Minister tells Moncton school district he's repealing its gender identity policy

New Brunswick's education minister has told a Moncton-area school district that he is repealing its policy on sexual orientation and gender identity to bring the district in line with the province's approach.

Hogan had given the Anglophone East district education council until March 29 to repeal its Policy 1.7, which set out how it would implement the province's Policy 713. 

The DEC didn't comply, and on April 22 Hogan wrote telling chair Harry Doyle that he was repealing the district policy and ordered Doyle to have it removed from the district website.

"You have not complied with my demand for corrective action and the time for doing so has expired," Hogan wrote in the letter to Doyle, obtained by CBC News.

"Your defiance in the face of clear direction has left me no choice" but to repeal the policies and order them taken offline, he said. 

Two days after Hogan's letter, the district adopted a new policy, Policy 1.8, that replaces the Policy 1.7 that Hogan repealed, but is identical to it.

It includes the phrasing that "school personnel shall respect the direction of the student in regard to the name and pronouns they wish to be called in daily interactions."

In an April 25 letter responding to Hogan, also obtained by CBC, Doyle repeated the district's arguments that it has the power to adopt its own policy and that Policy 713 on its own is unconstitutional and would cause "irreparable harm" to some district schools. 

The letter included the new Policy 1.8 as an attachment.

Hogan's spokesperson did not respond to an interview request Friday afternoon.

Last year, the Higgs government changed the provincial Policy 713, on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, to require teachers to get parental consent before using the chosen name and pronoun of a child under 16 verbally in the classroom.

Anglophone East argued it cannot implement that without risking a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Education Act and the provincial Human Rights Act.

Instead, it adopted Policy 1.7 that said staff must respect all students' chosen names and pronouns in "daily interactions."

District already filed lawsuit

The district is now before the courts seeking an injunction to block Hogan from quashing its policy and from dissolving the district council — something members say he threatened to do.

The court is set to hear arguments on that June 18-19.

Earlier this month, Hogan warned Anglophone East that it did not have the legal authority to challenge the province in court and warned he would take "further action."

His April 22 letter tells Doyle that while the district may not agree with Policy 713, "it is my office that is ultimately responsible for setting education policies in the province and it is your obligation to ensure your policies do not conflict with the direction that I have provided as minister." 

After the provincial changes last year, all seven councils created their own policies, or amended an existing policy, to emphasize the Human Rights Act and support for diversity. 

All but Anglophone North added operational language allowing teachers to use a child's chosen pronoun verbally in the classroom if parental involvement was in the works or not possible.

All three francophone districts meanwhile worked together to create a uniform policy.

Their policy is modelled after the one suggested by child and youth advocate Kelly Lamrock, in which teachers are to respect all students' pronouns from Grade 6 and up.

For students younger than Grade 6, the decision is made on a case-by-case basis.

Last October, Hogan told all of the councils except Anglophone North that their policies were inconsistent with the provincial policy.

Anglophone West and Anglophone South fell in line, but Anglophone East and the three francophone districts did not.

The Francophone South district said it would not be able respond Friday to a question about whether Hogan had repealed its policy as well. The two other francophone districts did not respond to CBC News.

The provincial Policy 713 allows districts to adopt policies that "are consistent with, or more comprehensive than, this provincial policy."