EXCLUSIVE: Second annual Million Person March for Children continues fights against gender ideology in Canada's classrooms

The #1MillionMarchforChildren returned to Ottawa and 38 cities across Canada on Friday. It was the second year of the event that attracted one million Canadians opposed to gender ideology in the classroom and dedicated to preserving the rights of parents to know if their children are being exposed to LGBTQ indoctrination or being invited to change their pronouns.

The organizer of the march and the head of Hands Off Our Children, the umbrella organization that integrates protest marches and rallies from Vancouver to Halifax, is Kamel El-Cheikh, an Ottawa businessman and parental rights activist who has managed to keep his interfaith coalition of Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus and Sikhs together despite a foreign war distractions.

Friday was a warm, sunny, late summer day in Ottawa with a bright blue sky that was cloudless. Although fewer people came to Parliament Hill to listen to speakers and march this year than last, about 750 to 1,000 people were present, numbers were higher at locations across the country. “I have always described this event as a marathon and not a sprint,” El-Cheikh told The Post Millennial. “We are in this for the long haul, for the children, for the parents and this will continue to be an annual event and not a one-shot thing.”

When asked why she was participating as a speaker again this year, author, pastor, and trauma specialist Dr. Annel Gillies said it was all about the children, "protecting our children from irrational ideologies and the sexualization of children that's happening in our education system and the LGBTQ extremist activists who are pushing an agenda that is damaging the lives of our children, both physically, if they decide to transition – as it's called – but also mentally,” she told The Post Millennial.

“We are creating the greatest mental health crisis in Canada that we've ever seen," she said, adding that "cell phones can be attributed to that too, but immensely confusing our children about their sex, their biological sex, and confusing them with the ideas that they can actually become the opposite sex is debilitating.”

Jack Fonseca is the director of political operations for Campaign Life Coalition, Canada’s largest pro-life group that also produces LifeSite News. Fonseca told TPM that he was here this year “because it's important that we continue to grow this growing movement. We've got the momentum here. You know, there are an increasing number of families and regular Canadians that are realizing what the heck is happening in my child's class – they're not learning reading, writing and arithmetic. They are learning gender ideology. They're learning about the homosexual lifestyle. They're learning about all this sexual stuff, and it's happening all day long. It's happening in every grade. It's having it happening in every subject.”

“I know that the liberal establishment across this country, the child sexualization establishment, is quaking in their boots,” Fonseca said, adding that “the woke educators and woke bureaucrats in the ministries of education, this tyrant Justin Trudeau – who is the Chief propagator of LGBT propaganda in the country – they are scared by this movement.

Pastor Henry Hildebrandt, the head of the Church of God in Aylmer, ON, became a religious folk hero for opposing Covid mandates during the Freedom Convoy protests of February 2022 and the year prior when he spoke at an anti-lockdown rally, was also making a second appearance at the Million Person March. He told TPM that he was also back again because of the children.

“They deserve it. Our children will be looking at the history of 2024 and look back and say, “What did we do today? There's no way I could stay home when I know that we have a common goal. It doesn't matter what everyone's background is, it doesn't matter what everyone's religion is; but we have a very tragic thing, so to speak, right in our front yard, our children are under major attack, and I have to be here. I have to be here and show my support and stand up for our little ones who can't help themselves,” he said.

The protest was met with limited counter-protesters this year. About 25 people stood on Wellington St. in front of the Parliament buildings early in the morning but left well before the march began around 1 pm. Four remained to harass the marchers along a route that took them to the national cenotaph and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The group returned to Parliament Hill, near the eternal flame, to listen to some more words of encouragement.

Some provincial governments are pushing back against the gender ideology agenda. Last February, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced that teenagers under 17 would no longer be able to access sex change operations and those under 15 would be banned from being prescribed puberty blockers.

El-Cheik and his Hands Off Our Kids action team also organized a boycott of Pride flag-raising ceremonies in June, now known as “Pride Month” in Canada and also the beginning of what the Trudeau government now calls “Pride season.” He believes the opposition resulted in a reduced enthusiasm for Pride parades in Canada throughout the summer.

The organization succeeded in getting 50 percent participation in schools across Canada as students either did not go to classes or refused to watch the official raising of the “Pride” flag. It all culminated in the One Nation Under God protest on June 14 where parents came to Parliament Hill to celebrate the success of the boycott and to pray for the nation.