Playing the Suicide Card
This report is a summary of Day 5 in the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) tribunal hearing against Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) trustee, Mike Del Grande, who is being persecuted for his defence of Christian moral teaching. Now, let me tell you something …
Day 5 was a doozy!
For a recap of the charges against Trustee Del Grande, click here.
This fifth day of hearings took place February 22nd and focused on the testimony and cross-examination of TCDSB Ward 2 Trustee Markus De Domenico, one of Del Grande’s biggest detractors.
Is the witness credible?
Let me give you an idea about this ‘star witness’ for the prosecution...
De Domenico is one of eight heretical trustees on the board who voted - in complete violation of Catholic moral teaching - to fly the Gay Pride Flag at every Catholic school in the board. This flag is a symbol of sexual lifestyles which Church teaching and Sacred Scripture have always regarded as sinful.
It was ironic to long-time TCDSB observers that De Domenico would be relied upon as a witness to testify truthfully about the complaints of misconduct against Del Grande.
Why would that be ironic?
Because we were deceived by the answers he gave on his 2018 election questionnaire in order to obtain Campaign Life Coalition's endorsement.
The Ward 2 trustee checked “yes” to the question on Campaign Life Coalition’s candidate questionnaire reading: “Do you oppose the teaching of the controversial and anti-scientific theory of gender identity in schools?”
De Domenico also answered “yes” to a question pledging he would promote “total fidelity to the faith and moral teachings of the Catholic Church” with respect to homosexual practice.
However, almost immediately after winning, he publicly recanted those orthodox Catholic answers.
In 2019, he voted to promote Gender Identity theory in schools, making it a “protected ground” for non-discrimination which would allow teachers and students to practice transvestism!
So please, keep this in mind when you read about what happens next ...
Suicide card got played to smear Del Grande
The tried-and-true ace-in-the-hole of the LGBT lobby – the old suicide card - was whipped out by the OCT’s prosecutor, Danielle Miller, smearing Del Grande to the judicial panel.
Throughout the prosecution’s questioning of the witness, a subtle insinuation was made that the words of Mike’s “slippery slope” motion were so hurtful that they could cause harm to suicide-vulnerable members of the LGBT community.
One was left with the impression his motion risked causing TCDSB students who identified as “transgender” and “gay” to kill themselves, along with untold numbers in society at large who might stumble across video of the meeting!
This smear job was orchestrated in two steps. First by playing a video clip from the November 7, 2019, TCDSB board meeting in which a gay-activist and former student, named Kyle Ianuzzi delegated to trustees in favour of adding transgender ideology to the board’s Code of Conduct.
The gay-activist proceeded to tell an emotionally charged story about an unnamed friend who had allegedly committed suicide, which Ianuzzi implied was caused by the Catholic Church’s biblical teachings on transgenderism and homosexuality, and the school’s non-embrace of these lifestyles.
“I implored you... as a matter of life or death... to add the terms Gender Identity, Gender Expression, Marital Status and Family Status to your Code of Conduct.”
“I knew how I identified, and I knew that a policy reflecting the realities of LGBTQ students was precisely what would’ve helped me with the bullying I faced and may’ve helped another student I knew who committed suicide because they couldn’t face their family, their school and their faith.”
“....Please do this to save lives.”
False premises promoted?
No proof was offered by Ianuzzi that this friend really existed. Nor that the suicide was truly the result of Catholic biblical teaching. Nor that a pro-transgenderism school environment would’ve prevented it.
How could Mr. Ianuzzi possibly be certain the friend’s tragic suicide wasn’t caused by some underlying mental health issues, addictions, physical or sexual abuse?
Iannuzzi is not a psychologist, so how could he presume to know everything going on inside the person’s mind or all that happened in their life?
Iannuzzi’s amateur psychotherapy assessment needed to be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism.
However, by playing that emotionally charged video clip, the OCT’s lawyer planted in the minds of the judicial panel the false idea that a faithfully Christian school environment is a cause of death, and Del Grande, as a defender of an authentically Catholic system, is likewise guilty by association.
After softening up the judicial panel with the suicide card, the lawyer went in for the kill with step two.
Miller played another a video clip from the same board meeting of Mike Del Grande presenting his hyperbolic slippery slope motion, which happened four hours after Ianuzzi’s presentation.
It called for the addition of other deviant sexual practices into the Code of Conduct, such as pedophilia and bestiality. Mike explained sarcastically, “Jesus loves all these people! All these poor people are children of God, made in the image of God, and they need to be recognized!”
The prosecutor made no mention of the 4-hour spacing between Ianuzzi’s presentation and Mike’s motion, which resulted in distorting the context.
She then invited De Domenico to wax eloquent about how “harmful” the words of Del Grande’s motion were to Ianuzzi and the entire LGBT community.
Miller: “What was your reaction on hearing Mr. Del Grande’s amendment?”
De Domenico: “... There was just a certain meanness to it... keeping in context that delegates had poured their heart out about their experience, and even a friend having committed suicide, and then, this kind of mean-spirited amendment which included criminal acts...”
Miller: “What were your specific concerns about it?”
De Domenico: “My first concern was how the people viewing this, both in the gallery and online, were thinking... It was very disturbing to me.”
The manipulative tactic here was to take Del Grande’s motion – a thought experiment to make a point that if you decide to “protect” one lifestyle at odds with Christian morality, pressure to include others may follow – and transform it in the minds of the judges into a mean-spirited attack on suicide-vulnerable persons.
Dead wrong about suicide
The narrative promoted by Ianuzzi and the OCT prosecution, that by embracing the theory of Gender Identity, and affirming gender-dysphoric students in the belief that they are “trapped in the wrong body,” the TCDSB will save lives, is patently false.
The exact opposite is true.
Peer-reviewed scientific research into the topic makes it clear that promoting Gender Theory in Catholic schools can only increase the rate of suicide among gender-confused students later in life.
The most authoritative study in the world, a Swedish Cohort study sponsored by the Swedish government, followed the health outcomes of post-operative transsexuals over a 30-year period.
What it found was that those who got sex-change surgery experienced a staggering 19-fold higher rate of death by suicide, 10 to 20 years post-surgery, compared to the general population.
Take that in.
A 19-fold increase in suicide deaths means a 1,900% increase!
Therefore, by requiring its schools to affirm a transgender identity in students (thus encouraging puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones), the TCDSB is putting many of these children on the path to sex change surgery later in life.
In turn, this may result in many of them eventually committing suicide when they regret the irreversible changes they made to their bodies.
For many, they will see it as a mutilation that they now wish they had never committed.
The truth is that the TCDSB may be responsible for putting many of these children in body bags when they come to regret the irreversible changes.
And not only children. The same suicide risk exists for staff who are affirmed in an opposite-sex identity transition.
To reinforce this point, I draw your attention to a lawsuit in Canadian courts at this very moment involving a de-transitioned, 34-year-old Orillia, Ontario woman named Michelle Zacchigna.
She’s suing the doctors and psychologists who immediately affirmed her in the desire to become a man and proceeded to permanently change her voice and body with artificial hormones, cut off her breasts, and removed her uterus, rendering her unable to bear children.
Michelle’s lawsuit alleges medical negligence on the part of the doctors who failed to diagnose or investigate the serious underlying mental health issues that were truly causing her distress.
Here’s the cold hard truth....
Mike Del Grande was the only Trustee on that board who was actually acting to save the lives of gender-dysphoric students at the TCDSB, by opposing the introduction of Gender Theory into the Code of Conduct.
Key defence arguments, Cross-examination of the Witness
This six-hour hearing contained many other very important developments, including some “wins” by Del Grande’s lawyer that will help form the basis of his defence should an appeal to a real court become necessary.
It also featured some disturbing and paradoxical statements by Trustee De Domenico during cross-examination that will be sure to amaze you.
However, to avoid making this already lengthy report even longer, I’ll save those developments for a follow-up analysis about the February 22nd OCT tribunal hearings on February 22nd. Look for it, coming soon!
In the meantime, please consider donating, if you’re able, towards Mike’s legal defence fund so he can continue to defend the Christian faith in TCDSB schools and protect our children from insidious ideologies.
To read all our reports on the OCT hearings, click here.