On August 1st, the Blackdown Cadet Training Centre at Canadian Forces Base Borden held its first ever Gay Pride Flag-Raising Ceremony and March as the culmination of the Centre's (and Base's) Gay Pride Week.

Thousands of cadets aged 12 to 18 travel from all across Canada to Blackdown every year expecting to experience some exciting and challenging summer camp activities. But this year, little did they - or their parents - know that they would be thrust into the middle of a questionable "Pride Week" celebration! For some reason, this plan was kept under wraps from those taking part.

According to the Blackdown Cadets Facebook page, this Gay Pride celebration was introduced under the pretext of an "anti-bullying initiative".

Bullying is an act of cowardly violence or intimidation that aims to hurt and degrade its victims.

Now it is laudable that the Cadet leadership would want to help prevent bullying and instill courtesy and respect in our young people. But bullying happens to more than just homosexuals and those who embrace transgenderism.

Many Christians experience hatred and bullying, especially in our present political climate. Jews have experienced much prejudice through the centuries. Blacks have been discriminated against in the recent past. Those with Down Syndrome face enormous hardships and prejudice in society today - most are not even allowed to be born, but are aborted before birth.

So why do we not see the Christian flag being raised - or the Jewish, black, or Down's flag? Why is it just the LGBT pride rainbow flag?

There is no "Christian Week" or "Down's Week", just LGBT "Pride Week" for the young cadets.

When asked about why there was no Christian flag being raised, one of the officers said, "That's just not what we do."

So what does an exclusively LGBT celebration have to do with training our young people in our national army, air, and sea cadet programmes? How does an event promoting immorality help raise up the next generation of soldiers, airmen, and seamen to dedicate their lives to the protection of our Dominion? It seems more like an exercise in political indoctrination than anything else.

And unfortunately, that indoctrination only serves to alienate and stigmatize those who hold to traditional values and/or who refuse to participate because of their religious or personal beliefs.

When asked if the cadets were given a choice to refuse to take part, one officer said, “no one is forced to take part”, but he seemed unsure about the amount of pressure applied to the cadets, or if they were given a genuine choice to opt out without any negative consequences.  

One cadet, who asked to be excused from the Gay Pride celebration, reports that he felt pressure to attend or else face possible consequences. He said he was led to believe the event would be about anti-bullying, but then discovered he was subjected to two pro-LGBT speeches. When asked if he felt comfortable attending this event, the cadet replied, "Not at all!"

"Pride Week" and the rainbow flag represent one particular, aberrant perspective on sexuality and sexual rights. It is a political movement that does not represent all perspectives and all people. In fact, it excludes many groups of people, which truly undermines the whole point of any anti-bullying initiative.

The Canadian flag alone represents everyone, and that is the banner that our youth (and all of us) need to come together under.

Therefore, we are asking the leadership at Blackdown, as well as Cadets Canada, that they not subject Canada's youth to the LGBT agenda any more, and that they keep politics out of an otherwise outstanding and highly commendable cadet programme.

Watch this video interview with one of the cadets at Blackdown: https://youtu.be/vE1EWYuld0I

UPDATE: 11:00 AM, August 5th

A senior officer at Blackdown has responded to parents' concerns and expressed his regret that any cadet would have felt pressured to participate in Gay Pride events. While defending the Gay Pride Flag-Raising and pro-gay speeches, he said that these events were not supposed to be mandatory for cadets, and individual objections should have been referred up to senior staff. He also said that he will address the matter with junior staff.