Carolyn Burjoski, who was censured for speaking out about transgender books, fought for our children’s right to an age-appropriate education

The most inspirational hero stories are about people who never aspired to the role, and never dreamed that heroism was their destiny.

Carolyn Burjoski, a lifetime resident of Kitchener, Ont., was, until her world flipped upside down almost two years ago, content in the ordinary life she had chosen. She loves her husband, her three daughters and three grandchildren. And for 20 years, she had found fulfillment in teaching English as a second language, most gratifyingly to children with education gaps from war-torn countries.

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In an interview, Burjoski said that her work environment was becoming increasingly woke, but she didn’t pay much attention to it, because politics wasn’t her thing. Then her troubles began, and suddenly her life got political. There would be no going back to happy anonymity, and for a dark period, it seemed there might be no going back to happiness of any kind.

On Jan. 17, 2022, during a Zoom meeting of the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB), Burjoski began a scheduled 10-minute presentation regarding what she believed were age-inappropriate additions to school libraries.

She read excerpts from two books about gender transitioning that, in her view, valorized an attitude of insouciance around medical transitioning, including the risk of infertility.

Four minutes into her talk, board chair Scott Piatkowski removed her from the meeting, accusing her of violating........

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