved to the community, but there is also several who are commuting from the city. It seems like a lot of the ideas came with those who are commuting in.

It's my perspective anyways. So, yeah, it was like this. And I think that if you'd pulled the parents of most of the students, they'd be say, yeah, this is, this is what we think. This is what should be going on. This is how we understand the world. So, yeah, this small school. And I guess I was a little bit surprised that no one said anything to me.

Nobody replied to my email saying, you know, you're out to lunch or, yeah, I agree with you. Like there was just dead silence. And nobody talked to me. No one came up to me and said, yeah, I read what you said. And I think that's greater. There was like nothing. So after school that day, I was doing an after school archery club with some students. and principal walks in and hands me a note and says,

Brad needs to talk to you before you leave school today. He was a superintendent that was kind of in charge of our school. So it's like, okay. And so I suspected that maybe it was something to do with the email. And basically after I was done the practice and put everything away, went back to my shop and got on the phone and called. And basically I got a letter basically repeating what he was saying, but it's basically you are assigned to home until further notice with pay.

And you're not to talk to any students. You're not to talk to any staff. You can talk to your principal, but only about your teaching assignment, nothing about this issue. There's, what was the word, concerns regarding your conduct have been brought to our attention, is what he said. Didn't say what it was about. The letter said, you know, I cannot answer questions about the nature of the allegations.

Oh. And so it's like, you got to be out of there. You can't talk to anybody. We're going to investigate. And so I was at home for the next few days, waiting to see what it was about. They recommended that I talked to a person with the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation, the SDF, to represent me. I did call her right away. She was actually great in this whole thing.

the two years or a year and a half it took to go through all this stuff but um so i contacted her she was able to find out that yeah it actually was about this email had written go figure um so after i think it was close to a week they called me into the central office and did an interview with me asked me a bunch of questions about the email but also going far beyond that about what I might do or might not do and this and that and the other thing. What you might do or not doing with what? Are you going to call this student by the pronoun nouns they want? Are you going to use the name of this student?

Are you going to, you know, they asked some interesting things like, do you think this student has psychological issues? There's something like that. It's like, I'm not a psychologist. Why would I comment on that? My email didn't say anything about this stuff, but they're asking me these questions about you know, how are you going to respond to this and basically the idea that, you know, somehow

the student wouldn't be safe if I was their teacher, if I was suggesting that maybe we shouldn't be supporting it. So, yeah, it was a kind of an interesting interview. And I don't remember a lot of the questions from it. But there was, you know, people writing it down and checking back and whatnot. Eventually, I think, you know, I signed something saying, yeah, this is basically what we talked about. They kind of let me stew for days longer. I can't remember if it was a week or what. They apparently talked to other people about me, did an investigation of some sort. And then eventually they called me back in and put a letter in front of me or a statement for me to sign. And it was like, you need to sign this before you can go back

into the classroom. And so, let's see if we got it here. Yeah, so some of the things included, well, they were alleging that I was sharing things that were confidential, even though this email had gone out to all staff, that this is what we were going to do,

that if I said anything about it outside of the school, I was roaching confidentiality, I didn't agree with them on that and spoke to him about it. But then they said that I had to use pronouns that a student that they prefer, not to use the birth pronouns of a student who's changed their gender identity. Call all students by their preferred name. And then one that kind of made me chuckle a little bit. Keep your email signature free of quotes or additional information other than that approved by your principal.

They apparently didn't like that I said, Teach Truth at the end of my email signature. So these are some of the things that they had in this, oh, and engage in a restoration process with the school community facilitated by either Prairie Spirit or the SDF. And so in order to be able to go back into the classroom and teach, I had to sign and say that I would do that. So I asked for a couple days to think about it,

and at the end I made the decision. that instead of signing that, I was going to resign. And so I resigned from the school division and haven't been teaching from them since. How long ago was that? That would have been in, so this letter was May 16th of 2022. So May 4th is when I sent out the original email. May 16th is when they brought them into the office and put this in front of me saying this is what you need to sign to come back and teach again.

So it's been two full years. Yeah. And what's interesting is it wasn't until, I think, it was December of last year of 2023 that the final things actually ended up because after I resigned they forwarded this to the Saskatchewan professional teachers something something I should have written it down SPTRB it's the provincial uh professional licensing association for teachers it just it's it's relatively new it's about five or six years old the provincial government put that in to separate it from SDF. So this is the professional board, the people who can take away your license.

Sure. We've seen this as a nice choke point on doctors. And I mean, it's not the identical thing, but as soon as you... It's the same idea. Same idea. Yeah. It's a control over it. And so basically, they, they sent it to them. Then they had to do their big investigation. And so they did an investigation. I had a guy call me up and talk to me about what I did and didn't do and what I might say or not say. And they came back with a resolution. document, basically I would say, I would admit that I had done some wrong things and that would go on my permanent record and then they would, that would be the end of it and I could keep my license. Or I guess, and if I didn't, then the possibilities it would go to a formal disciplinary hearing

in which I could lose my license. And so they kept bringing things into it like, you know, we think you might do this. and so you need to not do that in the future. We think this could happen. And so we kept pushing that. You got to make sure you're doing this or not doing this. It's like, I never did that. I didn't say that.

You know, that's not what the email said. Are these lawyers you're talking with or are these people? I think who's on the board are, I think they're teachers who are on this professional board or they may be some outside people. I don't believe they're lawyers. They do have legal people that I think they talk to. And with the STF, with my resource person who's helping me out, she would take the stuff they brought and bring it to their legal department to have a look at it.

And I would usually give her my input. It's like, you know, I didn't do that or, you know, this is doing this, I think is actually part of my professional responsibilities. Part of what they were trying to show is that, I was being unprofessional by doing this. And if I'm unprofessional, then maybe I shouldn't have my teaching license. But there are things like I went and looked at the professional code of conduct. And one of the things I noticed is it actually says that as a professional, I'm supposed to either individually as a group speak about things that I, you know, are concerned to me.

Well, I think that's what I was doing. I was speaking about something I didn't think was right. and that's actually part of my professional responsibility. So in my mind, I was doing what I thought I should be doing. And they were trying to say, if you're not using the right pronouns, you're being unprofessional. It's kind of what it came down to. So back and forth, back and forth, and it wasn't, I think, until December of, of 2023, where they finally got the letter saying, I guess there's nothing to see here. we're, you know, basically we're dropping it.

There's nothing, no further action is going to be taken. So you still have your teacher's license? Yeah, I'm still a teacher in Saskatchewan. In theory, I could apply it in the school division for a job or... Well, it's funny. The way it was going with your story, it just sounded so much like Jordan Peterson, and what he's going through with retraining and all the different things and what he said on social media and on and I'm like, oh,

so I assumed at the end of all this, you were about to say, and I lost my teacher's license and, you know, I can't teach, but... Yeah, and it could have come to that if, and I think that by pushing back and again, being reasonable, looking at, you know, what stuff actually says I'm supposed to do and not do, and definitely having the support of the, you know, the legal team at STF through my representative, it really helped to say, you know, okay, this point you're trying to make is something that I didn't do at all.

this point you're trying to make is maybe something that I should have been doing. There's nothing in our regulation saying you shouldn't be doing that. And so we just point by point just kept pushing back. And eventually they gave in and said, no, I guess there's nothing we can do. I think there's definitely similarities to Dr. Peterson. And I mean, he was, well, much higher profile being attacked a lot by a lot more powerful people, so to speak. but and but it's the same kind of idea if you don't say the right stuff or if you disagree then they throw everything at you watch out yeah it's crazy to me you know the crazy thing on

your story is you know Peterson Toronto you know yeah you of T like I mean in in the grand scheme of Canada it's kind of like I hate to say this about Toronto but it's kind of like you know the center point of Canada right like it's a big everybody's looking there and so Peterson comes out there he's outspoken and yeah this is tiny middle of nowhere Saskatchewan yep this is bizarre this is that it's soaked that deep into um yeah western culture even you know prairie culture and you think like Saskatchewan is I think more conservative than Alberta is like as a population the people. Like, yeah, we get crazy people in, in office too. But we're a conservative population. And stuff like this coming in to me is like really odd. It is interesting too because after

this all happened, I think I was still on my maybe the time where I wasn't supposed to talk to anybody. But I had to, you know, walking the dogs down the street. And a couple times I had staff members from school, stopped their car and say, you know, I agreed with the, what you said, but I couldn't afford to lose my job, right? So that, and I think in a way, they weren't as concerned with getting rid of me or getting my license or anything like that. I think they wanted to try to shut people up, right? Because if you speak out, this is what happens to you. The only thing I would say to that is, is if you agree with somebody, so you agree with Dave, right, and you work with Dave, the thing is, is what you have to realize is they can't fire y'all.

Yeah. Like they just can't. So you go, I actually agree with you. And if they're going to let you go, you, maybe we should all just stand up and be like, no more of this. Because we have power in numbers. And people need to get over that fear because the job thing is what allowed COVID to go. Yeah. And every time I do any talk to anyone who's got, you know, doing any digging into it,

it just keeps coming up. It's like, man, they screwed us. They screwed us really hard in COVID. And all we had to do was just voice our concern. Just say no. And just stand up in numbers. and they, I'm not saying they would have left everybody along, but they can't arrest us all.

They can't, and that's the thing, and I think that's something I've learned, because I think, you know, three years earlier, I probably would have gone, oh, man, yeah, I agree with you, but I don't know if I want to stand up. And that whole realization that, no, I need to stand up as, you know, as a person, someone who, you know,

tries to do the right thing, someone who's a Christian, a believer, I need to stand up for a truth and for what's right. I can't just sit back. and let other people do it, I can't just sit back and not say something. And that was, it's a problem I've had. I'm not really an outspoken kind of guy. I'm not one who is the rabble rouser, at least not when I was younger, but it's like, no, I have to say something. And that was a thing. I have to say something this, this can't, can't go on. And it's, it's, I think you're absolutely

right. If, and we all have to say no, or we all have to say, I agree, this shouldn't be happening. And if nothing else, if someone hears this, it's like, yeah, I know this is going on. I don't really want to say something. Just stand up and say something, right? Because there's probably a bunch of other people that maybe will stand up then too. I've been saying on and off, well, mutual friend, Ken, had given me Solzhenitsyn's essay, Do Not Live by Lies. And part of it is, or don't participate in the lie, right?

And it's a wonderful, it's not, you know, I can't remember. Is it three pages? Is it five pages? It's a pretty quick read. And he's, you know, Solgenitin is the one who went through Soviet Union, right? Yeah. And he wrote this 1970s paper, do not live or do not, yeah, do not live in lies. Or don't participate in them.

And I forget how it exactly says, but he's talking about even in a business meeting. They're saying something that you disagree with. You're better to get up and leave. and show your displeasure with what is going on. And, you know, when you hear about you're like, ah, yeah, yeah. But you think of where we're at now, where, you know, the emperor really has no clothes on.

Yeah. And we're all like, it's not that big a deal. It's like, it's permeated all the way to small town Saskatchewan to wear a teacher who voices his concern. And when I, when I, I mean this in the most, because I don't think it's a bad letter. I just go, a couple of years ago,

that is a boat, is nothing burger a letter. as I've ever seen. It's about it's just like, yeah, this, but you've hit on this thing that is the hot button thing, blows up, but you read that letter. I'm like, there's nothing in there that I'm like, that's that extreme.

You're not calling anyone out. You're not naming names. You're just saying like, we probably, you know. Well, and that's the thing. It's like there was, I actually hadn't read my email until, I know, a couple months ago since I'd written it or shortly after. And it's like, and I read it again. It's like, yeah, I still stand by.

that? Yeah, that still makes sense. It's like, and I guess one of the things that they, in one of our meetings, they talked about, you know, bringing my religious views into, in using division email to espouse my personal and religious views. It's like, no, I was just, I was making a rational argument. I was talking about science and truth. What do you think, folks? People probably hate this show by now because we we we don't stray away from your beliefs or or views or anything we we dive right into it why not but and like I mean I would argue that you should be able to share your views and argue your religious and personal perspectives anywhere but I wasn't even doing that and so like that's where they're somehow I guess talking common sense is now a personal religious view

not just what everybody knows. And I was just thinking as, you know, getting ready to come on here, that idea of truth, like my taglines had teach truth at the bottom and they didn't like that. And more and more I've been, I've listened to some of your stuff. It's like, I don't always listen to your hockey podcast, sorry, but, you know, some of the interesting people you've had on and this idea of truth keeps coming up over and over and over again. And then you hear and you see people who are seeking, speaking after truth and where is it tend to lead them right there's so many people have

you know starting kind of with the COVID stuff trying to figure out well is that true or not are we being lied to and they end up coming to the Bible they end up coming to Christianity just what was the the comedian's name here just not too long ago he was Russell Brand yeah he was baptized like he was all about trying to figure out what was true and what wasn't and then suddenly he's getting baptized it's like you know he kind of wonder, do you... Yeah, I've said this multiple times. I think I've said it on the podcast.

Maybe I haven't. His way of going to Christianity really... It's uncomfortable watching him. I don't know if that's his... Somebody said, oh, it's his New Age background and everything he was into before, but it's really strange to watch somebody do it, like on a YouTube video, it just feels weird.

Yeah. But in fairness to what you're saying, he isn't the only one, right? No. Russell Brand is certainly one. Sean Ryan, he does, I can't remember, is it number two podcast in the United States now, he's publicly announced it, you know. Tammy Peterson.

Tammy Peterson is baptized just not too long ago. You know, there's been always, and it seemed like they're trying to figure out what's true and what isn't, and that's where it leads to. Yeah, it always comes back to, well, for me, it comes back to, you know, place your host on the rock, right? Not on the sandy shore, on the rock, right? You want to survive the storms ahead. putting it on the solid foundation. And in the search for truth,

when you start digging and digging and digging and digging and digging, then you dig some more, and then you go left and then, oops, it's the other way, and you just dig, dig, dig, eventually you hit the rock. And for me, the rock has been the Bible, which is interesting, right? Because I've shunned that book all my life.

And I heard some of your stuff earlier talking about that. That's interesting. Well, you start reading it, and you're like, this makes sense. In a world that doesn't make any sense anymore, where everything you just wrote, and they're like, well, and there's going to be,

you know, I can just assume that somebody's going to listen to this and, and they're going to be from the teachers, whatever side of it, and they're going to be all hurt, or maybe not. I don't know. I'm like, it just, you just got to get over it. A boy can't become a girl. They can act like a girl. You can pretend.

They can say they're a girl, but if we don't reinforce it, because that's what's happening, is adults are reinforcing a lie. And so you go, like, there's all these things that don't make sense, you know, that's one of them. Yeah. The maid thing where we're going with it is insane. The fact that COVID is this is over, but it's still this elephant in the room,

and people are being harmed by, and we won't, it just doesn't make sense. So you keep digging, and eventually you land on something that makes sense. And to me, that's why there's the Bible. It's just like, oh, and there, oh, huh, didn't see that coming. And I might argue, the harder you try and find truth, the more you start to see, I don't know,

I don't know what to call it, the spiritual realm. Just that there's more than just the physical world. Correct. And once you start to see that, you're like, holy crap, did I just, am I going insane or did that actually happen? And once you realize that it isn't happening. And then I go back, Seth Bloom is probably listening to this. I gave him a strong shout out because him and his daughter came on,

sat on this side of the table back when it was rearranged. And McKenzie was a, was a, star goalie playing for Notre Dame. Okay. And had to get the vaccine to, to, and then got injured. And so they've had this long journey. So they came on the podcast and talked about it. And the reason I bring up Seth is because when I came back from Ottawa, he said, you know,

so what happened there, right? And I'm like, I don't know, man. I, what do we want? And I gave him the four option. And he said, spiritual. And so he talked about it. And then I said, you know, if everybody knows it's spiritual, why don't we talk about it? He's like, well, people will call you crazy.

I'm like, man, I'm getting called crazy for COVID. just talking to people, just letting people talk. People think you're insane. I'm like, so why aren't we talking about this? And to me, I see it happening more and more that people are finally, fine, I'm going to talk about it. And to me, it's just boiling over now or whatever which way you want to put it. Maybe boiling isn't the right one.

But like, that's why Russell Brand. That's why Sean Ryan, that's why on Joe Rogan, you hear him talking more about it, whether or not he agrees with it or not. It's starting to come to the forefront and take. so many conversations. It's not something that's just being dismissed anymore. Correct. Yeah. And it has to be. And that's, yeah, that whole spiritual realm is there. And it, like, once, once you recognize it, it's like, oh, yeah, well, this makes a lot more sense now. It makes a lot more sense. Yeah. And the thing is, is the insanity of COVID, you know,

we point out on all the bad things. One of the absolute blessings that came out of it was a turn back to the Bible. Like, you're just seeing it in mass now. Right? Yeah. It's like, I don't know. I had a lot of these, when I first started talking about a lot of people were like,

I don't know. And I'm finding more and more open to the conversation, which is interesting, because that's the way I approached the first too. Yeah. Like,

I'm not really open to this. And I found it interesting, too, that during the time when churches were closed down and some refused to, some in your province, some in ours, and, you know,

people went to jail and everything else. Those churches exploded because they were still open, still preaching the word, even though they were being told by the government not to. And so, yeah. It's like you need to do what you're supposed to do, not just, not necessarily bow the knee when someone says, no, and you've got to stop.

It can be hard, but, you know, if you're certain that you're doing what God's asking you to do, then it's good, no matter what else happens. Do you have any, I assume you have no misgivings then about writing the letter? I don't know. I, maybe misgivings about not standing up earlier. like yeah but we could we could all say that so but no writing law absolutely not and i like one of the things i guess kind of surprised me is that um when when i actually resigned um i the last thing before they you know took me off the the whole email thing is i i wrote another email to staff saying i'm resigning i'm going to be gone if there is anything in that email that

you didn't like that offended you that you'd like to talk to me about here's my personal email here's my phone number you know where i live come see me come talk to me i'd love to you know if there's something that um you know that you think i've done wrong that you want to talk to me about please come and have the conversation and i was kind of surprised that nobody actually came and and said hey this i had a problem with you saying with this this is why i think you were wrong this is why it was just like dead silence. I thought that was kind of unfortunate because you know, I'd always gotten along really well

with all my colleagues. It's a lost art. We've been talking about that off and on in here lately about modeling debate, right? In our society, if you go to the highest levels and if you're not watching, I'm putting

that in parentheses, if you watch our two, you know, the prime minister and the leader of the opposition debate, it's not a, it's, it's, you don't even even acknowledge with you. Name calling, if anything else. And you don't acknowledge what the other person is saying. Now we can all cheer on Pierre because the way he does it or maybe you're a liberal and you cheer on the other side.

It doesn't matter. In what world does those two the way they interact and you can say as liberals, you can say as conservatives, you can say, I don't care. Like in a healthy world, we model the way we want people to act. And our leaders, they need to be modeling it for us instead of the other way around. You said that. It was interesting. I was listening to some stuff about Winston Churchill just recently.

I think it was like Hillsdale College does these free online courses. So I was doing one about Winston Churchill. And it talked about how his big thing was you resolve things by debate. Parliament, parley is to talk, to speak. You have to have better ideas than the other side. And you need to convince people by talking about it. That's where we should be. That's where we should be, but it's gone.

That's what should be happening in our parliament. But it's gone. It's gone. We need to come back to that. But here's the thing. I don't know how we get back to that at the highest levels. Like, I don't know how we get back to that. Maybe this is how you do it.

Like maybe you talk to people. Like you've had some national leaders on here. Sure. Right? You're talking to them. Maybe eventually if enough people are listening to you and people like you and saying, this is the reasonable way to do things, maybe that's eventually going to influence the politicians say that.

You hope so, but you think of like Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan is, what do they, I agree with whoever it was that said it to him. I can't remember if it was Elon Musk or what. He is the mainstream now. More people watch him and now Tucker Carlson and now, you know, Sean Ryan and on and on it goes than watch the evening news, right?

So they are the mainstream. And they, you know, you can love or hate Joe Rogan. I'm going to assume most people on this side of things really enjoy what he does. But like he brings us. on people that I'm like, I don't know if I'd have that person on, right? Like that's, and sits there and allows them to speak, interacts with them. Does it, does he get asking questions and getting answers and digging down?

Yeah. And he's now the more, like, you can't refute how popular he is. Yeah. And yet it hasn't bled into, maybe it's bled more into society than I give credit because I mean, here I said. Yeah. And it is because of Joe doing what he did. And maybe it just takes more time. Like maybe it's got to work its way from the bottom up or maybe the next generation. You know, I did watch an interview. interesting video today this morning before you came in. And it was a young guy on Patrick Bet, David, saying the young men of the United States

are growing up watching Jordan Peterson, watching Joe Rogan, watching Tucker Carlson, watching all these different guys and watching their journey. And they're being influenced by that heavily, and it just takes time. And so in that, in that case, you know, that's a very hopeful look. at where the future could be going, right? Pick up your burden and bear it, right? Like, yeah, well, if everybody who thinks that way does something, you know, whether it's, you know, writing a letter or going and, you know, joining a protest or becoming part of a political

party or whatever, you do something, go to your church and, and say, hey, no, we shouldn't close the doors if something like this happens again, just whatever it is, if everybody does a little bit of something that God's calling them to for lack of a better term, then, you know, that's where the change is going to come. It's going to come from individuals working up maybe. You know, I think so. Like, I don't put a whole lot of hope in Pierre getting in in 2025, and all of a sudden, all the transgender stuff just disappears and we get it out of law and everything. Like, it's embedded in there pretty hard. Maid is embedded in there pretty hard. The free drug thing is embedded in there pretty hard to just,

Sign something and all disappear. Yeah, no. And we've got to work with that and against that. It's like there's a lot of things like that that are going on. I know just like one of the things that I've done since all this happened is I, you know, joined the new Saskatchewan United Party to try to fight against some of this stuff. They had a lot of, you know, push in trying to get some of these policies changed in schools in the province. And so, you know, maybe it's pushing with fringe or not, I don't like to think of us as fringe,

but kind of outside of the main, the mainstream, kind of pushing a little bit more from the outside to change things. You know, maybe that's where it's going to, maybe it's not going to be Pierre Pollyov. Maybe it's going to be, you know, some of the smaller outside parties who are speaking up and, you know, not willing to back down that are going to, you know, change the debate and change things. I don't know. What have you been seeing from, you know, you're a guy that has made a stand, right? It's been, you know, it's resolved now, but it took, you know, better part of two years. Yeah. And now being with the Saskia United and, I don't know, just monitoring Saskatchewing,

maybe closer than the average person would. What do you see in Saskatchewan? Is this problem dissipating or is it growing strength? See, I think that the majority of the majority of the most of the of people in Saskatchewan are against this stuff. They don't want to see this in the schools. They don't want, you know, stuff that happened down in, what's the place there where Regina? Lumsden. Lumsden, thank you.

The stuff that happened there, they don't want that. They don't want stuff like that in the schools. They don't want the transgender stuff being preached in the schools. And I think that, so from the people, I think they're against it, generally speaking. I'm not convinced that, you know, a party that's been in power for years and like all of this stuff kind of happened while they were in power. And unless they get some real pushback from conservative people, like, you know, it's more of a liberal kind of government I'm thinking we're having in our province right now. and there needs to be more of a conservative pushback and have opportunity for conservative people

to be voting for someone who represents their views because, you know, the Sask Party was made from the liberal and conservative parties in Saskatchewan. In my mind, it's kind of a lot more of the liberal side than the conservative side. So, yeah, I'm kind of, I'm hopeful that, you know, our party can kind of be pushing back and pushing things more towards,

the right where you're looking at conservative values like, well, hey, let's not spend more money than we're taking in. Let's not be doing stuff like this in schools. Let's take care of people instead of, you know, spending money all over the place. So again, I'm hopeful that if there's an option, if there's a conservative option, that more people will vote that way. And if nothing else, it'll pull the political debate in the province more to the conservative side. then to the liberal side. And it's a funny thing over time, like if you don't have the SASC United,

you have conservative SaaS party. Yeah. And the NDP is their opposition. And even though Saskatchewan is the most conservative place under the sun, if their opposition is on the far left side, everything just slowly drifts to the left. Because we want to make sure we don't lose to them,

so we'll go to be more like them. Right. So you need someone on the. other side. But as you become more like them, you lose your base. Yep. Because you're literally not doing what they want. Yeah. Right. And they and and and the base doesn't get well I don't know. To me maybe the base doesn't get awoken until it's too late. And then by that time they're like what the heck is going on here. They fire up a new party and then they pull everything back. And that's why you have you know, you look through time.

It's not like um well I shouldn't say. You can't, but, you know, like in the two provinces, that's why you see such changeover in parties and name changes and rebranding and trying to find a way to get back to their roots. And it's funny to get back to your roots. Just, I don't know, go back to the truth, and you'd probably be right there. Oh, man, yeah, that would be a great thing.

I was just thinking that's off of politics again, but one of the things you said about, you know, these kids have the idea that they're, you know, transgender and because of whatever they saw online. And if you just kind of leave them alone and don't encourage them, like it was at 95% eventually go, oh, that was just a phase I was going through, no big deal. It's like if you encourage it and you end up with this, you know, drastic medical interventions or even the social interventions where they become known as, you know, this person that's the

opposite sex or whatever, it's a lot harder to get out of that. And it reminded me of this one person that my wife and I know who said to us, kind of when this stuff was going down. It's like, you know, when I was at high school, if I'd had someone saying, hey, you know, maybe you're feeling this way because you're really transgender. It's like, I would have fallen for that. No problem. Like, I would have gone. I would have gone all in. I would have ended up changing. I've had friends say that back in high school, they didn't have like a, I always played hockey. So you always kind of had like a group of guys you hung out with because you're always in like on a sports team.

Yeah. But I have friends who didn't play any like big team. team sports and they they could easily ended up hanging out with us as hanging out with the nerds or hanging out with the you know I don't know the pot smokers or you know like all these different things and now you have this group that's welcoming of everyone and you know high school heck middle school can be a very confusing time and even upper elementary school for some of these kids you know they're in their young yeah it's very confusing and if you got someone saying hey maybe you're really like this. It's like, yeah, maybe I am.

Right. But if the stuff's not there, if you're not being encouraged, it'll go away. And then, you know, you're a girl, you just grow up and it's like you grow out of it. You get married. You have kids. You have a wonderful life. You know, you don't. It's just something that, you know, maybe crosses your mind, but then it's gone.

Right. I mean, kids change their minds about a lot of stuff. Right. I mean, I did. Oh, I got three young ones, and they say some pretty funny things where you're like, no, that's not true. Right? I don't know. Like two young boys, right?

And an eight and a four. And the four-year-old, he'll say, oh, I'm a girl, dad. Just because he knows, because he knows it. But they're clever. Oh, yeah. And you're like, you know, and so then you just have to say no, you're not. No, you're not. Like, I mean, I can.

And they're not in my house anyways. They do it more to get a rise out of me than anything. I'm like, how the heck do they know? that. Obviously, I'm an open playbook to him. Oh, yeah. That's good kids. Well, you know, kids learn, what is it, about a week old after they're born, how to manipulate their parents. I'm sure of it. You know, kids figure stuff out really good. They're smart. They can manipulate you. Well, and they're not, uh, they take note when things like this happens to a man like you, right? Oh, if I just do that, right? Like, I mean, think about that. Like, we have to call them by

whatever they prefer to be. Like, no. That's a power move. Like, I mean. Oh, totally. Totally. I was just,

I just remembering another story, but this young person who, we actually know a family. And it was interesting because my wife was visiting the grandmother, and she was over there, and she wasn't going to call her by the new name. He was going to call her by her real name. And it's like, so you're a Christian then?

Basically, she associated people who called her by her real name and wouldn't use her new pronouns as the Christians. The Christians are the people who wouldn't do that. And it's, you know, if you did, then you probably weren't. Yeah, well, you're in a Christian, a Judeo-Christian value of a country. Go over to somewhere with the Muslim values and see what happens when you start spouting off all this stuff, right? Like, I mean, you think it's the Christians here. Yeah. There's a couple countries you go in and, sure.

Yeah. You want us to lop something off? Yeah, we could do that. Yeah. Yeah, no. But I just found it so fascinating that her grandparents are Christians, and they wouldn't call her by anything other than her real name. And she associated that.

It's like these people that are Christians, they're not buying into it. It was really interesting that that's the association that she made. and you know I think that was definitely one of the things that encouraged me to say no I'm not going to call you by that name because in your mind that means I'm not really a Christian she put that together well there's there's this under there's this really weird thing happening in culture right now where Christianity is under attack right and lots of it and just subtle

and some not that subtle right but some definitely yeah yeah and and And one of the recent ones I've been told. Now, once again, I'm sure, text me if this has happened to you, text me if you know more. Maybe there's somebody we could get on. I can't remember, sorry, Tara. Tara will be the one listening that, I'm forgetting the man's name. Anyways, in adoption, if you list as that you're Christian, that you go down the list. And little things like that.

And I'm like, what a strange thing to, like, sway, like. Yeah. And one thing that probably. And that's very subtle. probably would mean you're a better adoptive parent in some ways is the thing that's going to maybe keep you from adopting. Like that's subtle. But for my standpoint, my wife and I have had at the time two kids and we, she always

wanted to adopt. So we went to the National Adoption Conference in Minnesota. We really looked into it. And I couldn't get over it that because we had biological kids, I'm not saying it was impossible because I know there's going to be somebody listening that had biological kids and adopted and everything worked out fine. I couldn't get over how they looked at that as like, what are you doing here then? And I'm like, and I wanted to say back then, well, I'm trying to give a kid a healthy home. It's pretty simple.

Like to me, if you're going to look for parents to adopt a child, I don't think the, I don't think the number one thing. And maybe I'm wrong on this. call me out for is that I can't have kids you go right to the top list I would think the best home goes to the top of the list yeah like you want kids to grow up in a healthy home focus on that not on focus on the kids not on the parents yeah I so to me these are really little subtle things that happen in society and then they just become commonplace where all of a sudden now you say the things about Christianity it's like well it's it's so overtly there it's almost covert like it's it's happening right in front of us that we've all right in front of us that we've all right come to just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Except it's happening everywhere. It's wild. Yeah, yeah. Well, and even, you know, you think about how churches were being burnt down a couple

years ago and it's like, you know, you get comments from, yeah, I can understand why people would want to do that. It's like, no. It's like they're burning down churches. Let's find out who's doing it and put them in jail. Like, isn't that a better response? But, oh, I can understand. Really?

It's like, I don't get that mentality. but again, if you, I guess if you don't like Christians or Christianity, then, you know. Well, that's the way it's being positioned, right? Like, you know, how the government and narratives are formed and how they position things. So when churches start burning down, people are like, yeah, that kind of makes sense. Yeah. Right? That's what it is.

That doesn't happen by mere chance. No. That happens by the way they position things. So when it actually does happen, people don't freak out. I was like, yeah, sure. Yeah. I mean, people should freak out that the fact that you wrote a letter that seems pretty common sense got you removed. I'm actually really surprised that the STF backed you and got you and went to bat for you.

I think that's a positive turn to your story. And I was, in fact, a little skeptical when, you know, the division said, hey, you really should contact this person with SDF, you know, to be there for you. And I was, you know, it's like, okay, you know, this lady who's doing it, she, in her email tag, it's, you know, or at the beginning it said, you know, she her. She had her pronouns listed there. It's like, okay, this probably isn't a person who really agrees with me. But whether she agreed with me or not, she absolutely went to bat for me. So she was looking at everything. When I brought stuff up, she took it seriously.

She did every, like I don't fault her at all for anything. Even if, like, it may well be that she completely thought I should, you know, not be a teacher for all I know. But she never, she never said that. But she completely went along and advocated for me. So she was doing her job no matter what her feelings might have been about it. And I really, and I don't know if everyone there would have done that. But she did. She was fantastic.

Yeah, that's it. Honestly, I, of a story. It did surprise me a little bit too, but I was. very thankful for it. Yeah, well, the thing is, is normally in these situations, it seems like the stories go, oh, and by the way, STF, say, yeah, we're not representing you, and you know, out the door you went. That's not your story. I think that's important to know it as well. Yeah, exactly. And I do, like I say, I was a little bit surprised and I was skeptical, and I was worried that, okay, I'm going to have to kind of force this person to take the position that I

want to be taking on this, but she was, again, very, very helpful and supportive. And, and It was like, I definitely told her this is what I want to do, we don't want to do. You know, I'm not going to agree to that. And she didn't push back at all. It was like, okay, then that's what we'll do. So that was, like I say, that was fantastic that she did that. So now you're, now you're teaching a little bit? Yeah, I, one of the things that my wife and I did, I guess it was, we talked to some, a couple

of parents the summer, the first summer after I resigned. and they were homeschooling and it was like, yeah, do you think you'd be able to give us a little help with some things, maybe some math and whatnot? And it's like, yeah, that would be great. Certainly could do that. And my wife had been following some, you know, Instagram things where they were doing homeschool and they talked about having these homeschool co-ops. It's like, hey, maybe we should start a homeschool co-op for lease. So we kind of got contact information for families that we knew of who were homeschooling the area, sent out some, I think, an email inviting people to a meeting, and saying, hey, this is what we're interested doing.

If you're interested, we ended up getting, I know probably about 15 or so families who were homeschooling, who were interested in doing some stuff. And the first year, I kind of made myself available one morning a week, so anyone who wanted some extra help could come. Hardly anyone came. And the next. And then we tried to do an activity for a fun educational activity on a Friday so that we could come out and do some.

So one time we went to the, we're actually doing it this Friday as well tomorrow. Honeywood Heritage Nursery just out of Lease. And they got all these cool plants. Dr. Porter did some plant breeding there and they got all these really neat plants. So we went out there and we, you know, we did some whittling.

You know, three-year-olds with knives is always good. They didn't cut themselves. It was the, you know, eight-year-olds. Anyways, so we did some stuff like that. We did some canoeing. We built. birdhouses, we just did, I went to do a ski trip, just different things that we did. Sometimes we organize it, sometimes the families did.

It was just kind of a social get-together thing so the kids could do stuff together. This last year, we decided to amp it up a little bit. And so what we did is I said, okay, I'm going to be available Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday morning. We found a couple different spaces that we could meet. Kids who wanted to work on their homeschool work came, and I would help them with. what they needed. I'd get between two and I think I had as many as 13 kids show up on a morning

and they just worked on their own homeschool stuff and they got stuck and I would help them out and it was just kind of cool. So just doing tutoring and supporting the parents. So I'm not sure where we're going yet next year. We haven't quite figured it. You think you ever go back into the system? Or are you done with it? I think I'm always going to be a teacher.

I've been a teacher since I was in high school. Like kids were having trouble with their algebra and I'd help them out. I just kind of my personality. I'm going to always be teaching something. I don't know if I'll be back in the public system. More and more I'm thinking that the public system isn't very safe for kids right now

and having them homeschooled at a private school is maybe better for the kids. And so if I can help out with that in our community... You ever think you'd say that a lot? No. Coming from a, you know, being in the school system teaching. Probably not even five years.

ago I probably wouldn't have even crossed my mind. Although I did. What was the defining thing then for you? And maybe it was just this, but what was the first red flag when you're in teaching that you're like, uh-oh? Well, I think that I was never upset with parents who had their kids and were homeschooling. I thought, you know, you choose to do that's great. You know, if you come back into our system, that's great too.

No problem. And I saw that, you know, kids doing homeschooling turned out just. turned out just fine. And so I was never like against homeschooling, but it was probably more this and as things were coming in that this is this is what we're going to do in school, that it was like, oh man, this like homeschooling looks like a better option. And you know, maybe when they're young and they have a teacher that you really, really know and you trust them, then, you know, it might still be okay, but you start getting up toward junior high and you never know what they're going to get. So I think probably this whole thing made me the most scound.

about, I don't know how safe it is for kids to be in a public school. And maybe one of the things that I would love to see, I don't know if it'll ever happen, but you know, how, you know, school divisions get funded by how many kids are there. And I would love it if, you know, that $10,000 that goes to the school division because your kid is registered there, I'd love if that went to the homeschool parent so they could do stuff for their kids or went to the private school they are going to. They, you know, get funded just the same as the public school. The funds go where the kids go. The funds go where the kid goes.

Yeah. Like I think that would be a great way to do it. And then I think that would shake up the public system because if you get, I don't know, you get 20 or 30 percent of the kids suddenly going somewhere else, then the schools are going to be going, hey, I wonder what we're doing wrong. Maybe we shouldn't be pushing this stuff on our kids. Maybe that's why all these guys are leaving. Like maybe that would be a way to make the change.

I don't know. That's one idea I have. I don't know how to make that happen, but. I don't know. It's been brought up several times. I know, like in Alberta, Daniel Smith, and I know that it's been lightly talked about. There's been some states in the U.S. that have done it. I think that's where I probably, you know, on...

Do you know which states have done it? I could probably find it for you. I know I saw posts on X about it, and I think I sent them to some people. I might be able to pull it up in a couple seconds, but if not, I'll put this away. But I do think that there's at least two that I remember here. hearing about that that they were they were talking they actually did some legislation where the they did a like a trial run and then after that they um no must be too far back so i'll try to find it for you and send you because yeah well i'd be curious i'd be curious what states or what states would

do it it's definitely more conservative states that are doing stuff like that but they're saying yeah hey they in one case i think they did a pilot project where i was like okay these certain students who fit in these categories, they can apply and the funding will follow them wherever they decided to go. And then it was quite successful. They said, okay, we're going to expand that for every kid in the state, that parents, wherever you decide the kids are going to be educated, that's where the money goes. It's like, I like that idea. Well, it sounds interesting. It does. Right. It'll be interesting to see how well it works in these places that have started. but to me it just seems like it would, if nothing else,

would make a really big change in the system because, well, it's like a monopoly, right? Basically, the public system has a monopoly on education in our provinces. Yeah, there's a few opt-out possibilities, private schools and homeschooling and stuff, but for most people, it's like, no, you go to the public school. If you don't have the monopoly,

Like when you have a monopoly, you don't have to compete. Yeah. Right? And so if you don't have to compete, you can just do whatever you want. But if you suddenly have to compete for the dollars to have the kids come to your school, then maybe you're going to be listening to what the parents actually want and whether or not the kids are learning really well. And, you know, competition is good.

So it seems to me that would be a good way to get some competition into the school system. I agree. I appreciate you coming and sitting and having a challenge. chat with me. This is, uh, I've enjoyed it. Thanks for inviting me. Well, I mean, to hear your story firsthand and to know where you're like, where you taught, to me, there's a lot of like, eye opening in what you just talked about. Um, yeah, small town Saskatchewan, that's, not where you expect it. Well, that, that should give everybody a little bit of pause, right? Like, I mean, Lumsden, um, proximity to Regina, I kind of was like, oh, like, not that I get it. But, but,

you, but you, you can, you, you can, you, can see where it would come in. That's right. I'm like, well, probably someone living in Regina, you know, you just kind of on and on and on, right? Of all of Saskatchewan, Regina's got to be, you know, the most left out of the entire province. But for where you're at, I'm like, that's a little more random. That, to me, raises my eyebrows. And if it happens there, there's probably any small town in Saskatchewan or in Alberta that that could happen at.

Yeah. Right, because it's what they teach the teachers at the university, right? I mean, it's starting there. So if teachers are coming out with men, you can be whatever gender you want, you need to teach your kids out when you get to school. Well, whenever you get teachers coming out, then it could happen in any school anywhere. Yeah, that's fair. Well, once again, I appreciate you coming and doing this, David.

Super nice to meet you. I really enjoyed meeting you too. Yeah, it's always, it's never a dull day in this old studio. No. You have a fun job. Well, I, that you created yourself. I like it. There's some days where I'm like, what on earth am I doing?

And other days, yeah, the people who walk through the door, you just never know what you're going to get kind of thing. It kind of reminds me of Billbo Baggins, you know, just open the door and start walking. Yeah. But appreciate you coming in and doing this. Glad to do it. Thank you very much.