Police Searching for ‘Parental Rights’ Activist Wanted For Abducting Children
Police Searching for ‘Parental Rights’ Activist Wanted For Abducting Children
Arrest warrant issued for a member of the far-right pseudolegal group Stand4Thee on three counts of parental child abduction
An arrest warrant has been issued for an outspoken “parental rights” activist with links to a far-right pseudolegal convoy group on child abduction charges.
Astryd Schiller, age 54 of Clarington, Ontario, is wanted on three counts of abduction by a parent and one count of disobeying a court order.
According to a January 24 media release from Durham Regional Police:
“In December 2023 investigators from East Division began a complex investigation regarding the whereabouts of three children and their mother. Throughout the investigation there has been no safety concerns for the children and numerous processes have taken place between the courts and the Children’s Aid Society. Investigators have been in contact with the mother, however have been unable to locate her or the children and she is no longer cooperating with police.”
Durham Regional Police are requesting anyone with information about the incident or their whereabouts to call 905-579-1520 or submit anonymous tips through Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
Links to conspiratorial, pseudoloegal convoy group ‘Stand4Thee’
Schiller is listed as a member of a Facebook group called “Stand4Thee” and has participated in the group’s Zoom meetings.
Schiller has also appeared on a number of Stand4Thee Zoom calls to discuss strategies to oppose SOGI-123 inclusive educational content.
Stand4Thee is a far-right group that creates pseudolegal documents relating to conspiracies about public health measures, vaccines and education.
The group first popped up during the pandemic and its group’s members have since been involved with the 2022 Freedom Convoy, last year’s “Save the Children Convoy” and an upcoming plan to occupy police stations.
Notice of Liability to Schools
In October 2023, Schiller appeared on a Stand4Thee Zoom call where one of the group’s leaders, Rebecca Sheppard, accidentally posted a “notice of liability” that had been put together for one of Schiller’s children.
“Whoops, there’s his last name, dammit, stop screenshare,” Sheppard gasps during the call. “Okay, I’ll cut that out later.”
The “Notice of Liability” puts Schiller’s school on notice that her child “will not engage in any discussions regard(ing) sexual orientation or gender ideolgy” and will “not answer any questions regarding his gender nor his sexual identity to anyone at any time with no exceptions.”
The Notice blames school programs promoting “gender ideology” on an initiative backed by the United Nations. It concludes by informing the school it could be liable to pay the parent penalties of up to $25,000.
Sheppard later invited Schiller to speak on the call, telling viewers that “this is the NOL that we put together for her.”
Schiller revealed she has had multiple confrontations with her children’s elementary school principal, something prompted after a teacher asked her child to fill out a “questionnaire” about themself in early September.
“The principal told me that this questionnaire is now in the file of my son, in the school file, and I thought: ‘Excuse me?’ This is nothing official, I did not give my consent, how do you dare. What?”
A template of the Notice uploaded to Stand4Thee’s website replaces Schiller’s child’s name with a space for parents to add their own child’s name, but some of the examples and dates echo grievances Schiller herself cited on the call.
Other grievances include the raising of a “Pride flag on the school’s flagpole,” the school designating a bathroom as “gender neutral,” the school allowing an 2SLGBTQ+ group to hand out leaflets, and the school allowing students to get vaccinated during the school day.
During another Stand4Thee “Parents Info” Zoom webinar promoting the Notice of Liability, Sheppard and Schiller linked their opposition to inclusive educational content with a “demonic war” on Christian values:
“This whole nonsense of not being Christian and it’s not okay, I’ll tell you something, that’s what they want you to believe, and what they’ve done by doing so, is they’ve actually created a renaissance in Christianity and God. And this is a demonic war, this is Satan’s playground, and the only way that we can win that is by having God in our heart and you know what, we can’t worry about what other people think of us.”
Schiller agreed, suggesting those who “read the Bible” and “have the faith and the Holy Spirit” will be protected by an “army of angels.”
She added that now is the time to “stand up” because what is happening now is what was described “in the Book of Revelations”:
“This is why I believe that it’s now the time and it’s in the Book of Revelation guys, go in and read it, it is now the time to stand up.”