{"id":38260,"date":"2023-10-23T11:56:11","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T14:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chmafm.com\/welcome\/?p=38260"},"modified":"2023-10-23T22:05:49","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T01:05:49","slug":"anglophone-east-turns-down-hogan-request-to-repeal-policy-713-fix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chmafm.com\/welcome\/anglophone-east-turns-down-hogan-request-to-repeal-policy-713-fix\/","title":{"rendered":"Anglophone East turns down Hogan request to repeal Policy 713 fix"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Anglophone East District Education Council member Kristin Cavoukian. Photo: Ivan Rosenberg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An Anglophone East district councillor says that a letter from education minister Bill Hogan asking the DEC to repeal their supplemental policy to the education department\u2019s Policy 713 was \u201cincredibly vague\u201d, and after getting legal advice, the DEC has voted to turn down the minister\u2019s request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was nothing in the letter that said which parts of our policy are in contravention of the minister’s own policy,\u201d says Cavoukian. \u201cSo there was not a lot to go on there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although it didn\u2019t explicitly say so, Cavoukian says Hogan\u2019s letter seemed to call for a complete repeal of the DEC\u2019s policy, which passed this summer shortly after Hogan made a second revision to the government\u2019s policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Anglophone East policy requires staff to consult with transgender or non binary students of any age to determine their preferred first name and pronoun, and then use those consistently. That offers a stronger protection for students than the province\u2019s revised policy, which requires teachers to get parental consent before using a name requested by a student, if they are under 16 years of age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The province\u2019s policy specifies that districts may create supplemental policies that are \u201cconsistent with, or more comprehensive than,\u201d the provincial policy. Cavoukian says the Anglophone East DEC based their policy on advice in a report from the Child and Youth Advocate Kelly Lamrock, which was designed to beef up protections, without contravening the Department of Education\u2019s policy. But Hogan seems to think they didn\u2019t succeed, and so has asked for a repeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe fundamentally disagree, factually, with the minister,\u201d says Cavoukian. \u201cWe do not believe that anything that we’ve passed is in contravention of Policy 713.\u201d Cavoukian says the DEC consulted a lawyer to make sure they were on solid ground, legally. The decision to decline Hogan\u2019s request was made unanimously at the DEC\u2019s October meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Policy 713 came into effect in 2020, and was revised by Hogan this summer after he claimed he had received hundreds of complaints about the policy. But Hogan has only ever produced three emails<\/a> featuring generalized complaints calling LBBTQ curriculum un-Christian, and denying the existence of trans people. In August, UNB professor Melissa Dockrill Garrett told The Canadian Press<\/a> that a freedom of information request she filed showed that no parents had complained to the province about not being told about their children\u2019s preferred name or pronouns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cavoukian says that so far this year, the district still hasn\u2019t heard any issues or complaints over the policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis applies to a tiny, tiny number of kids in our province,\u201d says Cavoukian. \u201cIt\u2019s entirely likely that some schools will never, or not in the near future, encounter any issue for which policy 713 will be applicable.\u201d But the size of the minority just accentuates the vulnerability of those involved, says Cavoukian, and their need for protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that while most teachers and principals will probably not run into a policy 713 related issue this year, for those that do, it\u2019s so important to have the District Education Council provide them with a roadmap forward,\u201d says Cavoukian. \u201cAnd that’s why we’re very proud of what we have done. We stand by what we’ve done. And we feel that protecting some of the most vulnerable kids in our school system is a very, very important cause and one that we stand behind 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hogan’s Policy 713 changes a ‘disappointment’ for Anglophone East councillor<\/a><\/blockquote>