SPOTLIGHT
Help us protect children and parental rights across Canada
Who should raise children? Schools or parents?
Who is better positioned to protect and care for children? Governments or families?
These questions have become national issues for parents, policymakers, and judges from coast to coast.
In British Columbia and across Canada, school boards are censoring parents and taxpayers seeking to express their opinions at public meetings, and even striking parents’ concerns from the public record. In Saskatchewan and New Brunswick, radical groups are advocating for laws that would keep parents in the dark when their children undergo gender identity transitions at school. In Ontario, a school board disciplined an elected trustee and banned him from participating in board meetings. In Quebec, a school administration ordered a teacher to lie to parents about the gender identity transition of their child.
Increasingly, demands are being placed on Canadians to accept a new, radical ideology. This ideology presumes that parents are a threat to their own children. Increasingly, schools and school boards are censoring concerned members of the public and withholding critical information from Canadians. School boards across Canada have become hostile to democratic accountability, freedom of expression, and the constitutional right of parents to raise, educate, nurture and protect their own children.
Thanks to your support, the Justice Centre is defending children, parents and families across Canada. In key cases, our lawyers are working to convince courts that children are entitled to the informed care and protection of their parents. Parents have a legal responsibility to care for their children, and a constitutional right to fulfil that role.
If you care about protecting children and parental rights in Canada, we invite you to explore our work in two cases: a censorship case in British Columbia and a New Brunswick case in which activists are seeking to keep parents in the dark about what is happening with their own children at school.
Your donations at work
Defending children and parental rights in New Brunswick
In June 2023, the New Brunswick government started requiring schools to notify parents before students under 16 could formally change their names and pronouns at school.
According to Policy 713, “Formal use of preferred first name for transgender and non-binary students under the age of 16 will require parental consent.”
New Brunswick was clear: schools cannot keep parents in the dark about gender identity transitions at school. When a student wants to start using opposite-sex names, pronouns, clothing, bathrooms and change-rooms, parents deserve the opportunity to provide care and support to their children.
New Brunswick was the first province in Canada to support children and parents in this way.
Across Canada, Policy 713 caused a firestorm of criticism from some quarters.
By September 2023, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) had filed a constitutional challenge against this New Brunswick policy. The CCLA argues that Policy 713 harms students and violates their Charter right to equality, life, liberty, and security of the person, and their freedom of expression.
We disagree with the CCLA. Children are not adults and do not enjoy privacy rights against their own parents. Children cannot vote in elections, get married, have sex with an adult, join the military, purchase liquor, or consume cannabis. Claiming that children have rights against their parents is a perversion of the Charter. While children do not enjoy adult rights and freedoms, children are entitled to the love, support, guidance, and nurturing of their own parents. Parents are severely hindered in providing these necessities to their children when they are kept in the dark about what is going on with their own children at school. If schools are required to obtain parental consent for a child to go on a field trip to the science center, then surely parental consent should be required for their child to use an opposite-sex name, pronoun, clothing, or changeroom at school.
Unfortunately, a small minority of children do need to be protected from their parents. That is why Policy 713 allows appropriate exemptions. “If it is not in the best interest of the student or could cause harm to them (physically or mentally) to talk with their parents, they will be encouraged to communicate with professionals for support.”
Fortunately, we know that parental abuse is rare.
While a very small minority of parents are abusive, the law should not presume that all parents are abusive. Teachers and school administrators should not assume that parents will harm their own children when a child questions her or his gender identity. Our constitution and legal system have long recognized the family as a foundational entity in a free society. Our constitution and legal system correctly presume that parents act in the best interests of children. Parents are more qualified to do just that than bureaucrats or political activists.
Radical activists want to convince Canadian judges and the public that parents are a threat to their own children. We hope you disagree.
Fortunately, these activists do not have a strong legal basis for their advocacy. As the Supreme Court of Canada explained in B.(R.) v. Children’s Aid Society of Metropolitan Toronto in 1995, “The parental interest in bringing up, nurturing, and caring for a child, including medical care and moral upbringing, is an individual interest of fundamental importance to our society.” Further, “...parents are in the best position to take care of their children and make all the decisions necessary to ensure their well-being.”
Thanks to your donations, our lawyers helped two groups intervene and present critical evidence to the court in New Brunswick. Gender Dysphoria Alliance and Our Duty Canada bring informed, evidence-based support to children experiencing gender dysphoria, and to their families. Our Duty Canada is a support network for parents whose children are experiencing transgender ideation. Gender Dysphoria Alliance is a group of people who have themselves experienced gender dysphoria. Both groups believe that informed parents are the best caregivers for children questioning gender identity.
Karin Litzcke of Our Duty Canada stated, “What has happened to us could happen to any parents under policies that promote secrecy from families. We are grateful to the Justice Centre for its assistance in advocating for the interests of children and parents in court.”
The legal battle is far from over. We will continue to help these groups present compelling evidence to the court throughout 2024 and into 2025. Will you support our legal work in New Brunswick?
A donation of $500, $100, or even $50 will help provide us with the legal resources to keep parents “in the conversation” in New Brunswick and across the country.
Your donations at work
Challenging school board censorship in British Columbia
In June 2023, Lynda di Armani attended a public school board meeting in Chilliwack, British Columbia. A grandmother and former school employee, she went to the meeting to express her concerns about a potential conflict of interest at the board. It had come to light that the board member who was seeking school funding to promote Pride events in schools was also the marketing director for the local Pride society. Ms. di Armani’s remarks were brief and calm.
The school board Chair, Willow Reichelt, along with the Vice-Chair, Carin Bondar, immediately interrupted and muted Ms. di Armani’s presentation, baselessly claiming that her remarks were somehow “discriminatory” and that “[t]here is no conflict of interest when you’re talking about basic human rights.”
After being interrupted four times in rapid succession, Ms. di Armani was ordered to sit down before she had finished. The Chair then muted the livestream of the public meeting. The viewing audience could not then hear Ms. di Armani’s response or the statements of the Chair. Unfortunately, this is part of a pattern of censorship at this school board.
The Board’s message has been clear: if we dislike your expression, we will silence you. We will strike your voice from the public record in the name of “human rights” and preventing “discrimination.”
Fortunately, the Supreme Court of Canada has been very clear: public schools are government bodies subject to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Section 2(b) of the Charter protects the freedoms of thought, belief, opinion, and expression of all Canadians, including at school board meetings.
School board censorship silences debate. It violates the right of speakers to express themselves. It violates the right of board members and the listening public to access a diversity of perspectives. It disrupts democracy and undermines democratic accountability.
Unfortunately, the problem of “school board censorship” is not unique to British Columbia.
It happened to Trustee Mike Ramsay in Waterloo, Ontario. It happened to former elementary school teacher Carolyn Burjoski in the same district. Increasingly, school boards across the country are neglecting their Charter obligations to protect expression. Instead, they are disciplining trustees, silencing dissent, and depriving the public of necessary debate on critical issues.
Ms. di Armani knows that school boards should not mute disagreement. On the contrary, disagreement and debate are part of a healthy democracy.
Thanks to your donations, our lawyers helped Lynda di Armani file a constitutional challenge against the school board in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. She is asking the Court to declare that the school board violated her Charter rights and the Charter rights of the listening public. She is seeking a Court Order that would allow the public to record school board meetings themselves and that would prevent school board censorship in the future.
We will continue to help Lynda di Armani fight censorship in Chilliwack through our constitutional challenge in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. Will you partner with us in defence of children and parental rights across the country?
A donation of $500, $250, or even $50 will help provide us with the legal resources to keep parents and public “in the conversation” in British Columbia and across the country.
Yours sincerely,
John Carpay, B.A., LL.B.
President
Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms
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