Transgenderism in British Columbia Schools

"We need to suspend SOGI [Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity] provincewide until an examination is done on its impact, if any, on the perpetrator of the tragedy in Tumbler Ridge."

"[There is a need for a] full public inquiry [on the impact of SOGI in schools in British Columbia]." 

"A school board trustee is technically an employer, and any one of 2,500+ District employees could claim discrimination in the workplace if I made a remark about gender. [I could face a] huge penalty [for speaking freely while serving on the board]."

"As the disastrous recent Human Rights Tribunal ruling made clear, the bar to prove workplace discrimination is low." 

"I can no longer do my job. All democratically-elected officials must feel comfortable to speak their mind without worrying about accusations of workplace discrimination. Since I no longer feel safe in expressing myself on the board in legitimate ways, the only proper course is to resign."
"[My freedom to speak to board issues going forward has been] obstructed. [While the B.C. Human Right Tribunal decision expresses support for freedom of speech], there is a fine line between speech that falls afoul of the Human Rights Code and speech that doesn’t."

Laurie Throness, British Columbia school trustee, Chilliwack, B.C.

Laurie Throness has resigned from his role as school trustee on the Chilliwack School Board citing the Barry Neufeld hate-speech decision as a reason on Feb. 26, 2026. (Submitted)

"The Board is committed to reducing and where possible eliminating, the practice of segregating students based on sex and/or gender in order to ensure the full inclusion of transgender and/or gender non-conforming students."

Sooke School District School Board, British Columbia 

Six people at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School were murdered; five children and a teacher on February 10, 2025 when 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, a former pupil at the school, entered the school premises and began shooting people. The teen was a biological male who began transitioning to female a few years previous to the tragedy. Before embarking on his murder spree at the school, he had killed his mother and younger half-brother. Reports of the shocking tragedy spoke of the gun-toting intruder as a dress-garbed woman.

 

A month ago, another former member of the Chilliwack School Board who had fulminated in public and through social media postings over the normalization in the school district of transgenderism as a harmful ideology being forced on schoolchildren through mandated policies such as SOGI. Transgender teaching staff at the school he had represented filed a human rights grievance against Barry Neufeld. The B.C. Human Rights Commission found him guilty of expressing hatred against LGBTQ groups and fined him a ruinous $750,000 to be paid out to the grieving transgender teaching staff.

 

In the wake of that spectacular miscarriage of justice in a province that venerates progressive social justice, a second school trustee, Laurie Throness, decided to resign before calling out the malign influence of gender ideology practised in schools across the province. Formerly a provincial Liberal MLA, Mr. Throness takes full issue with the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity curriculum imposed upon the province's schools.

The first set of temporary classrooms have arrived in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. They are being set up on the grounds of Tumbler Ridge Elementary School to support the students displaced by the Feb. 10, 2026, mass shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School. (Matt Preprost/CBC)

 

Under SOGI "rainbow displays" find prominent place on school property, alongside a policy of "affirming self-stated gender identity" claimed by students, while enforcing among the student body respectful observation of personalized gender identity. A move  toward "gender neutral washrooms and change rooms", and girls' and boys' sports to be recognized in absolute respect for student-self-identified gender preferences rule the day. 

 

In the instance of the Tribunal's ruling against Barry Neufeld's refusal to accept gender distinct from biology...the ruling read in part: "...to accept that a person is transgender, one must accept that their gender identity is different than their sex assigned at birth". The Tribunal premised their ruling on Mr. Neufeld's comments having created a discriminatory work environment for transgender teachers in the district, while Mr. Neufeld was still a sitting trustee.

 

Mr. Throness, by resigning his post as trustee, seeks to defend himself from a similar ruling, while he disputes the gender ideology that has taken root in the provincial school system. Mr. Throness references a "pattern of similar events in the States", with transgender students mounting school massacres. A 23-year-old biological man identifying as female in Minneapolis killing two young students, a female alumnus of a Nashville, Tennessee school murdering three children and three adult school employees. 

 

"Significantly higher" rates of suicide, suicide attempts and "suicide-unrelated mortality among transgender individuals" was identified in a 2023 Danish study. Among trans adolescents, found a research review published in the Journal of Psychiatry Treatment and Research in 2021, that among trans adolescents, up to 45 percent "have some type of psychiatric comorbidity". 

 

Hundreds gathered to leave candles, flowers, and other items for a vigil held in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., on Feb. 13, 2026. The next day, friends, family, and neighbours were still visiting the steps outside town hall to pay their respects to those who were lost. (Tom Summer/CBC)

 

Significantly, the Tumbler Ridge mass murderer had a history of being taken into custody under the Mental Health Act. He was not to be given access to guns. His mother, however, was a gun aficionado, and despite her son's mental breakdowns from time to time, encouraged his interest in guns. He repaid her by using one of her own long guns to shoot her and another of her sons to death. 

 

The office which houses the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal is seen in Vancouver, B.C., Monday, March 28, 2023. The Tribunal ordered former Chilliwack school trustee Barry Neufeld to pay $750,000 after a complaint about workplace discrimination. Chilliwack trustee Laurie Throness says he's resigned his seat in wake of the decision against Neufeld. (Nono Shen/The Canadian Press)