Did hundreds of complaints trigger the review of LGBTQ policy or just 3?
Complaints made public share curriculum concerns, make no mention of education Policy 713
Education Minister Bill Hogan said the review of Policy 713 was triggered by "misinterpretations and concerns," and said the province had received hundreds of complaints about it. He has never clarified how many of those came before the review decision and how many came after the review became public.
The policy was implemented in 2020 and guarantees minimum protections to LGBTQ kids in school, including providing gender-neutral washrooms and respecting their pronouns in the classroom.
Premier Blaine Higgs confirmed this week the main issue with the policy is that it says if a child under 16 wants an informal name or pronoun change, teachers are required to get consent of the child before telling their parents. Parents still have to sign off on any formal changes and the policy does not change that.
Liberal
Leader Susan Holt asked the Minister of Education Bill Hogan for a list
of complaints about 713. He told her to file a right-to-information
request. (Aidan Cox/CBC)
Policy 713 triggered little public debate until two weeks ago.
On May 5, a small group of people holding placards protesting its implementation stood outside a school where teachers were holding professional development sessions.
That's when the province confirmed to media that it had been reviewing the policy since mid-April. On Thursday, spokesperson Morgan Bell said the decision to review was "communicated" on April 21, but she did not answer a question about when the decision to review was made.
3? 100? 800?
On Friday, when asked why he wouldn't share the details of the complaints or the complaints themselves, Hogan told Information Morning Fredericton, "It's not my place to release private communication with me."
The closest anyone has come to uncovering the substance of the complaints received by the government is Kelly Lamrock, the province's child and youth advocate.
He asked the province for the correspondence that triggered the review, and officials sent him copies of three emails. All three make unsubstantiated and sometimes homophobic claims. They also address curriculum concerns, which Policy 713 does not dictate, and none of them referred to the specific policy.
One, sent in December of 2022, said LGBTQ material should not be taught because it's against Christian beliefs.
Another email, from October 2022, said kids are being taught "Marxist" and "unscientific nonsense" about gender.
The third one, from April 4, 2023, referred to a long-debunked conspiracy theory about litter boxes in schools. The writer of the April email said, "I am not homophobic," and "humans are created male and female and nothing can change that."
Based on these emails, and other information given to him by the province, Lamrock said he recommended that the province pause the review and called the process "broken and incoherent."
"I am not sure any government decision could survive if receiving three complaints led to reconsideration," he wrote.
Lamrock did not ask for 'samples' of complaints
When Liberal Party Leader Susan Holt stood up in Question Period on Wednesday and asked about the discrepancy between "hundreds" of complaints and just three, Hogan said Lamrock "asked for a couple of samples … up to a certain point in March."
In fact, in his correspondence with the province, which was included in his report released earlier in the week, Lamrock asked for "any correspondence containing the misinterpretations or concerns" the department was citing as the basis for the review.
Lamrock's correspondence makes no mention of the month of March. He asked for documentation of the concerns the province referred to on April 25, when it confirmed to him the review was underway.
Kelly
Lamrock, New Brunswick’s child and youth advocate, said he asked for
any correspondence related to the concerns cited by the province as a
basis for the review of Policy 713. He received copies of three emails,
and none referred to the policy. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
When Hogan said Lamrock merely asked for a "sample," he did not say why the province would put those particular emails in the sample since they did not touch on any of the policy sections under review.
When Holt asked for an inventory of the complaints, Hogan said she should file a right-to-information request.
"I have a number of petitions on my desk in my office and in my constituency office. I also have a couple of recordings of some voicemails that have been left on my phone in my constituency office. I have had a whole variety of things," Hogan said.
The CBC has filed a right-to-information request for the complaints. Response to a request takes 30 days and often requires an extension to 60 days and sometimes longer.
Hogan said Wednesday the province will be revealing the results of the review into the policy in two weeks, likely long before any response to the information request comes in.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Information Morning Fredericton
Many Tory MLAs won’t say if they agree with review or endorse premier’s comments on LGBTQ students
Jacques Poitras · CBC News · Posted: May 17, 2023 4:43 PM ADT
"Cardy said he sent the finished document to Higgs's office "for a final look-over" at the time and never heard back, so he signed it into effect just before the 2020 campaign."
Throw in the comments from Higgs about drag story time and it's no wonder people are upset that something is being reviewed that was working just fine.
The review (if it is even taking place) is not the actual issue.
The issue, which would be concerning for *any* policy that was legally enacted and adopted by government, is that a review is potentially being conducted after only 2 years of implementation AND based on exactly zero formal complaints concerning the policy...despite the Education Minister claiming to have hundreds.
There is clear shenanigans at play and the Minister has either lied about the number and nature of complaints they have received or intentionally did not turn those over to Mr. Lamrock...and, if they existed, it would have been in the Minister's interest to produce them, not obscure them. Obscuring them only makes the allegations against Higgs and himself seem more substantial. Producing actual complaints, in the number suggested, complaining of the policy specifically would *absolutely* validate a review if the issue were so contentious.
The people who are "upset" by this policy are those generating misinformation, and will not be satisfied by a review: They will be satisfied by having their personal views catered to.
Jacques Poitras · CBC News · Posted: Jan 17, 2023 11:39 AM AST
Politicians don't get to treat the governments they operate in as "their" government. This is not Higgs' government, it's the Government of New Brunswick, and Higgs is only one person among many where his personal views are concerned.