Province to Reinstate Victoria School Trustees After Failing to Produce Documents
VICTORIA — Greater Victoria school trustees, who were fired by the provincial government for refusing to allow police in schools, are expected to be reinstated after the province admitted to botching its legal defence. Education Minister Lisa Beare announced that the government had made administrative errors that only came to light in the past few days, leading to the withdrawal of the province's defence in the lawsuit filed by the trustees.
On Monday, just as the case was set to go to trial, the provincial lawyer acknowledged that the Education Ministry failed to disclose text messages it had been ordered to hand over months earlier. As a result, the province withdrew its defence. Beare told reporters that the errors were discovered recently and that her staff advised reinstating the trustees as the best course of action.
“This decision by the province is the responsible step after acknowledging these significant errors,” Beare said. She reiterated her support for police liaison officers in schools but noted that the court will decide what happens next during the scheduled hearing in the coming week. “This is not the outcome we were working toward,” she added.
The nine trustees were fired in January 2025 after a dispute over the board's cancellation of the school police liaison program. The board had concerns about the program's cost and its impact on Indigenous, Black, and other racialized students and teachers. However, area First Nations supported the liaison program. The trustees challenged their dismissal in court, seeking a judicial review that was expected to last eight days.
On Saturday, lawyers for the board received new documents from the province, including text messages between the associate deputy minister of education and a Victoria police deputy chief, as well as between the associate deputy minister and the special adviser appointed to assist the board in revising a school safety plan. These messages should have been disclosed under a court order from March. The province was required to hand over written records, including documents, emails, text messages, notes, and memos, that were considered by the minister when making orders related to the safety plan and the appointment of the special adviser.
Sean Hern, a lawyer for the board, said they had argued the termination was a setup, while the province's lawyers had dismissed that allegation as a conspiracy. Beare declined to say whether anyone would be fired as a result of the error, adding that she had not seen the text messages themselves.
