FREDERICTON, NEW BRUNSWICK — Nicki Lyons-MacFarlane says it was shocking to find a postcard in their mailbox Friday claiming “gender ideology” in schools often leads to “surgical mutilation.”

However, the transgender provincial NDP candidate for Fredericton’s South-Silverwood district says it would likely be much more upsetting — even harmful — for a gender diverse student to find the card, which Lyons-MacFarlane describes as “hate mail.”

Lyons-MacFarlane says Canada Post should not have delivered the Campaign Life Coalition’s postcards, adding that the Crown corporation needs to develop better guidelines about what materials it will deliver to Canadian households.

Chris Pritchett, a business owner in Durham Bridge, N.B., is also calling on Canada Post to stop mailing out the postcards, which she says misrepresent the school curriculum and villainize teachers.

Jack Fonseca with the Campaign Life Coalition said in an email that 160,000 cards are en route to households across New Brunswick as the group fears Premier Blaine Higgs’s strict policies on gender identity in schools will be reversed if he loses the upcoming election.

In an email, a spokesperson for Canada Post said the company understands the concerns about the postcard campaign but does not have the right to refuse a mail item because the company or its employees object to the item’s contents.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 27, 2024.

The Canadian Press