Mixed-gender toilets banned
in Quebec's public schools
Quebec's school service centres will now have to ensure that washrooms and locker rooms that will be built or renovated in the province's elementary and secondary schools are "gendered" in order to comply with a new government directive
published Wednesday in the Official Gazette.
The controversy dates back to last year, when a petition was launched to denounce the intention of D'Iberville High School in Rouyn-Noranda to transform bathrooms initially identified for girls and boys into a mixed washroom block.
At the time, some opponents saw the decision as an attempt to unduly accommodate trans and non-binary students.
Education Minister Bernard Drainville said the school should "rectify the situation," in particular to prevent young girls from feeling discomfort and being bullied. François Legault also expressed serious reservations on the subject.
To settle this type of debate, Mr. Legault had instructed the Minister of Families, Suzanne Roy, to set up a "committee of wise men," the composition of which was announced last December.
In the end, however, Bernard Drainville did not wait for the opinion of the said "wise men" on this question.
"I announced last fall that we were going to move forward with this directive," the minister said in a press scrum on Wednesday, adding that he was confident that committee members would not come to the opposite conclusion.
A matter of intimacy and well-beingThe new directive, approved by the Council of Ministers, enters into force immediately.
It's a question of privacy, it's a question of well-being, and it's a question of privacy," Drainville said Wednesday.
The directive in question provides that school service centres [shall] implement the means at their disposal to ensure that all washrooms and changing rooms that will be built or renovated in the future [...] are gendered (boys/girls).
However, schools under construction that are more than 30% complete in design will be able to keep their mixed-gender washrooms. We are pragmatic people. We don't want to delay the progress of the work on the new schools," Bernard Drainville said Wednesday.
The Minister's new directive also calls on school service centres to ensure that individual, universal and unrestricted washrooms are available to students who need or wish to use them.
These facilities, it is stated, must be appropriate, secure and located in strategic locations that allow for adequate surveillance, such as in a common traffic area. Schools that already have mixed-gender toilets will be able to keep them.
These provisions respect the rights of everyone, Minister Drainville said Wednesday.
It's a solution that is very respectful and very balanced," he said.
Gender issues on the riseThe debate over gender-neutral washrooms that raged last fall is part of a broader context, as several gender identity issues made headlines during this period.
In Montérégie, for example, the Richelieu school created controversy by recruiting a non-binary person called "Mx Martine" (pronounced "Mix Martine") among its teaching staff, who rejects the designations Monsieur or Madame.
Alexe Frédéric Migneault's fight to obtain the X sex marker on his identification documents issued by the Quebec government also made a lasting impression. Quebec also agreed with him last March.
The conclusions of the "committee of wise men" will be unveiled next winter.
When asked about the matter, Minister Roy would not say whether he could overturn her government's directive. I'm not going to speculate, we're going to let them do their job," she said. The Committee of Wise Men could comment on this subject, as on many other subjects.
According to figures provided by Minister Drainville's office to Radio-Canada, last fall the Quebec school system had 1,453 mixed washrooms out of 12,667 (11%), as well as 196 mixed locker rooms out of 4,448 (4%).
These data, collected from 70 of the province's 72 school service centres, also showed that 301 of the network's 3014 buildings (10%) had only mixed washroom blocks.
Asked to comment on the new directive on mixed-gender toilets in schools, Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon called it reasonable.
However, he deplored the fact that the government did not follow his recommendation to summon experts to parliamentary committees, opting instead for the formation of a "committee of wise men" which, in the end, was not heard on the subject.
The Liberal Party, for its part, recalled that in 2021 the Ministry of Education had published a guide for school settings in which it deemed it appropriate to provide neutral privacy spaces allowing the free choice of students and staff.
Does the government still care about their document?" asked its spokesperson for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, Jennifer Maccarone, at a press conference.
Québec solidaire House Leader Alexandre Leduc said he did not understand why it is a priority for the Minister of Education in Quebec at the moment to ban gender-neutral toilets.
It doesn't get into my head," he said. Doesn't he have anything more important than that to deal with? Is that what he wants to invest his time and energy on? OK, that's his choice.
published Wednesday in the Official Gazette.
The controversy dates back to last year, when a petition was launched to denounce the intention of D'Iberville High School in Rouyn-Noranda to transform bathrooms initially identified for girls and boys into a mixed washroom block.
At the time, some opponents saw the decision as an attempt to unduly accommodate trans and non-binary students.
Education Minister Bernard Drainville said the school should "rectify the situation," in particular to prevent young girls from feeling discomfort and being bullied. François Legault also expressed serious reservations on the subject.
To settle this type of debate, Mr. Legault had instructed the Minister of Families, Suzanne Roy, to set up a "committee of wise men," the composition of which was announced last December.
In the end, however, Bernard Drainville did not wait for the opinion of the said "wise men" on this question.
"I announced last fall that we were going to move forward with this directive," the minister said in a press scrum on Wednesday, adding that he was confident that committee members would not come to the opposite conclusion.
A matter of intimacy and well-beingThe new directive, approved by the Council of Ministers, enters into force immediately.
It's a question of privacy, it's a question of well-being, and it's a question of privacy," Drainville said Wednesday.
The directive in question provides that school service centres [shall] implement the means at their disposal to ensure that all washrooms and changing rooms that will be built or renovated in the future [...] are gendered (boys/girls).
However, schools under construction that are more than 30% complete in design will be able to keep their mixed-gender washrooms. We are pragmatic people. We don't want to delay the progress of the work on the new schools," Bernard Drainville said Wednesday.
The Minister's new directive also calls on school service centres to ensure that individual, universal and unrestricted washrooms are available to students who need or wish to use them.
These facilities, it is stated, must be appropriate, secure and located in strategic locations that allow for adequate surveillance, such as in a common traffic area. Schools that already have mixed-gender toilets will be able to keep them.
These provisions respect the rights of everyone, Minister Drainville said Wednesday.
It's a solution that is very respectful and very balanced," he said.
Gender issues on the riseThe debate over gender-neutral washrooms that raged last fall is part of a broader context, as several gender identity issues made headlines during this period.
In Montérégie, for example, the Richelieu school created controversy by recruiting a non-binary person called "Mx Martine" (pronounced "Mix Martine") among its teaching staff, who rejects the designations Monsieur or Madame.
Alexe Frédéric Migneault's fight to obtain the X sex marker on his identification documents issued by the Quebec government also made a lasting impression. Quebec also agreed with him last March.
The conclusions of the "committee of wise men" will be unveiled next winter.
When asked about the matter, Minister Roy would not say whether he could overturn her government's directive. I'm not going to speculate, we're going to let them do their job," she said. The Committee of Wise Men could comment on this subject, as on many other subjects.
According to figures provided by Minister Drainville's office to Radio-Canada, last fall the Quebec school system had 1,453 mixed washrooms out of 12,667 (11%), as well as 196 mixed locker rooms out of 4,448 (4%).
These data, collected from 70 of the province's 72 school service centres, also showed that 301 of the network's 3014 buildings (10%) had only mixed washroom blocks.
Asked to comment on the new directive on mixed-gender toilets in schools, Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon called it reasonable.
However, he deplored the fact that the government did not follow his recommendation to summon experts to parliamentary committees, opting instead for the formation of a "committee of wise men" which, in the end, was not heard on the subject.
The Liberal Party, for its part, recalled that in 2021 the Ministry of Education had published a guide for school settings in which it deemed it appropriate to provide neutral privacy spaces allowing the free choice of students and staff.
Does the government still care about their document?" asked its spokesperson for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, Jennifer Maccarone, at a press conference.
Québec solidaire House Leader Alexandre Leduc said he did not understand why it is a priority for the Minister of Education in Quebec at the moment to ban gender-neutral toilets.
It doesn't get into my head," he said. Doesn't he have anything more important than that to deal with? Is that what he wants to invest his time and energy on? OK, that's his choice.
