N.B. PC candidate under fire for comparing Policy 713 to Canadian residential schools
CTV
A Progressive Conservative candidate in New Brunswick’s upcoming election is under fire Tuesday morning for a Facebook post she made on Truth and Reconciliation Day.
A Progressive Conservative candidate in New Brunswick’s upcoming election is under fire Tuesday morning for a Facebook post she made on Truth and Reconciliation Day.
Sherry Wilson, a candidate for the new riding of Albert-Riverview, seemed to make a comparison between the effect the Canadian residential school system had on Indigenous families and parents not knowing details of their children’s gender identity.
In 2023, Premier Blaine Higgs’ government made changes to Policy 713 requiring students under the age of 16 to receive parental consent before they can change their pronouns or preferred first names at school.
Wilson wrote in her post that former Canadian governments tried to make the case that Indigenous parents were harmful to their children, and the children’s culture and lifestyle needed to be changed at government schools.
“This 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,” wrote Wilson.
“Parents are trusted partners, and the primary caregivers in guiding the values that shape their child’s identity,” she wrote. “We must never put our teachers in the position where they have to hide important parts of a child’s development from their own parents!”
Wilson went on to say that government of today cannot repeat the tragic mistakes that destroyed thousands of Indigenous families.
