Barry Neufeld under fire for Facebook post using ableist slur
Posted November 19, 2020 6:58 pm.
Last Updated November 19, 2020 10:06 pm.
CHILLIWACK (NEWS 1130) — Just days after an uproar that a “community hero award” was given to Barry Neufeld, the Chilliwack school trustee is making news again for a Facebook post using an ableist slur to insult local reporters.
Neufeld is coming under fire for a post referring to journalists at the Chilliwack Progress by name, using a derogatory word that refers to people with developmental disabilities to denigrate them.
I know @Rob_Fleming has more important issues to consider (and Tweets to be tagged in) but for an elected school trustee to call the publisher of The Chilliwack Progress, award-winning reporter @CHWKcommunity, and myself, “retards” is, well… I don’t even know what to say. pic.twitter.com/g65QjP0Ir1
— Paul J. Henderson (@PeeJayAitch) November 20, 2020
The post was first changed, to read “three radical lefties” and later deleted entirely.
A petition was launched Thursday night demanding Neufeld be removed from his position.
Earlier this year, Neufeld was censured and banned from being invited to school events.
He was condemned by educators for implying in a Facebook post that the World Health Organization cannot be trusted to relay accurate information about the coronavirus because it supports gender affirmative healthcare and access to abortion. Neufeld also suggested — citing Wikipedia as a source — that Dr. Theresa Tam was transgender and that, if so, her gender identity makes her less credible.
In 2018, B.C.’s Education Minister, Rob Fleming, and the Chilliwack School Board joined a call for Neufeld to resign.
That call came after Neufeld posted opposing SOGI 123, the provincially mandated, anti-bullying curriculum meant to support marginalized LGBTQ students.