Alberta appeal court sustains disqualification of former Red Deer school trustee

The post sparked significant concern regarding its implications as it relates to Catholic values and alignment with the board policies.

LaGrange’s initial posting of the meme triggered a code of conduct complaint, which bore sanctions. She breached those sanctions, leading to a second complaint. That’s when the board of trustees opted to disqualify LaGrange, per the Education Act. Shortly thereafter, she resigned in protest.

Her breach of the sanctions leading to the disqualification included doing multiple media interviews and representing herself in them as a trustee, which the original sanctions explicitly barred her from doing.

LaGrange sought judicial reviews on each of the two sets of sanctions and was ruled against on both of them — the first one in November 2024, and the second in December 2024.

She then filed a case with Alberta’s appellate court, and that brings us to the present day — notwithstanding that LaGrange unsuccessfully sought a seat representing Division 2 on Red Deer County council in 2025.

In the appeal decision, which can be seen in its entirety below, it’s noted that the board of Red Deer Catholic wanted all grounds LaGrange was arguing be dismissed, arguing that both appeals were moot based on the fact LaGrange resigned immediately after the second board decision, and did not exhaust all of her options under the Education Act.

The three justices assigned to this case state in paragraph 39 that they agree with that assessment, and also noted that LaGrange herself appeared to recognize that point.

The judges conclude that LaGrange’s first appeal, with respect to the school board’s imposition of a sanction requiring her to make a sincere apology, should be allowed.

The second appeal, related to her disqualification, was dismissed.

On the matter of the apology, they write in paragraph 69:

“While we would give effect to Ms. LaGrange’s appeal with respect to the apology sanction, we reject her assertion that the imposition of the apology sanction taints the second board decision and her disqualification. In the second board decision, the board expressly found that Ms. LaGrange had not violated the apology sanction, because the 90-day period for providing the apology had not yet elapsed.”

In other words, just because they agree the first appeal has merit and should be allowed, it doesn’t negate the second one.

Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools issued a statement Wednesday, and it reads as follows;

“The Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools board of trustees is pleased with the judgement of the Court of Appeal, which agrees with the Judicial Review Judge’s finding that the Red Deer Catholic Schools board of trustees’ sanctions (with the exception of a requirement to apologize) and disqualification of Ms. LaGrange were fair and reasonable.

“It is the board’s statutory mandate and our faith-based mission as a Catholic school division to ensure that each student enrolled in its schools and each staff member employed by the board is provided with a safe and caring environment that fosters and maintains respectful and responsible behaviours. Students have the right to a school system free from bias, prejudice and intolerance.”

What next for LaGrange?

rdnewsNOW reached out to LaGrange’s counsel James Kitchen, who has been her spokesperson before and throughout the entirety of her time in court.

Kitchen says it is highly unlikely the case will be taken further to the Supreme Court of Canada — partly because it would be an exercise in futility, and partly because it’d be a challenge for the court to even accept it as a case.

But he says if that’s what LaGrange instructs him to do, he will try.

For now, he’s happy about the positive outcome in LaGrange’s favour on the first appeal, and not so much on the second.

And Kitchen does believe the small victory for LaGrange is, in fact, the only precedent-setting aspect of the decision.

“My jaw dropped to the floor when [Justice Alice Woolley] started pontificating about free speech from the bench in the oral hearing. I kind of felt like, ‘Geez, I guess I judged them too harshly, and they still care about free speech. That’s great,” Kitchen remarked.

“That’s the way it should be; it’s good that they still care about the Charter protection for free speech, so that part probably sets the most precedent because it hasn’t been dealt with in this way recently, and it’s dealing with a problem that now hopefully will be a little bit less of a problem since we have a Court of Appeal decision on it.”

Kitchen did lament paragraph 43 of the decision, which he says displays the imbalanced weight given by the court to opinions of the 2SLGBTQ+ community versus those who side with LaGrange.

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by Josh Hall

Alberta appeal court sustains disqualification of former Red Deer school trustee

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