Chilliwack, BC, School Board Facing More Legal Action for Allegedly Censoring Public

Former Chilliwack school trustee Darrell Furgason outside the Chilliwack School Board office where he alleges he has been repeatedly muted from giving input during public meetings. Jeff Sandes/The Epoch Times

CHILLIWACK, B.C.—A British Columbia school board, already facing legal action for allegedly restricting speech during its public meetings, may soon see more civil suits, as both a current and a former trustee are making similar accusations.

The development is part of a trend that has seen pro-parental rights trustees, teachers, and members of the public reporting they were silenced at school board meetings.

Darrell Furgason, who served as a trustee with the Chilliwack School District from 2018 to 2022, continues to attend most board meetings as a member of the public since losing his re-election bid.

Mr. Furgason says that when he was speaking at a public meeting in October 2023 and again on Feb. 13 this year, school board chair Willow Reichelt repeatedly muted his microphone, a move he believes was arbitrary and unwarranted. And now he plans to sue.

“There’s chunks of it missing on that video—her statements, my statements—and I do believe that’s a violation of their role as elected officials to just mute themselves when they don’t feel happy,” he said.

“They’ve done it twice to me and you'd think Willow [Reichelt] would learn? No, they don’t learn, so I decided I’m going to launch a lawsuit against the board and I’ve got video evidence. I’m going after them. There’s only one thing they’ll listen to and that’s the law.”

The Epoch Times contacted Ms. Reichelt as well as vice-chair Carin Bondar for comment but didn’t hear back.

In October 2023, a lawsuit was launched by Lynda di Armani, a grandmother and former education assistant with the same school district in the city about 100 kilometres east of Vancouver. Ms. di Armani says she was unable to comment without being censored during public meetings. She told The Epoch Times that since initiating her lawsuit, she has been given more opportunity to speak than before but still gets muted, with the chair saying she strays off-topic.

“You’re only allowed to talk about things that are on the agenda and they make really strict rules, so they used to cut me off all the time,“ she said. ”And they’ve shut down meetings. They will shut down a meeting for five minutes if they don’t like what you’re saying. This board is very left-wing.”

Marty Moore, a lawyer with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms who is serving as counsel for Ms. Di Armani, says there’s evidence of a “pattern of muting people” at board meetings.

“I think there’s a significant amount of evidence showing this pattern of muting people, not on the basis that they violated a policy, but on the basis that different board members disagree with the comments being spoken,” Mr. Moore told The Epoch Times. “Or they don’t like what those comments would require them to do.”

In documents he filed to the Supreme Court of British Columbia in October 2023, Mr. Moore highlighted B.C.’s School Act along with a Chilliwack School District bylaw made under the act that set out provisions governing public engagement by elected officials. Section 69 of the act as well as Bylaw 5, on board meeting procedures, say board meetings must be open to the public. The bylaw also states that public participation must be allowed at regular board meetings and that it’s the responsibility of the chair to indicate another means of response if questions can’t be answered at the time.

“Those documents relate specifically to censorship and muting and silencing and ultimately the termination of her presentation on June 13 of last year,” he said.

“Di Armani is actually bringing this case in the public interest, saying there’s been a pattern of censorship by the school division and the court needs to step in and show this board where the guardrails are, where personal views of board members run afoul of constitutional protections, and why board members must follow the policies and respect the charter rights that would govern public expression at a public school board meeting.”

Censured for Third Time

The Feb. 13 board meeting also saw the third censure of trustee Heather Maahs in one year, this time resulting in her losing her committee assignments and participation during in-camera meetings.

Heather Maahs, a board of education trustee with the Chilliwack School District, is seen in Chilliwack, B.C., on Feb. 23, 2024. Ms. Maahs, first elected in 2008, is currently the longest-serving trustee in the school district. Jeff Sandes/The Epoch Times

Her first censure occurred in March 2023, after the board conducted an in-camera vote which concluded that she had breached the school district’s Trustee Code of Conduct.

The school district subsequently issued a statement referring to a provision in the code that says, “Trustees will carry out their duties faithfully, diligently and in a manner that will inspire public confidence in the ability and integrity of the Board.” The statement said, in part, “Trustee Maahs did not uphold these responsibilities in her support of a campaign against staff-selected learning resources in the district, and in her opposition to a student-led event.”

The vote came after Ms. Maahs spoke in favour of parental rights during a discussion related to sex-education material.

“What we’ve done is thrown a couple of obstacles at parents in order to make it just a little harder for them to be able to find the process if there is material that they find objectionable,” she said at the March 13 meeting. “The children belong to their parents. It’s their right.”

She was censured again in December 2023, after posting a media article on her Facebook page. The article described a survey given to students asking questions about gender identity and names they don’t want their parents to know about. The board agreed that she had again broken the Trustee Code of Conduct by not endorsing board of education curriculum.

After the in-camera meeting vote to censure her a third time and after her Feb. 13 trustee report had been edited without her inclusion, Ms. Maahs told The Epoch Times she now has to consider her options to defend herself. “They just want to humiliate me right now,” she said. “I’m having conversations with legal counsel. I’ve called the ombudsman. And I’ve called Carolyn Broady, president of the B.C. School Trustees Association.”

Ms. Maahs is the latest school trustee to pursue legal action after receiving discipline and gaining national attention.

Lisa Robinson, a school trustee in Pickering, Ontario, has applied for judicial reviews against the City of Pickering and Principles Integrity, the groups responsible for disciplining her and docking her pay in 2023. The move came after Ms. Robinson said she was planning on introducing motions to ban drag shows and pride parades anywhere children could be present, according to council documents.

Linda Stone, a trustee with the Durham District School Board in Ontario, was banned from future meetings in February 2023 after she criticized a draft human rights policy that she said kept parents in the dark if their children were changing genders.

A year before that , in January 2022, a teacher with the Waterloo Regional District School Board was shut down by the district’s board chair after she raised questions about the suitability of certain books in school libraries that involved sexual content. Carolyn Burjoski, who has since retired, is currently pursuing legal action against the school board.

In Winnipeg, a school trustee was suspended in 2023 after she posted memes on gender issues on social media, including two that said, “Make men masculine again. Make women feminine again. Make children innocent again.” Another one says, “To identify as = To live a lie.” Francine Champagne later resigned as a trustee in November 2023.

‘It’s a Total Double Standard’

For Ms. Maahs, her punishment is a reflection of bias among her colleagues given that other trustees have violated the Code of Conduct without receiving review or discipline. This includes one trustee who she said used vulgar language toward a trustee from another school district in 2023.

“It’s a total double standard we’ve got going here. And they just don’t see it because they have a majority so they feel entitled to do whatever they want—and they do,” she said. “This is behaviour unbecoming a board of education, and it breaks the Code of Conduct, but there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s really appalling.”

Mr. Furgason has the same allegations. During the Feb. 13 meeting, he referenced the board’s Trustee Code of Conduct and alleged that one trustee swore at him while making an obscene gesture, and another posted offensive memes on social media derogatory toward Christians and people with traditional family values. He was muted before his comments could be included as part of the public record.

Chilliwack School District head office and site for public meetings in Chilliwack, B.C., on Feb. 23, 2024. Jeff Sandes/The Epoch Times

In July 2023, Ms. Reichelt issued an apology after a meme posted by trustee Teri Westerby garnered backlash.

“The meme that Trustee Westerby shared on his personal Facebook page was intended to poke fun at online commentators who are upset that the Barbie movie has a feminist message,” she said.

“If you know the history of the meme, you know that the intent is not to advocate crushing traditional values but to point out the absurdity of saying that the Barbie movie has that power. However, if you do not know the meme’s history, it’s understandable that the image could be hurtful. I apologize on behalf of the board, and I want to offer my assurance that Christians and other people of faith are welcome and supported in this district.”

The Epoch Times contacted trustee Westerby for comment, but did not receive any replies.

At the Feb. 13 meeting, a member of the public who identified herself only as Judy asked Ms. Reichelt what she and others can do when they feel ignored or dismissed by the board.

“If questions don’t get answered via emails, via phone calls, via all kinds of things, how do we get our voices heard?” she asked.

“Emails do get answered. Sometimes people don’t like the answers they get, but emails do get answered,” Ms. Reichelt answered. “If you don’t like the way the board is performing, there’s an election every four years.”