A BC school trustee forced to pay his opponent’s legal bills after a failed defamation suit is getting help from a former Conservative Party leadership candidate.Barry Neufeld, then a Chilliwack School Division member, prompted controversy following a Facebook post in 2017.“At the risk of being labeled a bigoted homophobe, I have to say that I support traditional family values and I agree with the College of paediatricians that allowing little children [to] choose to change gender is nothing short of child abuse. But now the BC Ministry of Education [has] embraced the (sexual minority) lobby and is forcing this biologically absurd theory on children in our schools,” he wrote.Glen Hansman, then head of the BC Teachers Federation, condemned Neufeld in quotes to the media over the following 12 months. Hansman called Neufeld “bigoted” and “transphobic” and said he should step down or be removed as school trustee. He also said Neufeld “promoted hatred,” “exposed [trans people] to hatred,” “tip-toed quite far into hate speech,” and was “continuing to spread hate about (sexual minority) people.”Neufeld sued Hantsman in 2018. In his statement of claim, Neufeld said he "suffered damages to his reputation … [and] indignity, personal harassment, stress, anxiety and mental and emotional distress."Hansman made an application to block the suit under the Protection of Public Participation Act, shortly after BC passed it in March 2019. Justice A. Ross of the BC Supreme Court agreed with Hansman in a decision on November 26 that year, but was overruled at the BC Court of Appeal in 2021. However, the Supreme Court of Canada granted an appeal to Hansman and sided with him in 2022.Under legislation regarding strategic lawsuit against public participation, the loser pays the winner’s legal costs. This left the retired Neufeld with a $208,000 bill.On October 17, former Ontario MP and lawyer Derek Sloan interviewed Neufeld on his Rumble channel Funding the Fight in hopes of rallying donations from the public. Neufeld said he went on the offensive through his lawsuit because he believed many Christians in education would be vulnerable if he didn’t take a stand. He told Sloan Justice Ross was a fresh Trudeau appointee when he ruled on the defamation suit.“Glen Hansman argued that he had a right to call me names because he was in charge of a 50,000-member union and he was fighting to protect trans kids. This brand new judge accepted his argument and he declared that I had no right to sue,” Neufeld explained.“The BC Court of Appeals…said this is a dark day for free speech if a union leader can silence people by calling them names.”The Supreme Court of Canada accepted Hansman’s appeal and sided with him in a 6-1 decision. Neufeld suggested he was out-gunned.“Being that the union has bottomless pockets, they took it all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. And they rounded up 12 intervenors, all sorts of pro gay organizations, BC Civil Liberties [Union],, even the Attorney General of BC,” Neufeld said.“The only justice that voted in my favor was Madame Justice Cote. And she said that this contradicts the principles of what a strategic lawsuit against public participation is supposed to do.”Sloan invited the public to help Neufeld with the bill with an etransfer to fundingthefight@proton.me with “Freedom” as the password and “Barry” in the memo. For his part, the retired Neufeld has positioned himself for a financial loss that may be beyond his means.“I sold a townhouse and I bought a nice mobile home…It's going to be very difficult for them to try to get their hooks into my home because you can't take a person's home away. But I'm still really worried about it,” Neufeld said.In R. v. Jordan, the Supreme Court ruled a trial on criminal charges had to be held within 30 months of the charges being filed or they would be thrown out. However, a human rights complaint made against Neufeld five years ago still hangs over his head which would result in another bill if Neufeld loses.“They're going to try and force me to donate to some gay organization. Well, the only gay organization I would donate to is gays against groomers,” Neufeld explained.“The LGB are suddenly realizing that the Q and the T are not on the same page. And they are afraid that they're going to lose some of the privileges that they've enjoyed over the last 50 years because the radical trans are just making things a total joke.”
