Updated July 5, 2024, 10pm to include confirmation of filing from Department of Education spokesperson, Erika Jutras.
School may be out for the summer, but the Anglophone East District Education Council was back in action on Thursday, responding to news of an order in council approved by the provincial cabinet on May 9, 2024, authorizing Minister Bill Hogan to go to court to dissolve the District Education council for Anglophone East. By end of day Friday, the minister would make use of that authorization.
Hogan had previously threatened the council with dissolution, but the order in council shows that he has support of the PC government cabinet to pursue the dissolution.
In a statement Thursday, the DEC says they have not received “any formal notice indicating that the minister has filed the required application to dissolve the DEC with the court.”
But a spokesperson for the Education department told CHMA that could be coming soon. “The intention is to file shortly with the court to dissolve the District Education Council for Anglophone-East,” wrote communications officer Judy Winter in response to a CHMA enquiry Thursday.
It’s not clear if the court would be able to deal with the matter before the New Brunswick provincial election, due to happen in less than four months’ time, by October 21, 2024.
The DEC statement says it is prepared to “defend its integrity through all available channels”, if and when the minister “chooses to act on the May 9th authorization.”
It goes on to say “the DEC firmly believes in the importance of local governance and community involvement in educational matters.”
The DEC claims that its existence is protected by section 16.1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees New Brunswick’s anglophone and francophone communities “the right to distinct educational institutions”.
On Friday, Department of Education director of communication Erika Jutras sent out a statement saying a court filing is “the next step” for the department, after attempts to get the DEC to “take corrective action on Policy 713” and accusing the council of “spending money that was intended for educational purposes to hire Ontario-based lawyers.”
“The Education Act lays out the process to follow when a DEC refuses to follow its mandate,” reads the statement. “Unfortunately filing for the dissolution of the Anglophone East DEC is our next step as per the Act.”
Then later Friday evening Jutras confirmed via email that “the dissolution has been filed.”
The DEC got some more bad news on Friday, as Court of King’s Bench Judge Tracey DeWare released her decision finding that the council does not have standing to pursue suing the province over potential rights violations in its controversial Policy 713.
DeWare ruled that a Canadian Civil Liberties Association case currently underway in a Fredericton court “seeks the exact same constitutional scrutiny of Policy 713 as is at the heart of the current action,” and is a “realistic alternative manner to efficiently and effectively adjudicate the constitutional validity of Policy 713.”
