78 year old former School Trustee Barry Neufeld arrested at Chilliwack Court House, as officer grabs handcuffs, Nov 24, 2025. Neufeld was arrested (as reported previously by The New Westminster Times) due to his inability to pay more than $50,000 to Chilliwack School Trustee Carin Bondar in relation to a defamation suit she brought against him. image NWT
BC’s “Human Rights” Tribunal last week ordered former Chilliwack School Board Trustee Barry Neufeld to pay $750,000 to the Chilliwack Teachers Association over injury to the “dignity, feelings and self-respect” of a small but unknown number of LGBT teachers and staff.
What vile hatred did Mr. Neufeld promote to warrant a $750,000 punishment? Did he suggest that all the gay teachers in Chilliwack should be fired? Or forced to undergo conversion therapy?
Screen capture from BC Human Rights Tribunal Homepage. Image: from HRT website
Here is the first of dozens of comments made by Mr. Neufeld from 2017 to 2022, reprinted by the BC “Human Rights” Tribunal in its 50,000-word, 64-page ruling:
“The Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) program instructs children that gender is not biologically determined, but is a social construct. … allowing little children to choose to change gender is nothing short of child abuse. But now the BC Ministry of Education has embraced the LGBTQ lobby and is forcing this biologically absurd theory on children in our schools.”
And here is the last comment of Mr. Neufeld that the Tribunal reprinted in its lengthy decision:
“… if an anorexic person is suffering, you don’t pat them on the back and say, here, here, I’ll give you some diet pills, and you don’t have to eat as much. Sometimes the loving thing is saying something very challenging to a person who’s struggling with a problem. If an alcoholic is suffering because they can’t find any booze, you don’t hand them a case of beer. You tell them to, you know, buckle up and do without. Give them a cup of coffee instead.”
The other opinions expressed by Mr. Neufeld from 2017 to 2022 are like the first and last comments here above: standard, run-of-the-mill citizen opposition to radical transgender ideology.
Screen capture of page from recent BC Human Rights Tribunal decision regarding Barry Neufeld. Image: from BC HRT website
The local teachers’ union was outraged that an elected Trustee would publicly and repeatedly state his belief that there are only two sexes, that children should not be exposed to transgender ideology in schools, and that gender-confused children should be provided with compassionate help rather than with puberty blockers, opposite-sex hormones and eventual gender-reassignment surgeries.
The teachers’ union found a like-minded ally in the BC Human Rights Tribunal. Both organizations fervently embrace unscientific transgender ideology. Neither organization understands that free expression is the cornerstone of a democracy that embraces a diversity of opinions, and that facilitates healthy debate about controversial issues. Like other censors throughout human history, they believe in “free speech for me, but not for thee.”
Rather than seeking to persuade parents and other citizens to support SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity), the teachers’ union and the “Human Rights” Tribunal instead use coercive state power to silence and punish their political opponents. They use section 7 of BC’s Human Rights Code, which prohibits “discriminatory publications” that indicate “discrimination” or even “an intention to discriminate” against a person or group, or that is likely to expose a person or group to hatred or “contempt.”
Section 7 pertains only to speech. It does not prohibit discrimination in services, tenancies, property purchases, job ads, wages, employment and trade union membership. Section 7 applies to all speech in all public places, everywhere in BC, online and off-line. Non-criminal, non-hateful “discriminatory” speech in public is illegal in BC. Only fully private communications are exempted.
Mr. Neufeld is not the first person whose basic human right to speak freely has been trampled into the ground by the Tribunal.
In 2019, the Tribunal ordered political activist William Whatcott to pay $55,000 to unsuccessful NDP candidate Morgane Oger, who felt offended by a plain-spoken election flyer titled “Transgenderism vs. Truth.” The flyer included the following: “Because gender is God-given and immutable, “transgenderism” is an impossibility. A male cannot “transition” into a female, nor can a female “transition” into a male. One can only cross dress and disfigure themselves with surgery and hormones to look like the gender they are not.” The Tribunal ruled that Mr. Whatcott violated section 7 of the Human Rights Code because the flyer demonstrated “an intention to discriminate against Morgane Oger in a critical area of public life, namely participation in an election as a candidate for public office.”
Barry Neufeld has been punished for expressing opinions intended to support, protect, and advocate for the well-being of young people. British Columbians who love freedom and democracy should be outraged by the Tribunal imposing its woke ideology on citizens by censoring conservative and libertarian speech. Citizens should not be punished for speaking out to protect young people from irreversible harm (such as permanent infertility) that results from unscientific transgender ideology.
But the real culprit is not the Tribunal. It’s BC’s Human Rights Code that makes non-criminal political speech punishable in the first place.
The best way to prevent further injustices of this kind is to repeal section 7 from BC’s Human Rights Code.
Some might argue that repealing section 7 opens the door to signage like “Apartments for Whites only” or “women need not apply.” But signs like that are clearly prohibited by sections 8-14 of the Human Rights Code. Sections 8-14 already outlaw discrimination in any accommodation, service or facility customarily available to the public, including hiring and employment practices.
Repealing section 7 would place all people in BC on an equal footing, by removing the Tribunal’s power to punish speech that it disagrees with under the false pretext of “promoting human rights.” The federal Criminal Code prohibition against the wilful promotion of hatred against an identifiable group (section 319) would not be impacted in any way. The amended Human Rights Code – without section 7 – would continue to prohibit discrimination in the provision of goods and services, the same way that it does now.
Powell River paramedic and life-long resident Ted Vizzutti. Photo: Contributed
It was supposed to be all about reconciliation with First Nations.
But that’s not how it turned out for Powell River born and raised paramedic Ted Vizzutti, forced out of his job based on unsubstantiated allegations of racism.
The Tla’amin First Nation took umbrage with the town’s namesake, Israel Wood Powell, and asked that the City change its name.
Like thousands of other townsfolk, Ted Vizzutti pushed back.
Disapproving of the name change cost Vizzutti his job.
BC Emergency Health Services (“BCEHS”) forced the 38-year veteran out of his beloved career, accusing him of racism.
Vizzutti, as described in some detail below, spent 38 years doing often life-saving work for people in his community, regardless of their background.
Like a lot of paramedics, Vizzutti fits the profile of the heroic first responder.
How and why did Ted Vizzutti get drummed out of his job?
The name change discussions date to the City of Powell River’s formation of a “Joint Working Group” in 2021, which led to an ultimately inconclusive city-wide consultation process in 2022.
A detailed, July 2022 report, summarizing the consultations revealed broad-based community opposition to the name change leading the working group to stand down and call for a “time of reflection.”
As illustrated in the below graphic, survey data included in the Working Group report revealed that a majority of both “racialized” and “white” residents were either “strongly opposed” to or “leaning no” on the proposed name change.
Survey results from Powell River’s Joint Working Group Report analysed by race. Image from Powell River Joint Working Group Report.
Despite the “time of reflection,” proponents and opponents of the name change continued to advocate for their positions.
According to news reports, on May 4th, 2023, Vizzutti appeared with a group of other residents at Powell River City Hall to voice opposition to a proposal to change the City’s name, some wearing “I (heart) Powell River” t-shirts.
Vizzutti had made a post to his personal Facebook page inviting people to the City Hall gathering. The post was entitled “Say no to the name change of Powell River.”
Vizzutti’s Facebook post about the event seemed entirely benign.
“We, the citizens of Powell River,” wrote Vizzutti, “are coming together to tell elected officials that we are not in favour of a name change for our city. Please come out in support with your signs and voices. Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
According to Vizzutti, a group of protesters in favour of the name change gathered outside Powell River City Hall for the May 4th council meeting. Vizzutti says one of the protesters, threatened to have him fired from his job.
The next day, May 5th, Vizzutti received a severe Code of Conduct violation letter from Sheree Haydu, Manager, Clinical Operations, Sunshine Coast for BCEHS, demanding he appear at a meeting to address alleged “racism.”
According to Haydu, “On May 4, 2023, the Employer was made aware of your involvement in the following allegations: Circulating racist, anti-indigenous, and defamatory content on social media and door to door.”
According to Vizzutti, counter-protestor approached him and yelled close to his face “We’re going to get you fired!”
Sure enough, the next day, Vizzutti was summoned to the disciplinary meeting.
A series of meetings and correspondence ensued, resulting in Vizzutti leaving the employ of BCEHS.
A May 30th letter from Haydu included an expanded list of new vague and inflammatory allegations against the 58-year-old Mr. Vizzutti, including:
“You have impacted community members and made them feel unsafe.”
“Your comments and actions have impacted the Tla’amin First Nations community wherein they do not feel safe to call 911.”
“You have directly impacted your colleagues where they feel unsafe.”
Vizzutti says, upon reading the allegation that Tla’amin members felt “unsafe” calling 911, he phoned a friend within that community. The community member, according to Vizzutti, said that he was unaware of anyone declining to call 911 due to feeling “unsafe.”
The New Westminster Times spoke to Sheree Haydu by phone to ask questions and seek comment. Haydu declined to comment and referred the New Westminster Times to BCEHS media relations.
A series of questions were sent to Haydu by email seeking evidence that would substantiate the serious allegations leveled at Vizzutti.
Those questions were forwarded to BCEHS Manager, Media and Issue Communications Bowen Osoko, who responded via email: “We are unable to comment on confidential human resources matters as per privacy legislation, including any of the personal information you provided.”
Prior to a scheduled meeting with BCEHS, Vizzutti’s union representatives told him that he was going to be fired at the meeting. The union reps told Vizzutti that if he retired before they fired him, he could avoid loss of income and a lengthy fight.
In the face of the total loss of his income, the prospect of a lengthy dispute, Vizzutti decided to retire.
In response to Vizzutti’s retirement, the investigation was put in abeyance, but to Vizzutti’s great surprise, the BCEHS letter from Haydu included new threats, restrictions and insults.
“Should you choose to pursue employment with BC Emergency Health Services or Provincial Health Services Authority in the future, we reserve the right to re-commence and conclude the investigative process,” wrote Haydu, effectively cutting off any future BCEHS employment prospects for Vizzutti indefinitely.
“Often when paramedics retire, they work part-time or move to other locations where they offer their services if needed,” said Vizzutti in an interview. “With this threat of reopening the investigation, they have blackballed me across the entire province.”
Another Haydu directive was particularly humiliating to Vizzutti.
“Furthermore, as indicated in the initial 11.04 notice, you are prohibited from visiting any BCEHS property, including all stations and offices. I will arrange for any personal items currently stored at Station 229 to be returned to you as well as for you to return any BCEHS property including, but not limited to keys, ID Badge, and uniforms.”
“I was made persona non grata in a field where I had performed admirably and enjoyed a great deal of respect and seniority,” said Vizzutti. “I never did anything wrong but I am being treated like dirt.”
Based on our investigation, Ted Vizzutti was just one of thousands of Powell River residents voicing concern over the name change proposal.
Powell River Mayor Ron Woznow, elected in 2022, spoke candidly about the name change, which he said suffered from “a very flawed process.”
“The challenge with that was the majority of people in Powell River felt it was not a meaningful consultation,” said Woznow. “So what the city did was, rather than just going to talk to the residents of Powell River about this request, they put together a consultation process where the people from Powell River couldn’t go and ask a question.”
“So I think basically, where we’re at now, it’s been my position since I ran, is we have a request from the Nation, and it’s important that each member of Powell River has an opportunity to learn about the significance of this and then cast a vote as to whether or not they would like to do this or not,” said Woznow. “And if 50.1% want to do it, then council would take that to the provincial government and ask, if 50.1% or more don’t want to do it, then we’ll politely say to our neighbours, with regard to your request, the majority of people in Powell River would not like to do that.”
Despite the fact that City of Powell River’s public engagement process on the name change was by its own admission inconclusive and, as Woznow put it, “flawed,” the issue has suddenly been put back on the agenda.
At its January 16, 2024 Committee of the Whole meeting, a draft of the City’s “Strategic Priorities” was tabled that included this bombshell priority: “Take real steps towards a name change.”
The surprise inclusion of the name change as a “priority” brought out a large crowd to City Hall, some holding signs. It was evident at the January 16th meeting that the strategic plan was not unanimously supported.
At the meeting, councillors voted 6:1 to bring forward the plan for debate and possible adoption at the City’s February 15th, 2024 meeting.
Vizzutti, whose opposition to the name change seems very common in the town, feels that he has been unfairly singled out by BCEHS.
“The BCEHS is not only trying to take away my right to freedom of expression, their discriminatory actions are robbing me of my right to work,” said Vizzutti. “I’m at a time in my career where I can be helping new recruits learn the ropes, but they are blocking me from saving lives in the community like I used to.”
“I love my job,” said Vizzutti. “I wanted to keep serving my community, but they didn’t want me. It’s not fair.”
Who is Ted Vizzutti?
The bustling lunch crowd at popular Powell River Julie’s Airport Café seemed more like a family reunion for Ted Vizzutti. The hugs, high-fives, and “hey-how-are-ya’s” evoked a warm sense of community connection that people often associate with a small town.
South Harbour marina on Powell River’s waterfront on Malaspina Strait.
When the New Westminster Times met with Vizzutti, he said he had told no one in town why he was not at work. The truth is BCEHS had muzzled him.
When asked about his stand-out paramedic stories, Vizzutti recounted the kind of harrowing tails that regularly lead people to describe first responders as heroes.
“One thing about being a paramedic in a small town is that you often end up on calls where you know the people you are trying to help,” explained Ted. “It can make the job more emotional.”
A vivid memory Vizzutti shared was his first car accident.
“It turned out two of my high school friends went off the road at high-speed on their way back from Lund,” explained Vizzutti. “The car was going so fast when it hit the tree that the engine flew out and was found hundreds of feet away. The vehicle was suspended six feet in the air. When I managed to climb up to the wreckage, I found my young friend dead at the scene, impaled on a branch.”
Then there was the radio call from an injured logger, miles from nowhere, in a mountain up Powell Lake during a snowstorm, in the middle of the dense, slippery, and dangerous coastal forest.
“There were no roads in, so me and my partner commandeered a boat to head up Powell Lake to get closer to the guy,” explained Ted. “The boat malfunctioned, so we had to turn around and get ourselves another boat. We ended up at a trail head into the logger’s location and embarked on a multi-hour hike. Having no spiked boots, I almost broke my leg when I slipped on a log, but managed to free my pinned foot and carry on. The person had been struck by a fallen tree to his back and had been spitting up blood. We packaged him up and slid him down on the snow. This call lasted 6 hours. At that time I was making a call out wage of approximately $10 an hour.”
It was the kind of story that makes you ask yourself “why would anyone want to do this job?”
“I’m like everyone else who does my job. We don’t think of ourselves heroes,” says Ted, humbly. “We’re just doing our jobs.”
Vizzutti’s undeserved ouster from his job as a paramedic comes at a time of extreme staffing shortages across the entire BC healthcare system.
After several calls to the Tla’amin First Nation for comment, Director of Communications Davis McKensie called back. McKensie said that he was “new” and didn’t know much about the name-change topic, and said that he needed time to speak with others and back to us with possible comments.
As it turns out, contrary to what McKenzie told the New Westminster Times on the phone, McKensie appears in fact to be very knowledgeable about the Powell River name change process.
McKensie was a member of the above noted Working Group, formed in 2021.
Also, as disclosed and discussed at Powell Rivers’ January 16, 2024 Committee of the Whole meeting at City Hall (archived on video), McKenzie is in the midst of producing a documentary on behalf of the Tla’amin First Nation about the Powell River name-change process.
In an email, McKenzie stated: “I checked around and it looks like the Nation would decline to comment on this.”
The Ted Vizzutti story epitomizes the now common overreach of zealous Canadian bureaucrats seeking to rob citizens of their constitutionally protected right to freedom of expression.
Across Canada indigenous calls for geographic place name changes are put forward in the name of reconciliation with First Nations and “decolonization.”
As the story of Ted Vizzutti illustrates, “decolonization” could turn out to be the opposite of reconciliation.
A public square in the Westview area of Powell River, British Columbia has signage with two place names.
“The white people in Canada are subhuman because of what they’ve allowed to happen,” said former Chief Councillor of the Tla’amin First Nation KWAST-en-ayu (Maynard Harry) in a 90 minute phone interview with The New Westminster Times about the City of Powell River’s controversial name change proposal.
Tla’amin consultant and public speaker KWAS-en-ayu (Maynard Harry). Photo: from Indigenous Insights webpage.
KWAST-en-ayu reached out to The New Westminster Times following our story about veteran Powell River paramedic Ted Vizzutti, drummed out of his job after 39 years and called “racist” by BC Emergency Health Services for opposing his City’s proposed name change.
Powell River paramedic Ted Vizzutti. Vizzutti was muscled out of his job by his employer for opposing the City’s name change. Contributed
KWAST-en-ayu is the founder of Indigenous Insight. He runs a seminar called “Colonizer Rehab,” and is credited with shaping the City of Powell River’s “Community Accord” through collaborative work with former Powell River mayor Stewart Alsgard.
The 2003 Community Accord, which laid the groundwork for Powell River’s ongoing engagement with the Tla’amin First Nation, states: “Paramount is the respect for and appreciation of each other’s diverse backgrounds.”
If KWAST-en-ayu is any indication, Tla’amin respect for people outside their community has dwindled to near zero.
“White people need to acknowledge their culture is lost,” said KWAST-en-ayu bluntly. “White settler culture is a lost culture because nothing good defines white people.”
“If I insult white people, I don’t give a sh-t,” admitted KWAST-en-ayu.
Judging from KWAST-en-ayu’s recent comments to this paper, and the strident vitriol of other Powell River activists, many proponents of the name change are also seeking to further a hard-left ideological agenda.
Latest Developments
On January 30th, 2024, Powell River City Council passed a motion whereby the City will engage in public consultation on the name change, leading to an official vote on the question coinciding with the next municipal election in 2026.
