Headline News

Organizer of Bancroft’s 1 Million March 4 Children quits

November 1, 2023

By Bill Kilpatrick

On Sept. 21 in an interview with Rebel News, Mahmoud Mourra, one of the organizers 1 Million March 4 Children in Calgary, stated that his movement was not anti-2SLGBTQIA+. He said, “First of all I want to tell something to the mainstream media and the television, I heard it in the news today that we are here against the LGBTQ+ community. This is absolutely false information. They are our brothers and sisters in humanity. I don’t care about their gender, their sexual orientation, whoever they are.”  However, after the Oct. 21 protest, Wilma Brethour, the organizer of the Bancroft chapter of 1 Million March 4 Children, decided that the movement she was supporting was in fact causing harm to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and, as a result, has decided to not organize or participate in the marches anymore.
The stunning about-face came after Brethour decided to visit the pro-2SLGBTQIA+ counter protest that was held in downtown Bancroft on Oct. 21. Brethour spoke to Joey Bruni and his partner Ryan Greening for about 15 minutes and in one exchange Greening says to Brethour, “You’re suppressing the fact that we exist,” to which Brethour responds, “No, no, never want to do that,” to which Greening responds back, “Well, that is what you are calling for.” Throughout the interaction Greening outlined for Brethour how the 1 Million March 4 Children movement was negatively impacting members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and she can be heard repeating, “That was not my intent.” The pamphlet that Brethour was distributing at the protest called for, “the elimination of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity curriculum, pronouns, gender ideology and mixed bathrooms in schools….,” in order to “safeguard the well-being and innocence of our children.”
In an Oct. 25 email to Bancroft This Week, Brethour said the following: “I found out that I was unintentionally causing hurt to people that I have no issues with. Therefore, I will not be participating in anymore public protests regarding Sexual Orientation Gender Identity 1-2-3.”  In a phone interview Brethour went on to say, “There’s so much hurt in the LGBT group and I should have been aware of it because I have those in my family, but that one young man [Ryan Greening], I still cry when I think about him saying that he has no family supports. We’ve always supported gay, lesbian, whatever in our family. I didn’t realize that the impact that we were having was that negative.”
Greening finds it hard to believe that she didn’t know what she was doing as he pointed out the hypocrisy of what she is claiming to stand for, “She’s preaching bodily autonomy [with the anti-lockdown anti-vaccination groups] but then telling other people’s parents what they should [or shouldn’t] be allowing their [transgender] kids to access,” said Greening.
In referring to the demand from the protestors to get rid of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity curriculum, Bruni said, “What they don’t realize is that as soon as you take the visibility away you destroy any kid’s hopes of seeing any kind of mentor or someone they look up to that is like them. When you take that all away they [the 2SLGBTQIA+ children] become completely isolated. It’s the exact reason why suicide rates are so high among queer teens.”
Bruni also pointed out that one of the negative aspects of calling for more parental rights is that it gives even more power to abusive parents and not just understanding and kind ones. The choice that Greening feels that he is being given by the protestors is to, “either go back into the closet, or, you can be as gay as you want as long as it not in my face,” adding, “They don’t want to take responsibility for being a hate group.”
Greening spoke about the rights of parents to take their children out of school when there is something being taught that they may disagree with, but he was clear about where he feels the line needs to be drawn, “You can pull your kids out of school, but you don’t get to use our public institutions, our secular institutions, to impose your values on other people [or] to block other people’s right to have access to an education that reflects them.”
While Brethour may have withdrawn from organizing and marching she appears to have stopped short of withdrawing altogether stating that, “I still believe their as aspects of SOGI that are being followed in some schools In Canada that are detrimental to some very vulnerable youth,” adding that she still intends to continue to write letters to the MP and MPP regarding parts of the Sexual Orientation Gender Identity curriculum that she has issues with.
As of Oct. 27, Brethour’s Facebook page was still displaying a picture of a truck with a dog lying across the hood that has a banner over the grill of the truck that states, “Save our Children,” along with a 1 Million March 4 Children banner that is still being promoted on her Facebook page. Bruni said, “I’m glad she has had a realization, but she’s still susceptible to it [misinformation] as long as she is reading alternative media.”
The day after Brethour’s interview where she said, “The hurt I caused [to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community] was not my intent and I won’t do it again,” she submitted a video to Bancroft This Week entitled “Do you think your kids are safe in their schools?” The video is by a woman named Ronnie Herman, who according to the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, is a former Educational Assistant from British Columbia and the organizer of the SOGI international Task force. Brethour stated, “She has knowledge that many of us don’t. I totally believe everything she is saying. She has the inside knowledge.”
Bancroft This Week fact checked the video and found that Herman was espousing many of the same debunked conspiracy theories, hate, and misinformation that was presented in the pamphlet that Brethour was handing out.
In her video Herman repeated the debunked claim that children are identifying as cats, or furries, and that schools are putting litter boxes in classrooms, which they are not. She also presented a sheet, that cited no author, called “LGBTQ+ The Dark Agenda Exposed,” that claimed, with no evidence, that “the innocence of our children are under attack,” by members of the LGBTQ+ community. Herman falsely claims that “they [members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community] are normalizing pedophilia in schools,” and that, “bestiality is slowly slipping into our schools.”
The sheet goes on to analyze the colours of the progress flag, which is the alternate version of the pride flag that contains the regular six colours, but has additional chevrons along the left side meant to represent people of colour (black and brown), along with the colours of the transgender flag (pink, light blue and white). However, this sheet falsely and maliciously claims that the colours represent something sinister. It claims that white stands for “innocence,” light pink stands for “pedophilia of little girls,” light blue stands for “pedophilia of little boys,” brown stands for “bestiality,” and black stands for “necrophilia.”
The sheet presented by Herman also falsely claims that “the LGBTQ+ agenda has moved forward to normalize pedophilia, bestiality, and necrophilia as acceptable behaviours,” which is also not true. The Canadian Anti-Hate Network also pointed out that, “Herman hosted David Weiche of Bikers Against Pedophiles on her show RH Media Standing 4 Children, encouraging her viewers to join Weiche’s Telegram channel. That channel contains posts replete with antisemitism, holocaust denial, and the Khazar theory.”