Court upholds sanctions against former school trustee who posted controversial meme

A judge has ruled in favour of the Red Deer Regional Catholic School Board and upheld sanctions on former trustee Monique LaGrange over a controversial social media post. 

The sanctions arose from LaGrange's posting of a meme in 2023 comparing children waving Nazi flags to children waving Pride flags,which the shool board found violated The Education Act, board policy and the trustee code of conduct.

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LaGrange was allowed to remain a trustee under a number of conditions including publicly apologizing, paying for her own sensitivity training and refraining from speaking publicly about the Holocaust or the LGBTQ2S+ community.

She later resigned after being disqualified for contravening those sanctions and further violating board policy. She appealed to overturn the boards decision 

LaGrange appealed to overturn the board's decision, but failed in a Nov. 14 decision.  

In it, the judge upheld the sanctions, saying LaGrange failed to prove they were unreasonable. 

"They are consistent with the concerns of the board and members of the division," the judge wrote. "It is clear that they are intended to prevent further harm and also reconciliation through education."

• Monique LaGrange takes Red Deer school board to court over disqualification

The court document shows LaGrange argued the post did not violate The Education Act, board policy or trustee code of conduct.

She said she was expressing her personal opinion "about an ideology she views as insidious, pervasive and manipulative," and that the post was protected by freedom or expression and religion.

Red Deer school trustee Monique LaGrange and an anti-LGBTQ2S+ post she made on social media. (LaGrange photo source: Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools)

The judge disagreed and found the former trustee had breached policy eight times and failed to:

• Consider the best interests of the LGBTQ2S+ community and Holocaust survivors and their families;
• Consider the best interests of the board;
• Create a safe, respectful and inclusive environment; and
• Conduct board matters with proper decorum and respect.

"It is entirely within reason to conclude that the applicant failed in her duties as a trustee by communicating a broad comparison between sexual identity and orientation training and the indoctrination of the Nazi party," said Justice Cheryl Arcand-Kootenay.

While the judge upheld all the sanctions, she did find it was unreasonable for the board to made LaGrange to pay for her own sensitivity training.

"... the Board had also resolved to participate and engage in similar training as a group. There is no reason the applicant could not participate in this training alongside her peers," the judge wrote.

 Arcand-Kootenay also adjusted the sanction requiring an apology, removing its requirement to be "sincere."

"It does not seem feasible to me to prescribe an individual’s personally held feelings. Whether or not the apology is sincere is not measurable by any objective standard," she wrote.