N.B. election: Conservative candidate compares LGBTQ policy to residential schools

A Progressive Conservative candidate in New Brunswick’s election is facing calls to withdraw after she compared the province’s former policy on gender identity in schools with the residential school system.

Sherry Wilson, the minister responsible for women’s equality in the Blaine Higgs government, was referring to the policy allowing teachers to use the preferred first names and pronouns of transgender and non-binary students.

Claiming “parents’ rights,” the Progressive Conservative government under Higgs modified that guidance in 2023, requiring that teachers get parental consent before using the preferred names of students under 16.

Wilson, in a Facebook post on Monday marking National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, said the residential school system isolated Indigenous children from their parents, traditional values and family culture.

“The government of the day actually tried to make the case that parents were harmful to their children, and that government schools needed to change their culture and lifestyle,” the post read.

“The horrible tragedy is a stain on Canadian history, but it was only allowed to happen because children enrolled in school were isolated from their parents’ oversight, input and influence …. This must never be allowed to happen again in Canada! We must never put our teachers in a position where they have to hide important parts of a child’s development from their own parents!”

She concluded by saying she is “committed to keeping the parents of minor children aware of, and involved in, their children’s development while they are entrusted to our government schools.”

The Progressive Conservative team did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Wilson’s Facebook post has been taken down.