Barry Neufeld is a Former

school trustee A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...

Chilliwack Chilliwack ( )( hur, Ts'elxwéyeqw) is a city in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Chilliwack is surrounded by mountains and home to recreational areas such as Cultus Lake and Chilliwack Lake Provincial Parks. There are numerous outdoor ...

, BC. Neufeld was first elected in December 1993 and held office until December 2008. He was elected again in December 2011 and held office until October 2022. Neufeld has been criticized for making bigoted and discriminatory remarks towards the

LGBTQ+ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

community, and in May 2020, he was accused of disparaging the

Chief Public Health Officer of Canada The chief public health officer of Canada (CPHO; french: administratrice en chef de la santé publique; ACSP) is the lead health professional and primary spokesperson on public health related matters for the Government of Canada. The chief public ...

Dr.

Theresa Tam Theresa Tam (; born 1965) is a Canadian physician and public servant who currently serves as the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, chief public health officer of Canada, who is the second-in-command of the Public Health Agency of Canada ( ...

. Neufeld made headlines in 2017 for comparing

gender transitioning Gender transition is the process of changing one's gender presentation or sex characteristics to accord with one's internal sense of gender identity – the idea of what it means to be a man or a woman,Brown, M. L. & Rounsley, C. A. (1996) ''True ...

to child abuse. His comments attracted widespread media attention, a court filing by the

Canadian Union of Public Employees The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE; french: Syndicat canadien de la fonction publique, links=no; french: SCFP, link=, label=none) is a Canadian trade union serving the public sector – although it has in recent years organized workpl ...

, and a vocal exchange with political and human rights defender Morgane Oger. The superintendent of

School District 33 Chilliwack School District 33 Chilliwack is a school district in the Fraser Valley region of British Columbia, Canada. It has an enrollment of approximately 14,000 full and part-time students, and approximately 1,800 teachers and support staff. Its annual b ...

, Evelyn Novak, responded saying Neufeld did not speak for the Board on that issue. The Chilliwack School Teachers Association passed a vote of non-confidence in 2017. The Chilliwack Board of Education passed a motion asking Neufeld to resign and the Ministry of Education issued a statement. In 2019, Neufeld's defamation lawsuit against

British Columbia Teachers' Federation The British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF) is the labour union that represents all public school teachers in the province of British Columbia, Canada. It was established as an organization in 1917. Governance structure As of 2018, the BCT ...

(BCTF) president Glen Hansman was dismissed in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

’s first use of 'anti-SLAPP' (

Strategic lawsuit against public participation Strategic lawsuits against public participation (also known as SLAPP suits or intimidation lawsuits), or strategic litigation against public participation, are lawsuits intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with t ...

) legislation. The appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was dismissed in May 2023. Neufeld has complained other trustees treated him "like a dirty old man". Neufeld lost his bid for re-election in October 2022. In 2023, Neufeld was sued by

Carin Bondar who alleged that Neufeld defamed her when he called her a “striptease artist.” The comment was in reference to an educational video starring Bondar that parodied the

Miley Cyrus Miley Ray Cyrus ( ; born Destiny Hope Cyrus on November 23, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her distinctive raspy voice, her music spans across varied styles and genres, including pop, country, rock, hip hop ...

music video,

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neufeld, Barry Living people People from Chilliwack British Columbia school board members Year of birth missing (living people)