Minister quits as N.B. legislature condemns premier's LGBTQ policy change

Progressive Conservative minister Dorothy Shephard resigned from cabinet Thursday, moments after the legislature voted in favour of an opposition Liberal motion on LGBTQ students in provincial schools.

Shephard, the MLA for Saint John-Lancaster, handed a letter to Premier Blaine Higgs just moments after the extraordinary vote.

"I can no longer remain in cabinet," said the handwritten letter. "I resign from cabinet effective immediately."

Her resignation as minister of social development came at the end of an emotional, and often personal, two-hour debate on the Liberal motion.

Shephard was seen walking out of the legislature during Premier Blaine Higgs's speech on the motion, but she returned later to join five other PC ministers and MLAs to vote with the opposition.

The initial version of the motion called on the Higgs government to reverse its changes to Policy 713, which sets minimum standards for safe, inclusive schools for LGBTQ students.

The Liberals amended their motion to have it call for "full consultations"  by child and youth advocate Kelly Lamrock, with a report due in August.

The six PC MLAs voted for that amendment and then for the amended motion itself, helping it pass 26-20. 

Lamrock immediately announced on Twitter he will do the study.

"I am an officer of the Legislative Assembly. A vote of the majority of the House is binding upon me," he said. "I will carry out the direction of the Legislative Assembly to the best of my abilities."

Higgs would not commit to following whatever Lamrock recommends, after the majority vote for his study.

"I'm looking at the majority of caucus that supported what our minister put forward, so I'm going to rely on him to look at who else he needs to talk to about how to implement the policy, how to engage parents, and we'll allow that to unfold," he said.

"We can't let individual feelings in the legislature at this point … kind of overshadow the hundreds or probably thousands of parents and what is being identified as something that needs to be addressed."

Education Minister Bill Hogan introduced changes June 7 that he said make it mandatory to get parental consent before even using the chosen name and pronoun of a child younger than 16 in class.