LGBTQ policy in N.B. schools violates Charter rights of kids: child advocate
Changes to New Brunswick’s policy on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools violate the Charter rights of children, the province’s child and youth advocate said Tuesday.
Kelly Lamrock released his findings in a report of nearly 100 pages, concluding that the Education Department did not seriously consider the legal consequences of its changes to Policy 713.
New Brunswick’s government made three changes in June, one of which requires children under 16 to have parental consent before they can officially change their preferred first names or pronouns at school.
In a news release, Lamrock said forcing non-binary and transgender students to use a name they don’t identify with “is a violation of their protected rights under the Human Rights Act and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
Premier Blaine Higgs has defended the changes, arguing that parents have the right to know whether their children are questioning their gender identity. But Higgs’s government has faced strong criticism for the policy, including within his own cabinet and from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Dissenting members of Higgs’s Progressive Conservatives voted with the opposition in mid-June to pass a motion asking Lamrock’s office to review the changes to Policy 713.
On Tuesday, Lamrock said the government’s changes were vague and created confusion.
“It should be said that it is not bigoted for a parent to want to know about their child’s major decisions. Equally so, it is not extreme to want children to have privacy and autonomy when they are old and mature enough to exercise it,” the report said.
“The fault with the changes to Policy 713 is they were pushed through to demonstrate rhetorical support for a principle, but failed to take the
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