A battle over policies meant to protect the rights of trans kids in the New Brunswick public school system extended into the courts earlier this year, with two Charter challenges against the provincial government’s changes to Policy 713: one led by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, and one by the Anglophone East District Education Council (DEC).
Now a new court battle has begun with its roots in the Policy 713 controversy: Minister of Education Bill Hogan is taking the Anglophone East DEC to court to seek its dissolution. That means the Tantramar family of schools could find itself under the direct leadership of the province, instead of an elected council.
According to a report by CBC’s Shane Magee, the case for the dissolution of the DEC will be heard by Moncton’s Court of King’s Bench on November 14, nearly a month after a provincial election slated for October 21.
CHMA spoke with Anglophone East DEC councillor Kristin Cavoukian last week to learn more about the council’s position in both its case against the province, and the provincial case against the DEC. We started off asking Cavoukian about a recent DEC decision to pursue an appeal of Judge Tracey DeWare’s decision to deny the council legal standing in its Policy 713 case.
“Our lawyers believe that some errors were made,” says Cavoukian, “and that an appeal is a worthwhile thing to do. None of us are ready to give up on this fight yet.”
Cavoukian points to DeWare’s written decision which found the DEC did not have legal standing to pursue its case. “I would say it comes across as semi-favourable to the argument we were making,” says Cavoukian, “if not outright favourable to it.” Cavoukian says the council didn’t get the sense that their suit was “a lost cause”.
“To have a suit thrown out based on standing is losing on a technicality,” says Cavoukian. “So the decision was taken right away that we would be appealing.”
Concerns over legal spending ‘disingenuous’
Education Minister Bill Hogan has long criticized the DEC for its spending on the Policy 713 case. In December last year, Hogan denied the DEC’s request for funding to cover legal fees for its case against the province, going so far as to change the department’s policy on how DECs can access funding to cover legal fees. In a letter on July 8, Hogan says that just over $400,000 in legal fees were “misappropriated” and “wasted” by the Anglophone East DEC.
“I understand concerns about expenses,” says Cavoukian, “but in this case, I believe that these concerns are being raised in a disingenuous way.”
Cavoukian says that the money spent so far on legal fees is a small percentage (less than 0.2%) of the DEC’s annual $231 million budget. “We’re not talking about enormous sums of money that are being diverted,” says Cavoukian.
She also says that the legal fees fall under a significant portion of the DEC’s budget which goes to things other than direct classroom learning.
“The idea that that some classroom is going without books, or some teacher hasn’t been hired,” says Cavoukian. “I mean, these are just ridiculous claims to be making, and there’s simply no grounds for them.”
Cavoukian again points to Judge Tracey DeWare’s written decision on the DEC’s legal standing to sue over Policy 713, which rules out the relevance of the province’s concerns over the DEC’s spending on legal fees. “I think the way she phrased it was, ‘democracy is messy and expensive,’” says Cavoukian.
DECs are ‘crucial’
Cavoukian also says she believes local governance is important to New Brunswickers. “I’m not sure what the point would be of having a District Education Council that’s elected by the citizens who live in that district,” says Cavoukian, “if their decisions could simply be overridden at all points in time by the Minister.”
She points to a bill introduced by Minister Hogan in May of last year to change Anglophone DECs to simply advisory bodies, with no actual authority. The changes would have applied only to Anglophone DECs, and left Francophone DECs as they are. But just days after introducing the bill, Hogan told the legislature he would no longer be pursuing it.
The following month, Hogan made his first change to the Education department’s Policy 713, starting the controversy that went on to spawn two Charter challenges, and now the move to dissolve the Anglophone East DEC.
“District education councils are a way to make sure that local issues about education are decided locally, by people that parents and community members in that community have elected,” says Cavoukian. “Having that local governance level, no matter how you feel about policy 713, is a crucial, crucial thing.“
“People want their district education councils,” says Cavoukian, “because they understand that we are the last bulwark against the politicization of our education system.”
CHMA reached out to the Department of Education on July 10 with a list of questions and request for comment, and have yet to receive a response.
