Teacher fired for expressing disapproval of abortion in British Columbia

A teacher at a private school in British Columbia was fired from his post last month for expressing his disapproval of abortion to his Grade 12 law class.

The 44-year-old teacher, who asked not to be identified, was teaching "the criminal law unit, a lesson on vice, ethics, morality and the law" to the small class when he briefly made a remark about abortion to illustrate a point.

"I find abortion to be wrong but the law is often different from our personal opinions," he told the students, according to National Post columnist Christie Blatchford.

The teacher said that he continued with the lecture after he made the remark. "It was just a quick exemplar, nothing more. And we moved on," he said.

The class took a five-minute break, but several students did not return when it resumed. One female student went to an administrator to complain that she had been "triggered" by what the teacher said, and she felt "unsafe." The teenager, along with another faculty member, confronted the teacher to ask for an apology, but he refused.

He was warned by the administrators that his job was at risk, so he promised to apologize to the student the next day.

The teacher made a personal apology to the student and told her that she was bright and engaging and said that he told her father the same thing on a recent parent–teacher night. However, the student reportedly stormed out of the class in tears, and the teacher was reprimanded by his superiors for making his apology "too personal."

On Nov. 30, the teacher was told that he can no longer teach at the school, and he was offered a short-term medical disability top-up for employment insurance. He declined to identify the school because he is "reluctant to damage the brand."

John Hof of United for Life B.C. decried the school's decision to fire the teacher.

"It's an atrocity. It's way above and beyond common sense. They've taken away this guy's freedoms. It's a case of the PC agenda taken to its extreme," Hof told Life Site News.

He added that what happened to the high school teacher is also happening on college campuses across the U.S. and Canada, with instructors and guest speakers being silenced in order to avoid "triggering" the students.