daphne bramham: vancouver's carousel theatre held a 'drag camp.' kids got a police escort to attend
opinion: rather than the first day of theatre camp being only about fun, this one was marred by adult agendas
4 minute read
demonstrators against an anti-gay protest at granville island in vancouver.
nick procaylo
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activists’ greatest strength can also be their greatest weakness: they have no common sense. they will do anything to highlight and further their cause — glue themselves to roads, dangle from bridge decks, chain themselves to heavy machinery.
they are also ok with using children as props, even if it sometimes means putting them in harm’s way.
they all do it. anti-abortionists. anti-vaxxers. anti-loggers. yimby and nimby housing protesters.
parents do it when a school closure is threatened. trade unionists sometimes bring kids along to emphasize their need for more pay.
we can now add some others to the list:
if volunteers dressed up as fairy godmothers, queens or even beyonce to read stories to children at the library, most people wouldn’t know about it, care about it, or be outraged.
if a theatre school holds a summer camp to give seven- to 11-year-olds and 12- to 17-year-olds a chance to try on theatrical makeup and costumes, that shouldn’t be a big deal. why wouldn’t they give that kind of opportunity to a new generation of aspiring actors or to kids who just love to play dress-up?
but carousel theatre called it drag camp — “the campiest camp of all.” its ad asks whether drag is for kids. the answer? “drag is for everyone! parents, ask yourself, ‘what’s the difference between what you wear at home versus what you wear at work? you’re doing drag, honey, you just don’t know it!’”
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no one from carousel theatre was made available to talk to me. in an emailed statement, a communications consultant said that calling it drag camp wasn’t intended to provoke a reaction.
“drag is about finding confidence in yourself and freely allowing oneself to play outside the conventional expectations. at its core, drag is a unique art form,” the consultant wrote.
that may be so. but the people who run the children’s theatre company on granville island are either naive or haven’t been paying attention to the culture wars.
almost as soon as it was announced, drag camp was news … or at least fodder for the twitter-verse. in april, maxime bernier, leader of the people’s party of canada, tweeted that the camp was “utterly disgusting” because it was indoctrinating kids with “gender ideology and sexual confusion.”
in the days leading up to tuesday’s start, action4canada went to carousel theatre to serve a “notice of liability” warning that it is illegal to sexually exploit children.
founded by tanya gaw of mission, the group is opposed to abortion, sex education in schools, drug legalization, “political lgbtq,” medically assisted dying, the united nations, the world economic forum, 5g networks, smart meters, critical race theory, mandatory vaccinations, and covid lockdowns.
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it also opposes 15-minute cities where you don’t need a car to get to work, school, entertainment and shopping, saying that they are another way that globalists intend to control the masses.
in march, action4canada was banned from mission school board meetings following a presentation that trustees described as having graphic and “inappropriate” cartoon images. the group responded on its website calling the ban “intellectual fascism.”
fear of these activists showing up prompted the international alliance of theatrical stage employees local 118 to organize a colourful counter-protest supporting the theatre’s decision to have drag camps.
all of this was enough for the adults in charge to decide that security was needed.
as it turned out, the only protester for most of the hour before the camp began was a lone, bi-sexual man.
ian glass said he is opposed to the sexualization of children for entertainment purposes, whether it’s for drag or child beauty pageants like those featured on the tlc reality series toddlers and tiaras that ran from 2009 to 2013.
at least eight vancouver police officers were there in cars and on bikes in addition to private security. several police officers and a security guard were stationed at the theatre’s back door where, presumably, the children entered rather than having to navigate the crowd at the front.
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carousel board president jocelyn macdougall told cbc that the theatre spent nearly $40,000 on security, cybersecurity and crisis communications for drag camp. that is a lot of money for a small, non-profit that had revenue of $764,000 last year.
but was anybody concerned about what effect all this might have on the kids?
apparently, not.
“to be clear,” the theatre company’s email said, “the counter-protest was organized by iatse.”
it went on to say that the theatre was “extremely thankful for the incredible show of support.” it noted that as soon as the theatre learned the counter-protest was planned, additional safety protocols were added.
cast into the span of a lifetime, childhood is a blink of the eye. but what happens during those precious years informs the future.
so, yes, the theatre kept the kids safe. but rather than the first day of theatre camp being only about fun, it was marred by adult agendas.
on a day that should have been about make-believe and dressing up, what they may remember most is that they needed a police escort.
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