Longtime Chilliwack school trustee Barry Neufeld launched the lawsuit in 2018 following a series of events that began in October 2017, when he wrote in a Facebook post that read in part:
“At the risk of being labeled a bigoted homophobe, I have to say that I support traditional family values and I agree with the College of paediatricians that allowing little children [to] choose to change gender is nothing short of child abuse. But now the BC Ministry of Education [has] embraced the LGBTQ lobby and is forcing this biologically absurd theory on children in our schools.”
‘I Don’t Know Why Schools Are Pushing This’
The case will be heard Oct. 11, just four days before the Oct. 15 B.C. general local election in which Neufeld is running for school trustee. The former counsellor to at-risk youth told The Epoch Times that he took special exception to being called a danger to students and said that concern for students led him to speak out.“If these girls [and boys] were flourishing I might not say anything, but they’re not. They’re miserable, they’re mad at their families, they’re mad at school, they’re mad at everybody. And then they get up into their mid-20s and realize what a stupid mistake they’ve made. We’re seeing more and more detransitioners. I don’t know why the schools are pushing this ever, even right in kindergarten,” Neufeld said.
“It’s not working. Canada’s slow. European countries are already backing away from transitioning children, and shut down the Tavistock gender clinic in England. Both Finland and Sweden now insist that kids can’t do it until they’re 18. But here in British Columbia, we’re pushing it to adolescent kids or pre-pubescent kids.”
“It’s been four and a half years, and the tribunal hasn’t even set a hearing date yet,“ he said. ”If you commit a murder, and you don’t have your trial within 30 months, it'll get tossed.”
He believes the PPPA should defend Neufeld instead of being leveraged against him.
“The whole purpose of that statute is to prevent an abusive process in the courts, generally instigated by powerful parties like governments and public sector unions and so forth, against individuals who are brave enough to speak out on contentious matters,” Jaffe said.
The Epoch Times contacted Hansman and the BCTF for comment, but didn’t hear back.
‘Progressive’ Court
Jaffe says the Supreme Court of Canada rarely grants a leave to appeal, such as it did for Hansman, and wonders if it will approach the case fairly.“I’m quite concerned about how political the court has become. It’s declared itself as being progressive. There’s several judges there who make no bones about that, which tells me that they bring to the table a pre-existing disposition towards things, and this is a very unsettling,” he said.
“It’s a total free speech case. ... I don’t know where we’re headed. If the courts aren’t there for people like Neufeld, I think we’re in a lot of trouble.”
“If Glen Hansman can get away with saying that I’m not fit to be around children because of my opinion, anybody who shares that opinion will be considered unfit to be around children. So there go all the Christian schoolteachers, there go all the Christian private schools,” he said.
Heather Maahs, a school trustee who sits on the Chilliwack Board of Education with Neufeld, is also concerned about what may follow if the courts rule against him.
“If he loses, ... we’re all done, because that will give permission to teachers’ union heads, any organization really, to go and tell lies and defame any elected people. If he loses that will make it legal for people to do that,” Maahs said in an interview.
“This case is going to be pivotal.”