Retired lawyer cites Hogan’s and Higgs’ failure to ‘honour obligations lying at the heart of our education system’
As election day draws near in New Brunswick, I write to highlight the importance of one matter – Policy 713 – in the decision facing voters on Oct. 21. The implications of the Progressive Conservative government’s approach to this issue are much broader than may at first appear. Anyone who cares about our social contract here in New Brunswick, especially the protection of minority rights, should be deeply concerned.
By emphasizing “parents’ rights” and making them paramount to the rights of the students (especially vulnerable, marginalized students), Blaine Higgs and Bill Hogan fail to honour the obligations lying at the heart of our education system. They oversee a significant public trust, one in which the students are the primary beneficiaries and in which the best interests of those students must take precedence over all other concerns.
I have written to both Blaine Higgs and Bill Hogan on this subject, asking them to provide details of the legal foundation for the hierarchy of rights they have instituted in implementing the revised Policy 713. Neither of them has provided me with any response or, to my knowledge, offered any public statement about the legal basis for their position.
Of course, I am hardly alone in challenging their decisions. Notably, Kelly Lamrock, New Brunswick’s Child and Youth Advocate, has indicated that the revised policy undermines the constitutional rights of the affected students. In addition, there are multiple legal challenges arising from the revisions to the policy, and there have been protests by and on behalf of those directly affected by the policy.
In all instances, Premier Higgs and Minister Hogan have been unresponsive and disengaged from active, positive dialogue with anybody who holds a different point of view.
What they have done is use the issue as a wedge, attempting to divide the electorate along partisan lines despite the fact that no parents had complained about the policy. Shamefully, Higgs and the P.C. Party have also used the issue as a fundraising tool, beating the drum (or sounding the dog whistle) of parents’ rights to activate their base of supporters.
Of course, parents do have rights, and they have a significant interest in the operation of the public education system. However, our legal system recognizes that in matters affecting the youth of our province, the best interests of those young persons take precedence above all other considerations, including the rights of parents. Preserving the best interest of children is a foundational concept of our legal system, of the public education system and of the social contract in which we all participate.
Susan Holt and Marisa Pelkey have committed that a Liberal government will preserve the best interests of the students and protect their constitutional rights by implementing the recommendations of the Child and Youth Advocate report. That’s a position that deserves support on election day.
(Editors note: Green Party Leader David Coon has said his party will also implement recommendations from the Child and Youth Advocate’s report.)
Why do Blaine Higgs and Bill Hogan not share this objective of securing the best interests of the students and protecting the rights of vulnerable, marginalized minorities in our school system? Why won’t they offer a full explanation to the people of New Brunswick to justify their claims about the supremacy of parents’ rights? Is it because they don’t have an explanation or because they don’t think we deserve one?
Their choices in this matter have significant implications, not only for the affected students but for numerous issues affecting other constituencies. Their choices directly impact the kind of society we will have here in New Brunswick. Equally, their actions lack the good faith we have a right to expect from those who seek the privilege of elected office.
This issue demands the attention of every voter in this election. All these unanswered questions should leave every voter wondering about the real motives of Blaine Higgs and Bill Hogan. On this basis, neither of them deserves our support at the ballot box on Oct. 21, and they do not deserve to be re-elected. I urge all voters to consider this carefully as they head to the polls on Monday.
Stuart Kinney
Woodstock, N.B.
Stuart Kinney is a retired lawyer who lives in Woodstock, N.B.
