N.B. premier under fire, told to apologize for saying kids being taught to lie

Blaine Higgs told reporters in September that children were being taught to lie to their parents in school with the old version of the province's school gender identity policy.

Both opposition parties are calling on Premier Blaine Higgs to apologize to New Brunswick teachers after telling reporters that children are being taught to lie in the province’s education system.

“Teachers need to hear you acknowledge that you respect their work and that you don’t believe that they are teaching children to lie in New Brunswick. You are creating mistrust between parents and teachers and you’re undermining the education system,” Liberal Leader Susan Holt said during question period Wednesday.

On Sept. 20, Higgs attended the 1MillionMarch4Children outside the legislature, speaking with protesters calling for LGBTQ2 subjects and themes to be eliminated from the classroom. While speaking with reporters that day, he said the old version of the province’s school gender identity policy taught children to lie to their parents.

“Parents didn’t know. Parents did not know that in the education system, children were being taught to lie to their parents. They didn’t know and now they do,” he said.

“I don’t believe that our educational system should be teaching kids to be untruthful with their parents.”

The old version of Policy 713 made it mandatory for schools to respect the chosen name and pronouns of children under 16, even if they weren’t comfortable with the school informing their parents of the choice. The new version, which was released in June, requires parental consent for children under 16 to use a name or pronoun that isn’t consistent with the gender they were assigned at birth.

Higgs was asked repeatedly by reporters on Wednesday if he stands by his comments that children are being taught to lie in school, but wouldn’t directly answer the question.

“My position and my statement is that if we have a policy that is basically saying it is OK to hide information from parents, should a teacher be put in that position, and I think it’s pretty clear that no they should not,” he said.