Michael Higgins: J.K. Rowling versus Canadian zealotry

It has taken the august local institution, the Vancouver Board of Arts and Recreation, to truly show Canadians that taking stupidity to the level of absurdity requires all the artifice and virtue signalling of the petty bureaucrat.

Having offended the trans community by the sin of omission, the parks board decided an apology was not enough. (Note: these are not members of a committee but commissioners as if they commanded the might and power of ancient Roman consuls.)

The board transgressors engineered an emergency meeting where they could be publicly scolded by those they had offended.

It was an act of self-flagellation worthy of the most religious of zealots.

Our enlightened local government officials decided that standing up for their constituents was not enough, it was now necessary to kneel before a certain group begging forgiveness.

Thanks to the left and its embrace of all things woke, we have reached a level where city bureaucrats have surrendered to the tyranny of the vocal minority.

In doing so, these officials have forgotten their duty to guide the affairs of the state (region, district, city or municipality) using their own good judgement.

Under the guise of signalling to Canadians how respectful and tolerant they are, they have revealed themselves as buffoons and incompetents.

This appalling state of affairs started in May when the park board approved “in camera” a Harry Potter event in Stanley Park.

Why was the Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience even approved in secret? The board might justify the decision on spurious “commercial grounds,” forgetting — once again — that it is accountable to constituents who deserve to know what financial arrangements might be involved.

But, oh dear, by excluding all the public from the decision, members did not take account of the fact that they were also omitting the trans community. The board acknowledged in a motion at the emergency meeting that its decision “may not have had a robust reputational assessment at the time on the impact” on the “transgender, gender diverse and Two-Spirit (TGD2S) people.”

Keeping things secret from ordinary members of the public is one thing, but failing to consult with gender activists is heresy.

The next step for the motion was to trash the reputation of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.

“Deep concerns about the event have arisen because the original author of Harry Potter, JK Rowling, has since at least 2018, used her platform and the wealth gained from the Harry Potter franchise to fund and amplify anti-transgender political campaigns, and her actions have caused harm to trans communities worldwide, including here in Vancouver,” said the motion.