(LifeSiteNews) –– An Ontario court has ruled in favor of pro-family activist and high school student Josh Alexander, saying the Catholic school board which suspended him because he said there are only two genders must hear his appeals regarding his many suspensions.
“We won! The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has just ruled in our favor,” posted Alexander to X (formerly Twitter) late last week.
We won!
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has just ruled in our favor.
My high school will be forced to hear my appeals regarding, multiple suspensions, exclusions, and the trespassing notice.
Big thanks to my lawyer @jsmklaw of @LibertyCCanada. pic.twitter.com/TmQUN7fRlF— Josh Alexander (@officialJosh_A) September 2, 2023
“My high school will be forced to hear my appeals regarding, multiple suspensions, exclusions, and the trespassing notice.”
Alexander thanked his lawyer James Kitchen of Liberty Coalition Canada for helping him in his ongoing legal battle with the Renfrew County Catholic District School Board (RCCDSB), who suspended him from school last year.
On August 31, Ontario Superior Court of Justice Jaye Hooper concluded in a court decision, of which LifeSiteNews has obtained a copy, that Alexander has “standing” and can appeal his suspensions against the RCCDSB on his own.
“I therefore find, based on the evidence before me, that Josh Alexander has withdrawn from parental control as of December 22, 2022. He has standing to bring the appeals of his suspensions and exclusion,” concluded Hooper.
“If the parties cannot agree to costs, the applicant will have until September 15, 2023, to file cost submissions of no more than three pages excluding a bill of cost and any offer to settle. The respondent will have until September 22, 2023 to file responding submissions of equal length.”
Alexander’s lawyer Kitchen told LifeSiteNews that due to Hooper’s positive ruling, they will now be “proceeding with the appeals.”
He noted that Alexander had submitted three notices of appeal of his suspensions and exclusions earlier this year, in January and February, doing so under his own “right.”
“He did so in his own right, which is his right, not through his parents. Although the Renfrew County Catholic District School Board did not have a legal leg to stand on, they took the position he was still controlled by his parents and therefore did not have standing to bring the appeals on his own and through his lawyer, but that he had to do it through his parents,” said Kitchen.
Kitchen said that this was a “tactic” by the school board to try and cause him “to go away, or to at least delay.”
“And much delay has been caused by this, but, now that Josh has won at court, and he will be receiving costs from the School Board, as well, the Board has no choice but to hear the appeals now,” noted Kitchen.
In another posting to X late last week, Alexander called out the RCCDSB, saying after this ruling the “world is watching” them.
The world is watching @RCCDSB.
Will you continue to punish students for exercising their religious freedoms and practicing chivalry?— Josh Alexander (@officialJosh_A) September 2, 2023
“Will you continue to punish students for exercising their religious freedoms and practicing chivalry,” he wrote.
Alexander is a 17-year-old former grade 11 student of St. Joseph’s Catholic High School, in Renfrew, Ontario.
In April of this year, Alexander officially filed a human rights complaint against his Catholic school board, claiming his “creed” beliefs have been discriminated against.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, Alexander was arrested and charged on February 6 at his school for trying to attend class after being barred. He was later released after being served charges in a police cruiser.
His arrest came after he was suspended by his school board for the rest of the academic year in January for opposing gender ideology. He was served a trespass notice by his school after the suspension.
In May, Alexander said that his parents, who work at the public school board in Renfrew as teachers, were removed from their jobs and placed on leave because of his outspokenness against gender ideology.
And in July, Alexander was barred from watching his younger brother’s elementary school graduation by administrators because he was wearing his trademark “Save Canada” baseball cap.
Alexander, with the help of others, is set to stage an “Education over Indoctrination” protest to be held on September 20 in Toronto against the LGBT ideology being forced on students in schools.