The Chilliwack School Board has censured a trustee over a Facebook post earlier this month espousing a conspiracy theory that linked COVID-19 and transgender rights and targeted the country’s top doctor.
Barry Neufeld’s post drew condemnation from B.C.’s education minister, Chilliwack’s school board chair, and transgender rights advocates. He later apologized for his comments, including the attack on chief medical health officer Dr. Theresa Tam.
At Tuesday’s meeting, school board chair Dan Coulter read a brief statement, saying Neufeld had been censured for the May 9 Facebook post.
The decision had been made in in-camera meeting, Coulter said, and the board did not comment further. What the censure entails was not immediately clear.
Neufeld declined to comment. His Facebook page is no longer visible to the public.
In the Facebook post, Neufeld had claimed that the World Health Organization was “perpetrating fear” over COVID-19 and attacked its backing of transgender-supportive education and the right to access abortion.
He called Tam a “major player in the corrupt World Health Organization” and suggested she has been dishonest with Canadians about her gender.
Neufeld has previously come under fire several times, namely when he compared gender transitioning to “child abuse” and called gender confusion a “sexual addiction.”