A civil liberties group has ended its lawsuit over changes to New Brunswick’s gender identity policy in schools.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) announced Wednesday that its Policy 713 lawsuit had been discontinued.
It stemmed from controversial changes made to the school gender identity policy by the previous Higgs government in 2023.
The changes required students under 16 to get parental consent if they wanted to informally use a different name or pronouns in school.
That led to protests and court battles, dissent from with the Progressive Conservative caucus, and a report from the province’s child and youth advocate that said the revised policy violated children’s rights.
In December, just weeks after its election victory, the new Liberal government announced it was reversing the changes made by the Higgs government — which the association said provides a “safer, more affirming and inclusive learning environment for all New Brunswick students.”
“Those changes reversed the significant harms caused by the previous government’s policy,” Harini Sivalingam, director of the Equality Program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said Wednesday.
Students under 16 no longer require parental consent to informally change their first name and pronouns, but consent is still required for formal use. Those aged 16 and over do not need parental awareness for formal or informal use, which has been consistent from the original policy introduced in 2020.
The updated policy also encourages parental awareness whenever possible, something Education Minister Claire Johnson said had been missing.
According to the revised policy, there is an “expectation” that families are fully involved and aware if their child wants to change their name and pronouns.
If a student does not feel comfortable, the school will respect their wishes and work with them to create a support plan “when they are ready” to make their parents aware. Johnson said what that would look like would ultimately depend on the student and would be on a case-by-case basis.
“We really wanted to make it explicit and obvious that we want to involve parents and families as much as possible,” she said.
The revisions also allow for an “approved professional” to assess a student’s capacity to make this type of decision if there is any concern from school staff — something that did not exist previously.
“This is the way that we decided to address the capacity piece that was present in the child and youth advocate version,” said the education minister.
“The spirit of this is to let teachers and principals know that there are going to be resources available to them if they feel like it’s outside of their wheelhouse.”
The child and youth advocate recommended that if a child under Grade 6 requests an informal name or pronoun change, it should be up to the principal to assess the student’s capacity.
Johnson said they decided to move away from the age limit, partly because it could have the potential to be subject to a legal challenge.
