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Russian prosecutors asked to probe children’s summer camp over
‘LGBT propaganda’ after boys ‘forced’ to dress up in girls’ clothes
10 Aug, 2021 15:34
FILE PHOTO. © AFP / Marvin RECINOS
A family values group has urged authorities to investigate claims that a kids’ camp in the country’s Ural region pushed and coerced young attendees into cross-dressing, with the local children’s ombudsman agreeing to open a case.
Vyacheslav Baltsevich, the head of the Council of Fathers for the Sverdlovsk Region, centred around Russia's fourth-largest city Ekaterinburg, made the request on Tuesday. According to him, organizers of the ‘Salute’ camp hosted an event branded “Reverse Day,” in which boys dressed up in girls’ clothes and vice versa. The activist alleges that those who didn't want to participate were “harassed and ridiculed” into taking part and filmed on a camera phone.
“Any such event is done with a purpose,” Baltsevich said, “it can either motivate the child to do something or prevent some kind of social deviation. What was the purpose of this event? We want to get answers to this question from the camp employees themselves and from law enforcement agencies, but we, as representatives of the fathers’ community, already have a certain picture.”
While the camp has refused to comment on the situation, the regional Children’s Rights Ombudsman, Igor Morokov, told Kommersant that he would organize a probe into the incident. However, he said that the event may not necessarily fall foul of the country’s tough laws against promoting ‘non-traditional sexual relationships’ to minors.
“I would not make any analogies with LGBT people. We had a similar game in my Pioneer years,” he said, referencing the Soviet Union’s scouting organization. “Maybe some boundaries were crossed, but everyone has their own perception,” he said.
In June, prosecutors in St. Petersburg threw out a case in which a group of anime-loving teenagers were arrested at a cosplay party organized by a local youth group. Officials reprimanded a group of armed policemen who raided the premises and held the youngsters in custody after complaints that a rainbow LGBT+ flag had been unfurled by a participant.
Up to 30 Russians a year falling prey to bloodthirsty Satanist covens,
expert warns as Devil-worshippers confess to ritual murders
10 Aug, 2021 12:21
Demented occultists looking for victims as part of their sick rituals pose a real threat to the Russian public, one top analyst has cautioned after a pair of satanists confessed to a gory double murder (3rd story on link) in a remote woodland.
Speaking to RIA Novosti on Tuesday, Roman Silantyev, the deputy chairman of the Russian Ministry of Justice's advisory council on religion, said that people should be aware of the risks. “The likelihood of becoming a victim of satanists is small, but it is not zero, 20 to 30 people a year can become their victims,” he said.
According to him, the groups usually evade detection by hunting down homeless people and those without a fixed abode, ensnaring them for occult ceremonies. “Gangs of Satanists, who were engaged in ritual murders, have repeatedly been identified in Nevinnomyssk, Rybinsk, in the Tula region. Unfortunately, this is a sad norm of our life, Satanists have existed before, and they will continue to exist,” the specialist added.
Vakhtang Kipshidze, a top official in Moscow's Orthodox Church, said that “the satanic movement remains a breeding ground for criminals.” According to him, “authorities and society need to think about how to protect people from the propaganda of satanism on the internet.”
The stark warnings come after two young Russian devil-worshippers confessed last week to luring two 27-year-old friends out to the forests of Karelia, in the country's remote north, murdering them and eating their corpses as part of a twisted ritual. Andrey Tregubenko and Olga Bolshakova (I believe that's her in the photo above. Both appear in photos on the link above.) were initially detained on drugs charges before admitting to investigators that they had committed the slayings back in 2016.
Police probing the case after the pair's shocking admission later found the dismembered remains of one victim in a woodland area, north of St. Petersburg. The families of the murdered youngsters had apparently been searching for years for their missing children, while the whereabouts of their bodies was known only to their killers.
In 2010, a pair of self-described Russian goths were convicted of killing and cannibalizing a 16-year-old schoolgirl, Karina Buduchian. The duo, Maksim Glavatskikh and Yuri Mozhnov, were sentenced to nearly two decades each in high-security prison colonies, with the prosecutor describing their actions as “monstrous.”
Call center company used by Apple, Amazon & Uber wants to
force workers to install AI-powered cameras in their bedrooms
10 Aug, 2021 12:15
© Getty Images / Kateryna Onyshchuk; (inset) © Getty Images / jakkritpimpru
Remote workers at one of the world’s largest call center firms are reportedly being pressured to allow AI-powered camera surveillance to monitor their workspaces at home – even in bedrooms.
In March, Teleperformance issued an addendum to its employment contracts that required workers to let the company put in cameras – apparently to record and track their work performance at home in real-time. The contract also allows data collected from workers’ family members, including minors, to be stored and subjected to video and voice analysis.
As well, employees had to agree to share biometric data including fingerprints and photos. There is also reportedly a clause that requires them to undergo lie-detector tests if required by the company. According to NBC News, the contract was sent to 95% of Teleperformance’s 39,000 employees in Colombia who were working remotely.
Speaking on condition of anonymity since she was not authorized to speak to news media, a Bogota-based Teleperformance worker told the outlet that she signed the document because her supervisor reportedly told her she would be moved off the Apple account if she did not.
The contract allows constant monitoring of what we are doing, but also our family. I think it’s really bad. We don’t work in an office. I work in my bedroom. I don’t want to have a camera in my bedroom.
Another employee, who works on the Amazon account, said the only room in her apartment quiet enough to take customer calls from Spain at night is the bedroom. She told the news outlet that the company had not yet put in additional cameras but said she was worried about microphones picking up her husband’s snoring.
“It’s a violation of my privacy rights, and the rights of my husband and mother-in-law who live with me,” she said.
In response to the Colombian workers’ concerns, an Apple spokesperson said the company “prohibits the use of video or photographic monitoring by our suppliers” and claimed to have “confirmed Teleperformance does not use video monitoring for any of their teams working with Apple.”
He added that a company audit of Teleperformance operations in Colombia earlier this year did not turn up any “core violations of our strict standards.”
Similarly, an Amazon spokesperson denied that the company had “required or asked” for additional monitoring for remote workers. She said the company “does not tolerate violations” of its vendor code of conduct – including conditions that relate to labor rights – and “routinely audit(s) our vendors for compliance.”
However, Uber confirmed that it had requested the company to monitor workers handling its account to verify that only authorized employees were accessing private and sensitive user data, including credit card details and trip information. No additional monitoring was asked for, a spokesperson claimed.
According to Teleperformance spokesman Mark Pfeiffer, the company was “constantly looking for ways to enhance the Teleperformance Colombia experience for both our employees and our customers, with privacy and respect as key factors in everything we do.”
However, Christy Hoffman, general secretary of UNI Global Union, told The Guardian that this level of home surveillance “forces workers to make a choice between being spied upon and being employed.”
Noting that “anyone who thinks Big Tech isn’t about power” needed a rethink, UK Labour Party politician and Prospect union leader Andrew Pakes tweeted, “We are normalising work #surveillance into our homes ... This isn’t the #NewNormal we were promised.”
The NBC report noted that the issue could potentially affect 240,000 of Teleperformance’s roughly 380,000 employees in 34 countries. On its website, the company states that it offers similar monitoring via its ‘TP Cloud Campus’ software – used to enable these employees to work from home in over 19 markets.
In January, Albania’s Information and Data Protection Commissioner ruled that the company could not use webcams to keep an eye on its workers, including those handling the Apple UK account, at home.
Meanwhile, a similar surveillance plan to install “specialist webcams” connected to an AI network to check for work “infractions” in the homes of some of the company’s 10,000 UK-based employees in April was reportedly rolled back after lawmakers and trade unions protested.
At the time, the France-based company told The Guardian that remote scans would not be used in the UK but noted that different levels of remote surveillance would be rolled out in other countries.
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Ontario pastor fired after coming out as trans files lawsuit
against Baptist church
Paola Loriggio ·
The Canadian Press ·
Posted: Aug 11, 2021 8:43 AM ET
A Mississauga, Ont., pastor who was fired from a Baptist church after coming out as transgender has filed a lawsuit for wrongful dismissal, alleging her termination was spurred by discrimination.
Rev. Junia Joplin presented as male when she first took on the job of lead pastor at Lorne Park Baptist Church in 2014, and continued to do so until she came out to the congregation in a livestreamed sermon in June of last year.
In a statement of claim not yet tested in court, Joplin says she received support from some members of the congregation and other Baptist churches and organizations after her announcement.
However, the claim alleges that in the days that followed, the Mississauga, Ont., church unilaterally suspended her from her duties and gave no date for her return.
The lawsuit alleges Joplin was then subjected to an "unfair process" that saw congregants question her in a series of virtual town halls and, in July 2020, vote to end her employment.
Lorne Park Baptist Church said Wednesday that it went through a "process of attempting to discern God's will" after Joplin's announcement and did so in a "careful and thoughtful manner."
"In the end, the congregation voted to terminate her employment as lead pastor of the church, with the majority of the votes to terminate made for theological reasons," David Huctwith, chair of the church's executive council, said in a statement. "We offered her what we think was a fair severance."
In an interview this week, Joplin said her firing, and the way it was carried out, left her with "a kind of anxiety around church work and church life" that she had never felt before.
And did you think that changing your gender would be without stress? Seriously?
"Those were very much my first steps into social transition. That's a hard place to be. I think just about any trans person will tell you that can feel frightening, feel vulnerable. It's a time when support is so essential and, unfortunately, for a lot of us we don't get it in places like our workplace," she said.
"But for that to happen within that context of a caring community — I think one of the toughest things for me was knowing that I'm going through one of the most consequential and difficult seasons that I'll ever go through in my life and I'm pretty much isolated from my faith community, from the place that I would most naturally go to for support."
You expected to find support in a Bible-believing church for being transgender?
Deuteronomy 22:5
“A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for all who do so are an abomination to the Lord your God.
Joplin said she hopes the lawsuit will help make Canada a more inclusive and safer place for trans people.
"I don't want other people to go through that, I don't want other queer people to connect to faith communities that don't really welcome them unequivocally, without caveat or qualification," she said.
You need to go to a mainline church where you don't have to believe the Bible or even that God is a real Person.
Joplin subjected to 'deeply personal' questioning by congregants
As well, the Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec, with which Lorne Park Baptist Church is affiliated, has ordained women for more than 70 years, the document says.
In a series of virtual town halls with the congregation, Joplin was asked to answer "difficult and (in many cases) deeply personal" questions regarding her transition, her coming out, and the possible impact of those things on the church and its members, the claim alleges.
She was otherwise instructed not to discuss those matters with the congregation, it says.
Members of the congregation were later asked to vote whether Joplin's employment, which had previously been for an indefinite term, should be reduced to an 18-month contract or eliminated altogether, the lawsuit alleges.
Those who voted to fire Joplin were then asked to specify whether their choice was based on religious belief, the document says.
Fifty-eight of the 111 voters opted to end her employment, and of those, 50 said it was "fully or in part" due to a religious belief, it says.
Lawsuit seeks nearly $200K in damages
The lawsuit, which seeks nearly $200,000 in damages, alleges the church breached the Human Rights Code, which prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of gender identity, gender expression, sex and other grounds."
It argues that while the code allows religious organizations to give preference to those of a similar creed, that exemption only applies when creed is an occupational qualification, and it does not allow discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression.
"LPBC did not perform a close and careful examination of the nature and essential duties of lead pastor or demonstrate an honest, good faith, and sincere belief that Rev. Joplin lacked a qualification that was reasonably necessary in relation to those duties," the claim alleges.
It's more about her relationship with Jesus Christ.
If the court finds the exemption does apply, the lawsuit argues it should be ruled unconstitutional because it "unreasonably and unjustifiably limits the right to equality" enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Lorne Park Baptist Church said it believes the exemption applies and the decision to fire Joplin was therefore lawful. The church said it takes no position on the constitutional argument.
Teacher resigns in tears during board meeting in Virginia school district
mired in battles over trans rights
11 Aug, 2021 12:17
in Ashburn, Virginia. ©REUTERS / Evelyn Hockstein
The latest public hearing on how children should be taught in Loudoun County was as contentious as previous ones. A teacher used her speaking time to announce her resignation, tearfully rejecting the board’s “politicized agendas.”
“Within the last year, I was told in one of my so-called ‘equity trainings’ that white Christian able-bodied females currently have the power in our schools and that, quote, ‘this has to change.’ Clearly, you’ve made your point. You no longer value me or many other teachers you’ve employed in this county,” fifth-grade teacher Laura Morris said during the Virginia school district hearings.
She went on to announce that she was resigning from her position, her voice quavering as she fought tears.
I quit your policies, I quit your trainings, and I quit being a cog in a machine that tells me to push highly politicized agendas on our most vulnerable constituents, the children.
The impassioned speech was one of dozens made during the Tuesday meeting of the Loudoun County School Board (LCSB), both supporting and opposing its policies. The direction that the LCSB has taken has split parents and teachers into opposing camps, who have been emotionally defending their side in the conflict.
The parties staged a protest and a counterprotest outside ahead of the meeting in the town of Ashburn. Unlike the last session, no disturbances happened during the event. The previous public hearing was cut short by board members, and two opponents of the LCSB who refused to leave the hall were arrested.
Amid the high emotions, one board member, Beth Barts, joined the session virtually, saying she was advised to do so over concerns for her personal safety. Many critics of the LCSB have been calling for the resignation of its members.
The trigger point for the festering conflict was Proposal 8040, a draft measure to order school employees to affirm trans and nonbinary students in their choice of gender identity. It would require addressing them by their chosen names and pronouns and would give trans students access to restrooms and locker rooms of their preferred gender.
Those who favor the policy say it would greatly benefit the well-being and safety of minority students and move the county’s public schools in the right direction. During the Tuesday meeting, one speaker, an activist who identified herself as a transgender woman, said inclusive policies “improve the physical and mental health of transgender students” and that there was “no evidence that this harms their cisgender peers.”
Critics of the policy voiced concerns about the safety of their daughters, who would have to share private spaces with students assigned male genders at birth. Others argued that confirming the transition wishes of kids would harm the children.
Elementary school gym teacher Byron Cross, who refused to abide by the proposed gender-affirming rules during one of the hearings earlier this year, was suspended by LCSB, but a court later ordered his reinstatement on First Amendment grounds. The board said it would appeal the court’s ruling.
The issue of freedom of speech was brought up by many critics of the board, including Morris in her resignation speech. She said she was told by the superintendent that “a dissenting opinion is not allowed even to be spoken in my personal life,” and was encouraged to report on colleagues who voice such opinions.
Loudoun County Public Schools would not comment on her decision to step down. The school division previously said it “does not condone the actions of employees – or anyone – who would target fellow members of the community for expressing their viewpoint.”
Hmmm. You mean like: white Christian able-bodied females currently have the power in our schools and that, quote, ‘this has to change.
The debate over schooling in Loudoun County is not limited to trans issues. Critics of the board are accusing it of adopting ideology-driven agendas, like shaping the curriculum in line with the critical race theory (CRT). The LCSB denies embracing the highly controversial view of American history and society, which states that it’s founded on institutionalized racism that needs to be dismantled.
The public hearings are scheduled to continue on Wednesday when a vote of the trans rights proposal is expected to be called. Another hot-button topic on the agenda is a possible indoor mask mandate at county schools.
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