Petition to remove B.C.’s education minister fails: Elections BC

A petition to recall B.C.’s Minister of Education and Surrey-Green Timbers MLA Rachna Singh has failed.

Elections BC says the petition to remove Singh from office did not receive enough signatures, upon its submission by proponent Gurdeep Jassal on Monday.

In their petition application, Jassal claimed that B.C.’s public schools are indoctrinating children with inappropriate sexual material, which is a common argument made by people protesting the province’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, or SOGI-123, policies in schools.

The petition was issued on Nov. 30, 2023 and a total of 101 voters registered as canvassers to collect signatures, Elections BC states.

It required 11,811 signatures to pass. It’s unclear how many it received.

Since the Recall and Initiative Act came into place in 1995, none of the thirty approved recall petitions issued have succeeded.

-With files from Srushti Gangdev and Emma Crawford