A group of nine fired B.C. school board trustees in Greater Victoria may feel vindicated with their jobs reinstated after the province “failed to to fully provide all necessary documents” during a judicial review.
Minister of Education Lisa Beare removed the nine trustees on Jan. 30, 2025 because of disagreements around whether or not school police liaison officers should be in schools. The program was cancelled by SD61 in 2023 over concerns that students of marginalized communities felt unsafe with officers in schools. Beare said at the time the board had “multiple opportunities to meet the needs of the community” and had not delivered.
The group challenged their dismissal, with a judge agreeing in October 2025 to let the case move forward, finding the group may have a case that the education minister’s order to remove them could have been made in “bad faith.”
“After careful consideration of the legal proceedings, the Province is agreeing to quash the three government orders that removed the School District trustees of Greater Victoria,” Beare said in a May 25 statement. “The effect of this action would reinstate those trustees to School District No. 61.”
In March the ministry produced documents in line with a document production order, the statement said.
“I’ve recently been advised by my ministry staff that the ministry inadvertently failed to fully provide all necessary documents, compromising the fair and timely adjudication of this case,” Beare said. “These errors came to light in the last few days. The court will decide what happens next in the coming week at the scheduled hearing, and we will respect that process.”
More to come …
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