Did hundreds of complaints trigger the review of LGBTQ policy or just 3?

New Brunswickers still don't know exactly how many complaints triggered the review of a policy meant to protect LGBTQ students and likely won't be able to find out before the review is finalized.

Education Minister Bill Hogan said the review of Policy 713 was triggered by "misinterpretations and concerns," and said the province had received hundreds of complaints about it. He has never clarified how many of those came before the review decision and how many came after the review became public.

The policy was implemented in 2020 and guarantees minimum protections to LGBTQ kids in school, including providing gender-neutral washrooms and respecting their pronouns in the classroom.

Premier Blaine Higgs confirmed this week the main issue with the policy is that it says if a child under 16 wants an informal name or pronoun change, teachers are required to get consent of the child before telling their parents. Parents still have to sign off on any formal changes and the policy does not change that.

Policy 713 triggered little public debate until two weeks ago.

On May 5, a small group of people holding placards protesting its implementation stood outside a school where teachers were holding professional development sessions.

That's when the province confirmed to media that it had been reviewing the policy since mid-April. On Thursday, spokesperson Morgan Bell said the decision to review was "communicated" on April 21, but she did not answer a question about when the decision to review was made.

The closest anyone has come to uncovering the substance of the complaints received by the government is Kelly Lamrock, the province's child and youth advocate.

He asked the province for the correspondence that triggered the review, and officials sent him copies of three emails. All three make unsubstantiated and sometimes homophobic claims. They also address curriculum concerns, which Policy 713 does not dictate, and none of them referred to the specific policy. 

One, sent in December of 2022, said LGBTQ material should not be taught because it's against Christian beliefs.

Another email, from October 2022, said kids are being taught "Marxist" and "unscientific nonsense" about gender.

The third one, from April 4, 2023, referred to a long-debunked conspiracy theory about litter boxes in schools. The writer of the April email said, "I am not homophobic," and "humans are created male and female and nothing can change that."

Based on these emails, and other information given to him by the province, Lamrock said he recommended that the province pause the review and called the process "broken and incoherent."

"I am not sure any government decision could survive if receiving three complaints led to reconsideration," he wrote.