Court of Appeal upholds disqualification of former Red Deer Catholic trustee
Monique LaGrange's disqualification stemmed from a 2023 social media post comparing Pride flags to Nazi symbolism, which triggered board sanctions she later breached.
Alberta's Court of Appeal has upheld the disqualification of Monique LaGrange, a former trustee with Red Deer Catholic Schools, in a decision released Sept. 2. The case traces back to a controversial meme LaGrange shared in August 2023 juxtaposing children holding Nazi flags with children holding Pride flags, captioned "Brainwashing is brainwashing," which prompted a code of conduct complaint and board sanctions.
LaGrange later breached those sanctions by giving media interviews in which she identified herself as a trustee, something the sanctions explicitly prohibited. A second complaint followed, and the board disqualified her under the Education Act. She resigned in protest shortly after.
LaGrange lost judicial reviews of both sets of sanctions in November and December 2024 before taking her case to the Court of Appeal in April. The three-judge panel agreed with the school board that LaGrange had resigned immediately after the second decision without exhausting her options under the Education Act. The court allowed her appeal on a separate sanction requiring a sincere apology, but dismissed her appeal of the disqualification itself, finding the board had determined she had not yet violated the apology requirement when the 90-day deadline for the sanction had not yet passed.
Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools said it was pleased the court agreed its sanctions, apart from the apology requirement, and LaGrange's disqualification were fair and reasonable, citing its mandate to provide students with an environment free from bias and intolerance. LaGrange's lawyer, James Kitchen, indicated a further appeal is highly unlikely. LaGrange had also run unsuccessfully for a Red Deer County council seat in 2025.
Compiled by the Alberta Daily Desk — an AI-written summary of reporting from the credited sources below, produced and reviewed under our editorial policy.