The Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, formally banned mixed toilets in Quebec schools on Wednesday.
The elected official did not wait for the opinion of the committee of wise men on gender identity on this question. This committee was set up by the government in the wake of the mixed toilet saga.
The directive published on Wednesday by Mr. Drainville is directly in line with his opposition to mixed toilets, expressed in September on the basis of his own “privacy expertise”.
However, it contrasts with the recommendations of his own ministry. In 2021, the Ministry of Education identified as “an appropriate administrative measure” the fact of “providing neutral places of privacy allowing the free choice of students and staff”.
In the directive published Wednesday in the Official Gazette, the Minister of Education asks school service centers to “ensure that they implement the means at their disposal so that all toilets and changing rooms that will be built or renovated in the future or whose conception progress is less than 30% are gendered (boys / girls)”.
“No mixed toilets and changing rooms (without distinction between boys and girls) can therefore be designed during construction or renovation projects for school buildings,” it is specified.
School service centers must nevertheless ensure “provide individual, universal and accessible toilets without restriction for students who need them or who wish to use them”. The minister requires that these facilities be “appropriate, secure and located in strategic locations allowing adequate surveillance, such as in a common circulation area.”
The minister shared his directive on the social network -he congratulated.
Further details will follow.
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