School trustee pays price for voicing views

Barry Neufeld, a longtime trustee of British Columbia’s Chilliwack School District, hadn’t planned to find himself at the centre of a legal battle, whose outcome could have far-reaching consequences for gender-related teaching programs across Canada.

But on Jan. 22, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF, on whose board I sit), announced it will be defending Neufeld against a human rights complaint laid on behalf of Chilliwack School District employees. Complainant CUPE Local 411 bases its grievance on a school district policy stating staffers have the right to “operate, work or learn in an environment free from harassment.”

Here “harassment” refers to Neufeld’s outspoken public criticism of curriculum supplements now in district use, known as SOGI 123 (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity). These materials promote, among other things, the concept that gender is fluid, untethered from biological sex, tenets Neufeld has, since the fall of 2017, publicly criticized as unscientific theory. CUPE 411 also named the Chilliwack School District as a respondent for having violated Sec 13(1)(b) of the B.C. Human Rights Code, in failing to have censured or removed Neufeld for creating an “unsafe” and “discriminatory” working environment for their members.

Last October, the chair of the school board called on Neufeld to resign and the province’s education minister condemned him, when Neufeld wrote on Facebook calling members of B.C.’s education system “radical cultural nihilists” for their policies on gender rights and education. He also wrote that “letting little children choose to change gender is nothing short of child abuse” and included a photographic internet meme juxtaposing a father in 1997 telling a little boy he wouldn’t allow him to get his ear pierced with a mother in 2017 responding to her child wondering if he should be a girl by telling him “we’ll start hormone treatment immediately.” Rob Fleming, the education minister, said Neufeld had “jeopardized student safety, divided his school community and acted against board and ministry policies” with his comments, and said his comments were working to “undermine” goals of the district and the ministry. Neufeld later apologized.

Following announcement of the human rights complaint, on Jan. 18 the Chilliwack School District board urged Neufeld to resign. On Jan. 19, so did Fleming, the education minister. But Neufeld is hanging tough. In a published response, he states that he supports