Canadian Court Upholds Expulsion of Anti-Trans Catholic H.S. Student

A Canadian court has sided with a local Catholic school board’s decision to expel a high school student for his harmful conduct towards transgender students. 

Josh Alexander, an 18-year old student at St. Joseph’s Catholic High School, Renfrew, Ontario, was suspended and later excluded from the high school in 2022 on the grounds of gender-based harassment of transgender students. According to a report in the Ottawa Citizen, the Renfrew County Catholic School Board gave Alexander a 20-day suspension in November 2022 after he “made inappropriate comments to transgender students in class and online, referred to a trans student by a deadname (birth name) and suggested trans students posed a risk to others in the girls’ washroom.”

After the suspension, Alexander was permitted to return to the school provided he maintained an attitude of respect towards his fellow students, refrain from using their deadnames, and stop attending two of his classes with transgender students. When Alexander refused to comply, the principal of the school issued an order of exclusion. Alexander attended school twice despite the orders, prompting a further suspension and exclusion order. 

Alexander appealed the decisions to the school board’s suspension and exclusion appeals committee, claiming that though he may have offended transgender students, he did not cause them any harm. Contrary to those claims, the appeals committee found that Alexander “had engaged in gender-based harassment by referring to transgender students who used the bathroom of their choice as ‘perverted,’ and calling them ‘predators.’” 

The Renfrew County Catholic school board ultimately denied his requests for reinstatement, prompting him to seek judicial review of those decisions in the Ontario Divisional Court. Alexander argued that he was a victim of “faithism” which he defined as experiencing discrimination based on his religious beliefs. He claimed that the school board failed to accommodate his right to express his religious beliefs on gender and sexuality, namely that God created human beings as immutably male or female. 

The three-member Divisional Court rejected Alexander’s argument and deemed his suspension and exclusion to be reasonable. They emphasized that the school board made its decisions based on his behavior, not his beliefs, stating:

“While individuals are entitled to their religious beliefs, opinions and views, what they are not entitled to do is act in a manner that disrespects, discriminates, insults, denigrates, harasses, bullies or otherwise creates an unsafe environment for anyone in the school.”

The court pointed out that there are limits to all freedoms, including religious freedoms, particularly when the rights of another person are impacted. It does not infringe on Alexander’s religious freedoms to be expected to treat his fellow students with respect, and his religious convictions do not give him free license to harass other students. 

One member of the court panel, Justice James Ramsay, did dissent in part, suggesting that the discipline committee should have imposed “progressive discipline” rather than suspension in its initial decision given that Alexander’s views “were the product of sincerely held religious beliefs.”

Ultimately, the Divisional Court awarded the school board $15,000 in court costs. According to Alexander’s lawyer, James Kitchen, an appeal has already been filed, and Alexander says he will be seeking a declaration from the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario that the school board discriminated against him on the basis of his beliefs. 

It is reassuring that in this case, religious beliefs were not permitted to be used as a guise for harassment and discriminatory behavior. Harm done in the name of Christianity–beyond the most direct effects to individuals–additionally does harm to Christianity itself. Harassment of transgender individuals is not, and can never be justified by Christian belief. 

–Phoebe Carstens, New Ways Ministry, February 3, 2025