British actor and comedian John Cleese has said he will avoid British Columbia on an upcoming Canadian tour after a former school trustee in the region was fined $750,000 for his public comments opposing transgender policies.
Cleese has previously been outspoken about the impact of “woke ideology” on comedy, and has defended author JK Rowling. The Monthy Python actor has also made sarcastically toned comments online questioning aspects of gender ideology.
The 86-year-old made the admission in a social media post responding to a former school trustee who was fined $750,000 for refusal to accept that gender is a “social construct.”
“What a pity! I’m arranging a theatrical tour of Canada this Fall, and now I won’t be able to risk doing any shows in British Columbia,” wrote Cleese, adding, “I was really looking forward to coming.”
Cleese, the creator of Fawlty Towers previously visited Vancouver in his An Evening of Exceptional Silliness Tour in 2022, having sold out multiple Vancouver show dates in 2013.
The announcement came after a ruling by the Human Rights Tribunal earlier this month. It saw former British Columbia school trustee Barry Neufeld fined $750,000 for publicly questioning the province’s policy that an individual’s gender is whatever he or she declares it to be. The tribunal said Neufeld “invoked negative and insidious stereotypes about 2SLGBTQ+ people.”
The case was brought over Neufeld’s public campaign against classroom resources on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The $750,000 is to be paid to teachers who identify as LGBT in compensation for “injury to the dignity, feelings, and self-respect” of affected teachers.
Neufeld had been a long-term critic of efforts to enshrine gender identity within the B.C. school curriculum, with his case ending up before the tribunal, having been brought by the B.C. Teachers Federation.
The tribunal decided that one of his main violations was his stated belief that “separating gender identity from assigned biological sex is a fiction and an ‘ideology’ to be opposed.”
It ruled that the long-serving trustee for the Chilliwack School District had engaged in “extremely serious and damaging” speech, as well as transgender “erasure.”
The decision last week found that Neufeld’s public statements on sexual orientation and gender identity resources in schools violated the Human Rights Code by discriminating against LGBTQ teachers and exposing them to “hatred.”
Mr Neufeld’s lawyer James Kitchen said his client will be seeking a judicial review in the B.C. Supreme Court.
The National Post, reporting on the case, highlights that under the terms of the decision, anyone in B.C. could presumably face similar sanction under the B.C. Human Rights Code for expressing the same views as Neufeld.
“A person does not need to believe in Christianity to accept that another person is Christian. However, to accept that a person is transgender, one must accept that their gender identity is different than their sex assigned at birth,” the lengthy decision read.
The outlet notes that British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal cases have been taken against non-citizens such as Cleese, and they’ve also been brought against comedians making comments as part of a performance.
In 2011, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ordered comedian Guy Earle to pay $15,000 to an audience member who had alleged “lasting physical and psychological effect” from her objection to his set, the National Post reports.
Fellow trustee Laurie Throness announced his resignation from the Chilliwack School Board in recent days in apparent solidarity with Neufeld.
Laurie Throness announced his immediate resignation on February 26, stating in a social media post that he no longer feels safe expressing his views following the tribunal’s recent $750,000 ruling against fellow former trustee Neufeld.
“I can no longer do my job,” Throness said. “All democratically-elected officials must feel comfortable to speak their mind without worrying about accusations of workplace discrimination.”