Coward David Eggen refused to answer questions about girl who could have died under Bill 24

By Jonathon Van Maren

Finally an Albertan newspaper is highlighting the dangers of Bill 24 rather than simply dancing to the tune played by Rachel Notley and the NDP. The Calgary Herald, in an article titled “Couple warns their daughter could have died under new GSA law,” revealed why it is so insidious to use legislation to drive a wedge between children and their parents:

The parents of a southern Alberta autistic girl are warning other parents that had Bill 24 been the law over the past two years, their 14-year-old daughter very likely could have committed suicide. The parents, who have asked that their names be changed and their identities hidden to protect their daughter’s privacy, are pleading with Rachel Notley’s NDP government to “not shut parents out of their children’s lives” and “to bring some nuance” into Bill 24, which became law in Alberta on Nov. 15.

Two things to notice here: First, the parents are not simply trying to protect their daughter. They are also protecting themselves from the legions of rainbow warriors who use social media to descend on anyone who disagrees with their agenda, and would be the first to smear these parents with all sorts of labels.Because they stand in opposition to the agenda being implemented by the LGBTQ crowd and their political allies, they have made themselves targets–regardless of what their views are on a variety of issues. Secondly, these parents are accurately describing Bill 24: It is, in fact, trying to “shut parents out of their children’s lives. More:

Bill 24 makes it illegal for educators to tell parents if their child has joined a GSA, or gay-straight alliance, at their school. But this couple — who are going by the names Sarah and Stephen for the purposes of this article — say their Grade 9 daughter fell into a “dark place” after joining her school’s GSA.

“I believe this law is going to endanger kids, which is the opposite of what Premier Notley is trying to achieve,” said Stephen, a scientist who works in the energy industry and who says he is very much in favour of GSAs, as is the entire family. The couple’s daughter started Grade 7 at her middle school in the fall of 2015 at the age of 12. It was around that time that she reached puberty — something that upset her. The girl, who will be called Jane in this article, has body dysmorphia, a condition the Mayo Clinic describes as “a mental disorder in which you can’t stop thinking about one or more perceived defects or flaws in your appearance.”

During elementary school, Jane suffered from anorexia, something she overcame through the help of her parents, counselling and attending eating disorder clinics. Early into the 2015 school year, the parents noticed that Jane was more anxious than usual. The worried parents were eventually told by a teacher that Jane had joined the school’s GSA and they were “completely fine with it. We thought it would be a safe place for her to meet new friends, stand up against bullying and learn about how everyone is different,” said Stephen.

Eventually, however, the school wrote the couple a letter recommending that they take Jane — who was still 12 years old — to a gender clinic. By very gently talking with Jane away from the stress of peer pressure, they learned that Jane was being called a boy’s name at school and addressed with male pronouns. At home, she’d be called by her real name and female pronouns.

Consider the arrogance of educators who decide, without telling the parents, that their little girl is actually a little boy—and begin to treat her as such. Consider the confusion that little girl must have gone through, being told by the school that she was a boy, regardless of biological reality. This is the ideology that Notley’s NDP is forcing onto the Alberta educations system, and it has real consequences:

“To live a double life, where she’s keeping this huge secret from her family, including her siblings, is exceedingly stressful, especially for someone with autism and body dysmorphia,” explained Sarah.

“(Jane) was adamant that she did not want to be a boy, and prior to puberty, she was fine with being a girl,” said Sarah. “A psychiatrist asked her if she wanted a penis and she recoiled at the thought and reiterated that she doesn’t want to be a boy.”

As Stephen said: “Thirty or 40 years ago, she’d have been described as a Tomboy.”

That’s precisely right. And over 80% of children with gender dysphoria also eventually become comfortable with their gender. The government wonders why so many parents do not trust them, and it is this example that sums it up nicely: It is an enforced ideology, kept secret from the parents, where psychiatrists ask little girls if they might like to have a penis.

It was decided, with the help of mental health professionals, that the safest way to proceed for Jane was to stop living a double life and be referred to only as a girl. The school agreed but, apparently, many of her school peers continued to call her by her male name. As Christmas 2015 approached, Sarah received a panicked call from the school to pick Jane up, as she was threatening to commit suicide. 

“She was super anxious, she had suicidal ideations. She was in a very dangerous place,” recalled Sarah. Within a week of being kept at home and seeing her counsellor every chance they could, Jane improved immensely. Still, she was never left alone for a moment.

“I’m a very accepting person,” said Stephen. “I love people for who they are. I have many LGBTQ friends. I love all people, I seriously do, but they’re promoting the idea on kids who normally would not have gone there.

Albertans—and Canadians—are just beginning to realize that there is a pretty big difference between having gay friends and supporting those friends and believing that pre-puberty children can transition into the opposite sex via hormone blockers and surgery. Transgenderism is presented as a benign reality that we all need to get used to. That is far from the truth, as these parents discovered.

“They were facilitating and going out of their way to transition her into becoming a boy without our knowledge. But what training do they have about children with autism?” asked Stephen. “The school undermined us and that led (Jane) to that point of suicide. We could have helped our daughter, but they didn’t give us that opportunity.”

This encapsulates what the NDP wants in Alberta: Schools and educators rather than parents having the final say. There will be collateral damage, but ideology does not bend for a few children.

For two months, Jane was kept at home while the family searched in vain for a new school for their daughter, even considering moving out of the province. Eventually, the school’s principal became more involved and Jane returned to her school.

“He apologized to us for what the school did to Jane and promised that they would work with us and not violate what’s in the best interest of our daughter,” said Stephen, who reached out for help from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. They also approached Jason Kenney, now the United Conservative Party leader, who has mentioned their story on several occasions as a reason why more discretion is needed in the GSA legislation, to empower teachers to not necessarily keep information from loving, safe parents.

Education Minister David Eggen was given three days to respond to repeated requests for an interview to discuss this family’s experience, however, he refused and issued the following statement:

“This legislation will make sure that students are the ones who decide when and how to have these deeply personal and important conversations with their parents and loved ones. If a student’s safety is at risk, parents will be notified. One of our government’s top priorities is ensuring students’ safety and that is why GSAs are so important. For some students, GSAs are the only place they have where they feel safe and accepted. GSAs literally save lives.”

David Eggen, as I’ve noted before, is a disgrace. When confronted with what could happen under the legislation he trumpeted, he runs and hides like a coward and refuses to answer basic questions. Instead of addressing a real-world situation where a little girl could have killed herself, he insisted instead that his legislation saves lives rather than confronting information that reveals his legislation could have killed someone.

Sarah and Stephen worry that the new law will cause teachers to hesitate to inform parents, for fear of breaking the law, and that hesitation could spell lead to the death of children.

Ashleigh Yule, a registered Calgary psychologist specializing in autism and gender diversity, says the research is clear that “we see a convergence between Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and gender diversity that makes the issue more complex.”  However, Yule is adamant that no exemptions in Bill 24 should be made. 

“Students with ASD, just as students without ASD, may have unsupportive or abusive parents. Notifying parents that a student has attended a GSA may be unsafe for that student, regardless of the student’s ASD status,” said Yule. 

“Nuance in the law is not about ‘outing’ children,” said Sarah, who has family members who were murdered in the Holocaust for being Jewish. “It’s about recognizing the uniqueness of each person and each family.”

“I’m very suspicious of the state wanting control over our children. We’ve seen where that has led in the past,” added Sarah. 

“Most families are the safest places for their children,” said Stephen. “We love our children, more than Rachel Notley or David Eggen do.”

Both parents hope by telling their story, pressure will force the province to make some provision for safe, open-minded parents, especially of children with special needs, to be told very early on if behavioural changes begin after joining a GSA. 

“We saved our daughter’s life, only because we knew what was going on with her,” said Stephen. “We shudder to think what might have happened to her if Bill 24 had been the law two years ago.” 

You’ll notice that even in the face of evidence to the contrary, Ashleigh Yule parrots the David Eggen line—or what we assume Eggen would have said should he have mustered the courage to respond to a few interview questions. But Stephen and Sarah had it precisely right. Families are the safest place for children, and parents love their children more than David Eggen and Rachel Notley do. And they are also right that it is extraordinarily dangerous for the state to insert itself between parents and children. They know firsthand one reason why. It nearly cost them their daughter.

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