The Holt Liberal government has unveiled a new version of Policy 713, restoring the right of all students to choose their own names and pronouns to informally reflect their sexual orientation or gender identity at school.
Parental consent is “encouraged,” but no longer required, when a student of any age wants their chosen names and pronouns used informally at school, says the document, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2025.
That consent by parents is still required for formal use of names and pronouns, such as in official school records, by students under the age of 16.
The change amounts to restoring the main thrust of the original Policy 713, but with more encouragement of parental involvement when it does not pose a risk to the student.
“Students are not required to make their parents aware that they wish to informally change their first names or pronouns at school,” Education Minister Claire Johnson told reporters.
“However, we encourage parental awareness, always — when it’s safe to do.”
Government removes parental consent requirements, restores right of all students to choose names and pronouns for informal use.
The changes go farther than the recommendations of child and youth advocate Kelly Lamrock in a report last year.
He concluded the changes by the Blaine Higgs Progressive Conservative government — requiring parental consent for students younger than 16 — violated the Education Act, the provincial Human Rights Act and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“The parents do not have the right to a state apparatus to force their child to live by their values,” Lamrock said in August 2023.
Lamrock recommended that children younger than the Grade 6 level be assessed by a principal for whether they had the capacity to ask that their choices be used informally.
Premier Susan Holt initially promised to implement Lamrock’s recommendations but later said her new government would combine the advocate’s proposals with the result of its own consultations.
Johnson said the government decided to “move away” from an age threshold because “we feel that a child of any age has the potential to have the capacity to voice their preference.”
She also said an age limit might be vulnerable to a legal challenge.
Last year’s PC changes to Policy 713 provoked controversy, including within the PC government that first adopted the policy in 2020 and then revised it last year to add the parental consent requirement.
Six party MLAs, including four cabinet ministers, broke ranks with Higgs last year and voted to support a Liberal motion calling for Lamrock’s report, a split that threw the PC party into turmoil.
The PC version was the subject of a constitutional challenge in court by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
In a statement, the CCLA’s director of equality programs Harini Sivalingam said the new changes “undo the significant harms caused by the previous government’s policy” and comply with the Charter, the Human Rights Act and the Education Act.
“We will discuss with our legal counsel and affected community groups, but expect that these changes will resolve legal issues in our constitutional challenge,” Sivalingam said in a follow-up email.
The group had warned in October that the adoption of Lamrock’s recommendations alone might not be enough to end the lawsuit.
The new version of the policy says all students “have the right and presumed capacity to self-identify and communicate” their chosen first name and pronouns.
In rare cases when the principal or school staff are concerned a student doesn’t have the capacity and when the parents aren’t aware, an approved professional may assess the student’s capacity.
Green Party MLA Megan Mitton said she felt “some relief” about the change, but wanted more information on the idea of having to assess a child’s capacity to self-identify, even in rare cases.
She said that seems to contradict the statement that all students have a “presumed capacity to self-identify.”
“What exactly does that mean and what kind of cases are they talking about?” she said.
“For me that raises some red flags.”
In a written statement, PC Opposition Leader Glen Savoie, who supported Higgs last year on the issue as a member of his cabinet, did not take a position on the Liberal changes.
“The parents of New Brunswick school children will let the members of the Holt government know how they feel about these changes. Theirs is the voice that matters most,” he said.
The original version of Policy 713 was adopted by the Higgs government allowed all students, regardless of age, to be referred to by their preferred pronouns and names in school settings, without their parents being notified.
Students had to consent before teachers and staff could share that information with their families.
But in April 2023 the government abruptly decided to review the policy.
That followed lobbying by a small number of activists and a protest outside a New Brunswick Teachers’ Association meeting that included a workshop on how to implement the policy in the classroom.