How a New Brunswick Policy inflamed the ‘parental rights’ debate in Canada

At the time it was implemented, there was nothing at all remarkable about Policy 713. It was an update to previous guidance, based on research, and very similar to policies in place at school boards across the country.

But then the angry phone calls started coming, the premier got on board with repealing it, and all hell broke loose.

Simon Lewsen wrote about the moral panic around gender conversations in schools for Maclean‘s. 

“I never thought I would be writing a magazine article about a piece of HR policy from Canada’s eighth-largest province. But here we are. This policy has become an absolute firestorm and is at the centre of raging controversy across the country,” said Lewsen. 

The fight over “parental rights” that started in New Brunswick has now spread to much of the rest of the country. And in the province where it began, it’s currently an election issue. 

How did a simple policy become such a Canada-wide chasm?

You can subscribe to The Big Story podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

You can also find it at thebigstorypodcast.ca.