Image: Supplied by Canadian Press / SD33 Board of Education Trustee Barry Neufeld.

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Barry Neufeld

Supreme Court of Canada sets date for Chilliwack trustee Barry Neufeld’s defamation lawsuit

Jul 10, 2022 | 6:03 AM

CHILLIWACK — Chilliwack School District Board of Education trustee Barry Neufeld says he has raised over $90,000 since 2018 to fund his legal defamation suit against the former head of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation.

Neufeld, who was first elected to the school board in 1993, will have his day before the Supreme Court of Canada on October 12 in Ottawa. Neufeld says he plans to attend in person.

The legal proceedings stem from comments made by Neufeld in which he criticized several aspects of a sexual orientation and gender identity program and how it was rolled out in B.C. schools. Glen Hansman, the former president of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, roundly condemned Neufeld for his comments when interviewed by media. Neufeld brought a defamation claim, to which Hansman applied to have it dismissed under the Protection of Public Participation Act. A B.C. judge dismissed the claim by finding there was a valid defence of fair comment. Neufeld appealed the dismissal to the B.C. Court of Appeals and won. The Supreme Court agreed in January 2022 to hear Hansman’s appeal of a lower court ruling.

The eight-term trustee has been stripped of all trustee liaison duties during his current term, meaning he does not visit assigned schools like other school trustees.

“If Glen Hansman wins, then any person who doesn’t go along with gender ideology will be considered unfit around children,” Neufeld argued. “I’ve been humiliated for four years. I’m considered a danger to children. The only person who has actually said that I’m a danger to children was Glen Hansman. I’m trying to overturn his opinion because I spent a whole career working with at-risk kids. It’s quite an insult.”

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Neufeld, who will seek an unprecedented ninth term on the Chilliwack school board this fall, is being represented by Paul Jaffe from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.

Hansman has 17 legal interveners; Neufeld has none.

Legal intervention allows non-parties in a lawsuit to participate. The Supreme Court of Canada grants over 90 percent of intervention motions, according to Canadian law firm McCarthy Tetrault.

Neufeld captured the second-most votes during the last school board election in 2018, finishing with 9,224 votes behind frontrunner Dan Coulter, who is now an MLA for Chilliwack.