In light of competing protests about the rights of trans children and youth and schooling that unfolded yesterday in different Canadian cities, how should people understand what is happening around movements for “parent rights?”

Today in The Conversation Canada, Corinne L. Mason and Leah Hamilton of Mount Royal University challenge the idea that protests against inclusivity are simply parents who are invested in their children’s education.

They trace the history of the parental rights movement to the United States in the 1970s when it opposed protections for lesbians and gay men against discrimination. Today, this movement has grown and is highly organized and strategic with organizing bodies on both sides of the United States and Canada border.

“According to the Southern Poverty Law Centre,” they write, the parental rights movement is fuelled in the United States by Moms for Liberty, “an anti-government and right-wing extremist organization with ties to white nationalists including the Proud Boys.”

“2SLGBTQIA+ children and youth are being targeted by hate-motivated extremism under the guise of parental rights, and there are several concrete actions Canadians can take to combat this movement.”

Also today:

• The fraught history of India and the Khalistan movement
• Obesity is a dangerous disease that shares key features with cancer
• A month after Ecuador’s historic vote to end oil extraction in Yasuní National Park, its lessons are as vital as ever to Canadians
• Ancient pictograph vandalism at Bon Echo Provincial Park reveals an ongoing disregard for Indigenous history and presence
• How Canada can make its startup ecosystem more inclusive

All the best.