Minister not moving to shut down French school councils over gender policy
Education minister takes wait-and-see approach after three French school districts stand by their policies on gender identity
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Education Minister Bill Hogan is taking a wait-and-see approach after the province’s three French-language school districts failed to comply with his order to amend or repeal their policies on gender identity.
Hogan sent the three district education councils a letter with a deadline of March 28 to follow his order for corrective action. When the districts chose to stand behind their policies, Hogan sent another letter in April, telling them their policies had been repealed and should be taken offline.
The policies, which allow students in Grade 6 and above to designate their preferred name and pronoun at school and during extracurricular activities, and for younger students to do so on a case-by-case basis, remains on each district’s website.
Last week, Hogan said he was beginning action to dissolve the Anglophone East District Education Council after it failed to end legal action against the province over Policy 713, which states students under 16 must have parental consent to go by their preferred name and pronoun.
Before his statement, Hogan had sent corrective action letters to Anglophone East over its gender policy, which removed the age restriction, and sent them the same letter in April telling them their policy was repealed after they failed to comply.
When asked on Monday if he planned to take similar action against the three francophone councils, Hogan said he is waiting to see what occurs at the councils’ upcoming meetings.
“We will wait and see what their decision is before we make any further decisions,” Hogan said Monday during an event in his home riding of Carleton.
In a statement sent to Brunswick News last week, Francophone Nord-Ouest spokesperson Alain Sirois, Francophone Nord-Est spokesperson Brigitte Couturier and Francophone Sud spokesperson Jean-Luc Thériault said each council will hold a meeting in the coming weeks to allow its members to evaluate the different options available to them.
The council in Francophone Sud will meet on May 8, Nord-Est on May 14, and Francophone Nord-Ouest on May 22.
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