Judge sets dates for next steps in school district Policy 713 case

A court hearing will take place in June to decide whether to prevent the New Brunswick government from dissolving a school district board over a gender identity policy.

"We do have to move quickly here," Court of King's Bench Chief Justice Tracey DeWare said Wednesday while setting timelines for the next steps in the case.

Last month, Anglophone East School District sought an injunction to prevent Education Minister Bill Hogan from revoking the district's policy.

Hogan, the district alleges, had threatened to dissolve the council overseeing schools in the Moncton region if it didn't comply with his demand by the end of March. The Education Act requires Hogan to ask a judge to approve dissolution.

The district wants a judge to temporarily prevent revoking of its policy and dissolution ahead of a broader court challenge of Hogan's changes last year to Policy 713.

The changes to the provincial gender-identity policy include making it mandatory for parental consent before school staff can use a chosen name and pronoun for children under 16.

Anglophone East's injunction request said it intends to argue that mandatory parental consent requirements go against the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Constitution, the provincial Human Rights Act and the Education Act.

The district's case will be the second legal challenge to the policy change. A separate case launched last year by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association returns to court in Fredericton on Thursday.

Lawyers for the province and Anglophone East appeared in court Wednesday by phone as DeWare scheduled the next steps in the district's case. 

Perri Ravon, a lawyer representing Anglophone East, argued for a judge to rule before the end of the school year. Ravon said allowing the provincial policy to apply, instead of the district's, would cause harm to students. 

"The minister appears to be determined to have the policy applied as soon as possible," Ravon said. 

Clarence Bennett, a lawyer representing the province, said the policy changes aren't new, and that the district's proposed timeline would be impossible.

Bennett said once the district files its broader challenge of Policy 713, the province will seek to have the case tossed. 

"We will file a motion to have this thing dismissed in its entirety," Bennett said.