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1 Million March for Children held in Alliston, protesters walks to Banting Memorial High School

September 28, 2023   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

A rally in Alliston started at the cenotaph at the Alliston Memorial Arena with speeches before beginning a march to the sidewalk in front of Banting Memorial High School.

Rallies hosted by an organization called One Million March for Children took place across the country, including several in some of the nation’s largest cities.

While some of the marches throughout Canada got heated, with protesters and counter-protesters exchanging words, the march in Alliston remained reasonably calm.

The 1 Million March for Children is protesting what they call the “indoctrination of children” in public schools. Organizers urged people to turn away from national media, which were referred to as “propaganda,” and start following different news outlets.

The 1 Million March for Children website says the group also seeks to eliminate sexual orientation and gender identity curriculum, pronouns, gender ideology and mixed bathrooms.

Just over 100 people turned out at the Alliston rally before the march.

A small police presence was at the cenotaph rally, but a larger contingent of OPP officers arrived at the school before the marchers arrived to  

“The main message is the schools have no business teaching something that is clearly a very harmful ideology to children,” said one of the event organizers, Ken Stouffer. “This idea that a boy can become a girl and a girl can become a boy – that’s all in your head. This whole area of sexuality – they should leave this to the parents. The schools seem to think, in a lot of cases, that they are the primary educators and they have a right to teach the children whatever they think they should. The reality is that we have parents from all kinds of different faith backgrounds with all kinds of different perspectives on things. The parents are the primary educators, especially in something like this, which can mess up people’s lives, should be left to the parents. The schools should be teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic, and that sort of thing.”

A supporter added, “They’re not supposed to shape our children’s sexuality, they are supposed to shape their minds, education wise.”

When the marchers reached the school, hundreds of students were on the street on both sides of Victoria Street and in front of the school. It was lunchtime at the school, so the students were free to be out of class.

A small group of “counter protesters” voiced their opinion, but many of the students appeared unaware of what the march wasreally about.

There is no word yet if organizers are planning future rallies.

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