School district defies minister with gender-affirming policy

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New Brunswick’s education minister has repealed an education council’s interpretation of Policy 713 after council members failed to fall in line with his demand to amend or repeal sections that allow younger students to go by their preferred name and pronoun without parental consent.

Since September, Minister Bill Hogan has sent three corrective action letters to the Anglophone East District Education Council, telling members the policy it adopted last year is inconsistent with Policy 713, which requires parental consent for students under 16 to go by their preferred name and pronoun.

In his latest letter, Hogan gave the council until March 28 to amend or repeal sections of the policy he said go against the amended Policy 713, including a section that says when determining whether the student is communicating with appropriate professionals in the development of a plan to speak to their parents, the student’s self-reporting is sufficient.

The council chose to stand behind its policy and sought a series of injunctions that would prevent Hogan from repealing its policy. Hearings for the injunctions have been scheduled for June.

On April 22, Hogan sent another letter to the council saying its “defiance in the face of clear direction” left him no choice but to repeal its policy. He directed that all copies of the policy were to be immediately removed from the district website.

Council chair Harry Doyle responded to Hogan’s letter on April 25. In his letter, Doyle said the council has “explained on a number of occasions how the district policy in question is not inconsistent with Policy 713,” pointing to a section of the policy that allows councils to adopt a policy that is more comprehensive than Policy 713.

Doyle wrote that members of the education council held a special meeting on April 24 and adopted a new policy that allows students the same rights as the policy repealed by Hogan.

“We believe that Policy 713 violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and that its application would cause irreparable harm to our students. It is our mandate to protect our school community, including the welfare of all of our students,” Doyle wrote.

Along with his letter, Doyle sent Hogan a copy of the district’s new policy.

Education council member Kristin Cavoukian told Brunswick News on Monday that the council is not commenting on the matter at this time.

Brunswick News requested comment from Minister Hogan but did not hear back by press time.

Anglophone East is one of four districts within the province that received corrective action letters from Hogan. The province’s three francophone districts were given the same March 28 deadline to make changes to their gender policy.

The policy implemented by the francophone districts allows students in Grade 6 and above to designate their preferred name and pronoun at school and during extracurricular activities, and younger students to do so on a case-by-case basis.

A statement sent to Brunswick News from Francophone Nord-Ouest spokesperson Alain Sirois, Francophone Nord-Est spokesperson Brigitte Couturier and Francophone Sud spokesperson Jean-Luc Thériault says all three districts received a letter from Hogan on April 22 informing the respective chairs of the each district’s education council that their implementation of Policy 713 had been repealed by the minister and should be immediately removed from Francophone School Districts websites.

“No response has been sent to the minister as of today since the DECs of the three Francophone School Districts have not had a meeting since these letters were received. Before responding, each DEC will hold a meeting in the coming weeks to allow its members to evaluate the different options available to them,” it reads.