July 2023 Persecution Magazine

West Watch
ISSUES INVOLVING CHRISTIANITY IN THE WEST
Teenager Arrested in Canada for
Handing Out Bibles in Protest
Canadian police arrested a 16-year-old boy after he handed
out Bibles on a public sidewalk. Josh Alexander, a former
student of St. Joseph’s Catholic High School in Ontario, was
participating in a walkout demonstration to protest his school’s
transgender bathroom policy when counter-protesters arrived.
The teenager offered free Bibles to the group carrying transgender
flags and LGBT-related signs; until things started to escalate.
Video footage shows a scuffle break out between Alexander
and the pro-transgender group, with the teenager being pushed
around by protesters. After police stepped in, Alexander was
arrested for “provoking violence” because he had initially
approached the larger group. Alexander was eventually released,
but the police informed him that if he returned, he would be
arrested and charged.
Alexander’s arrest comes shortly after he was expelled from his
local high school for his religious beliefs. St. Joseph’s Catholic
School adopted a policy which allows males identifying as
females to use the women’s’ restroom—a policy that made many
of Alexander’s female friends uncomfortable. Alexander publicly
voiced his concerns with the school’s policy on social media, citing
scriptures that refer to the traditional religious view that only two
genders exist.
Photo: Standing for Freedom
School administrators found concern with Alexander’s belief and
suspended him for “bullying” transgender students at the school.
When Alexander tried to return to the classroom, he was expelled
on charges of trespassing and barred from completing his junior
year.
Alexander said that his issue was not with individual students, but
with the “system that encourages this form of misbehavior.” He
said he, “sympathize[s] with the confused transgender students
because they’ve been wronged by their parents and by society…
but at the same time that doesn’t mean I’m going to condone
their wrongful behavior, especially when it’s a violation of my
female peers’ privacy.”
The high school issued a statement in response to the situation,
reemphasizing that they stand by their decision to allow students
of opposite genders to use bathrooms they identify with.
The Ontario Human Rights Code mandates that schools should
allow students access to bathrooms that align with their perceived
gender identity.
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Persecution | JULY 2023