Errors that forced reinstatement of Victoria school board ‘inadvertent’: minister

VICTORIA — British Columbia Education Minister Lisa Beare says legal errors that forced the government to reinstate the entire Victoria school board that it fired last year were significant but “inadvertent.”

Beare has told the legislature that the government’s failure to produce documents in line with a court order compromised the “fair and timely adjudication” of a case by nine elected school trustees, who challenged their firing in B.C. Supreme Court.

The trustees were dismissed in January 2025 after they sought to block police liaison programs in Victoria schools, passing a resolution disagreeing that the minister could “dictate that a board must adopt a safety plan upon the minister’s direction.”

Conservative opposition members pushed Beare during question period to release information about Monday’s reversal, with Misty Van Popta asking about costs to taxpayers and what led to the case being “botched.”

Beare says the ministry is still gathering information about costs, and denied being involved in withholding any court-ordered documents, calling the suggestion “absolute nonsense.”

She says when ministry staff alerted her to the error, the government acted to rectify it and her focus is now on understanding “what happened so it doesn’t happen again.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 26, 2026.

The Canadian Press