Canadian student speaks out after being detained while handing out free Bibles at protest: No 'coincidence'
Seventeen-year-old Josh Alexander had been suspended for opposing transgender ideology in his Catholic school
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Months after a student was suspended for challenging transgender ideology, Canadian teenager Josh Alexander was detained at a protest while handing out free Bibles.
Liberty Coalition Canada organized an international walk-out recently called "I Stand With Josh Alexander" in protest of his suspension. Protests at Western Canada High School in Calgary took a turn when a clash ensued between protestors and counter-protestors.
Alexander, although threatened and pushed by counter-protestors, was captured in a video being detained by police.
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"I certainly don't think it was a coincidence that after four minutes at the protest, police standing by witnessing me being assaulted by a mob with my hands in the air and they decide to arrest Josh Alexander at the I Stand with Josh Alexander rally. So I don't think there is any coincidence there," Alexander shared on "Fox & Friends Weekend," Saturday.
Canadian teenager Josh Alexander was detained during a protest Wednesday while handing out free Bibles. (Fox News)
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Last week's altercation led to two arrests, but both individuals, one of who was identified as Alexander, were released without charges.
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"Today I was handcuffed and put in a paddy wagon for offering students Bibles on a public sidewalk in Calgary. I was released and told if I returned I would be arrested and charged. I continued handing out Bibles. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ," Alexander tweeted last week.
"Officers were on the scene to support public safety during a protest... During the event, a fight broke out between several individuals of opposing views. Two people were taken into custody and released without charge... The investigation remains ongoing... The Calgary Police Service recognizes the Charter rights of everyone to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly... We police behavior, not beliefs," Calgary police said following the incident.
Alexander did say he was "impressed" that "it would appear, [Calgary police are] going to be pressing charges against a few of the individuals that assaulted me."
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The protests were largely in response to an earlier incident involving Alexander at St. Joseph’s High School in Renfrew, Ontario in November.
"It was called the ‘I Stand with Josh Alexander’ walk-out protest... It was because I had been kicked out of my Catholic school in Ontario and I was actually arrested at my high school after being kicked out for saying that there was only two genders," he said.
Alexander drew the ire of school leadership when he organized a student walkout at the public Catholic high school against biological males in girls' bathrooms, according to the complaint. He also reportedly argued in class that God created two unchangeable genders.
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According to a human rights complaint filed by Alexander's lawyer James Kitchen with Liberty Coalition Canada, students erupted during a math class when Alexander argued against the school's bathroom policy.
"I quoted Mark 10:6 after a teacher told us that there was as many genders as we want there to be and we should explore ourselves. And I said, 'No, God created male and female," he said.
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A protester shows her opposition to Kentucky Senate bill SB150, known as the Transgender Health Bill outside the Senate chamber at the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort, Ky., Wednesday, March 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley) (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
When he claimed that men have penises and women have vaginas, Alexander's classmates reportedly called him a "misogynist," a "racist," and a "homophobic transphobe," while the teacher allegedly "nodded and gestured at the students yelling at Josh, indicating his approval of the students’ name-calling."
"Some female students complained to me about males using their washrooms. They were concerned about this. So I stuck up for them and I voiced my views on that. And ever since I've been kicked out," Alexander said.
"They claim that my views and me expressing them was a form of bullying."
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The high school junior was ultimately suspended and told that his continued attendance would be detrimental to the physical and mental well-being of transgender students, the complaint says. His suspension was technically lifted in January but has effectively continued after the Renfrew County Catholic District School Board "excluded" him for the rest of the school year.
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The complaint argues that Alexander protested transgender ideology on religious grounds.
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"Josh believes he is called by the Lord Jesus Christ to proclaim the truth which includes telling those around him about the Lord’s design for gender and to openly oppose the School Board’s policy of permitting males to enter the girls’ washrooms," the complaint said. "Josh believes he would commit a sin if he disregarded the Lord’s calling on his life and remained silent."
Fox News' Jon Brown contributed to this report.