B.C. Education Minister Lisa Beare, shown in 2024, said in a statement that the government has agreed to quash the three government orders that removed trustees.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Nine Victoria school trustees, who were fired last year over a dispute regarding police officers in schools, are being reinstated after the government acknowledged that it had not fully complied with a court order on disclosure.
The Greater Victoria School Board trustees were fired in January, 2025, after a long-simmering controversy about the board’s decision to end a police liaison officer program in 2023. The Ministry of Education and Child Care had asked the board to create an alternate safety plan. The board’s proposals, however, were deemed unsatisfactory, resulting in the trustees’ termination.
B.C. Education Minister Lisa Beare said in a statement that the decision to reinstate the school trustees was made after revelations at a judicial review of the dismissal.
Court heard that shortly before the board was fired, senior ministry officials were communicating through text messages with a Victoria police officer and a provincially appointed independent adviser on the board’s proposed safety plan.
The ministry said in a news release that those messages were “inadvertently” kept from counsel for the trustees. Lawyers for the trustees only received those documents on Saturday.
The judicial review began Monday and was expected to last eight days.
Emily Lapper, lead counsel for the province, said in court on Monday that the province became aware last week that the ministry had not fully complied with the court order to disclose all written documents, which had included emails and text messages between the minister, several police departments, the special adviser, the superintendent and Safer Schools Together, a violence prevention organization.
She withdrew the province’s case against the board.
“After careful consideration of the events over the course of this weekend, the respondents have concluded that the state of the evidence before this court would compromise the fair and timely adjudication of this proceeding,” she said.
Ms. Beare’s statement said the government has agreed to quash the three government orders that removed trustees.
She went on to say that “the decision by the Province today is the responsible step after acknowledging these significant errors.” This is not the outcome the province was working toward, she added.
Ga Grant, litigation counsel for the BC Civil Liberties Association, called Monday’s revelations “very concerning.”
“This evidence indicates what was suspected by the parties in the first place, which was there was deliberate collaboration between officials at the Ministry, the special advisor, and now Deputy Chief Police Mike Brown of Victoria, Chief of Victoria Police Department,” she said.
“This was a collaborative attempt to thwart some of the procedural fairness and the ongoing process for the elected school board trustees as they were managing things at that time.”
Monday’s decision brings an end to the years-long saga over the police liaison officer program.
In its decision to end the program in 2023, the board had said the presence of police officers in schools could cause discomfort for Black and Indigenous students.
The board’s decision was criticized by community groups, including the Songhees Nation and the Esquimalt Nation, who objected to what they said in a letter to the Education Minister was a lack of “meaningful consultation.”
The Education Ministry ordered the board to create a safety plan in consultation with regional policing partners in September, 2024.
The plan that the board submitted in November was rejected, with Ms. Beare saying it did not do enough to address rising student violence and reports of gang activity in schools.
The ministry then appointed a special adviser to work with the board to create a new plan. Ms. Beare threatened in December to fire the board if it did not submit a new plan by Jan. 6, 2025.
The board put forward three alternate plans by the deadline, but they were not deemed to be satisfactory. Ms. Beare fired the board later that month.
Then-Victoria Police Chief Del Manak praised the decision to fire the board at the time.
“We have been expressing our concern about safety in schools for more than two years, and look forward to working with the appointed trustee, and eventually a newly elected board, on a collaborative way forward that meets the needs of our community while keeping students safe,” he said.
Lori Poppe, who helps co-ordinate a parent group calling for the return of school liaison officers, said she was “shocked” by Monday’s decision.
“It’s an unfortunate turn of events. I personally wish that it would have gone all the way through the court system so we could actually have a real outcome,” she said.