Jewlie Milligan.

Image Credit: FACEBOOK: ParentsVoice BC

A former Vernon school trustee candidate who was issued a no-trespass order by the school district is taking legal action.

Former ParentsVoice B.C. candidate Jewlie Rose Milligan filed a notice of claim in BC Supreme Court April 18, demanding that the no-trespass order be rescinded.

Milligan, who didn't hire a lawyer and represents herself, named School District 22, superintendent Dr. Christine Perkins, school board chair Gen Acton and Director of Instruction - Inclusive Education Christine Love in the suit.

The court document says on Feb. 10 Milligan was issued the no-trespass order by the RCMP on behalf of the school district.

"The no trespass order falsely accuses myself of sending threatening and intimidating letters as well as attending public board meetings and intimidating staff," the notice of claim reads.

In the court document, Milligan asks for the school district to rescind the no-trespass order saying there is no evidence to substantiate the allegations.

"I also requested an apology due to these unfounded allegations," the notice of claim reads.

Last fall, Milligan ran unsuccessfully for a seat at the school district as part of the conservative Christian slate ParentsVoice. She garnered just under 1,700 votes.

While ParentsVoice said it stood for transparency it offered none and in an unusual move for someone seeking public office, Milligan flat-out refused an interview. She then failed to turn up at the all-candidates debate, a move heavily criticized by the Vernon District Parents’ Advisory Council.

While the recent court filing doesn't include a copy of the no-trespass order, iNFOnews.ca obtained the document and wrote about it in March.

"You have sent threatening and intimidating letters to our staff accusing them of criminal and other unlawful conduct. You have attended at a Board meeting and again engaged in intimidating conduct toward our staff via registered mail and delivery at the School Board office," the no trespass order reads. "We have directed our staff to ignore your communication. It is both factually and legally inaccurate."

The no-trespass order doesn't go into details, but in Mulligan's court filing she says she served six "notices of liability" to the school district and staff members.

In the court document, Milligan says she served four notices of liability to SOGI123 (sexual orientation and gender identity) team members and two to Dr. Perkins.

In an email to Dr. Perkins requesting comment she simply replied, "No one is allowed to bully or harass our staff."

While Milligan has never returned our calls, she did speak to right-wing news outlet True North earlier this month and told them the notices of liability were written by the group  Action4Canada.

The anti-vax and anti-LGBTQ+ group Action4Canada describes itself as a "grassroots movement" and rose to the public's attention during the pandemic. It received just under $800,000 in donations last year. A lawsuit filed by the group against COVID-19 mandates was described by a B.C. judge as "bad beyond argument."

The notices of liability are available to download on Action4Canada's website.

"This Notice of Liability is to alert you, if you are not already aware, that your participation in making available explicit/pornographic books to minors and/or facilitating in the exploitation and/or sexualization of minors is unlawful," a notice of liability titled, Facilitating in Exposure of Minors to Sexually Explicit Educational Resources, Activities and/or Events reads.

It also demands that certain books be immediately removed from the school library.

UBC law professor Dr. Robert Russo told iNFOnews.ca that the notices have no legal force "whatsoever."

"You could see (a Notice of Liability) as a form of private citizens trying to make others responsible for criminal acts. The problem though (is that) in Canada... legally private citizens don't make others liable for criminal acts through something like this," Dr. Russo said.

The law professor also points out that while the Notice of Liability contains lots of allegations, no facts are cited in support of its argument.

In Milligan's suit against the school district, she says the superintendent "knowingly filed a false and intentionally misleading police report."

In the court documents, Milligan also accuses school board chair Gen Acton of "submitting information" to iNFOnews.ca and "misleading and defamatory statements." Milligan doesn't say what these statements are.

She also claims incorrectly that Acton gave iNFOnews.ca a photograph of her when the photo iNFOnews.ca used was taken from the ParentsVoice website last fall and has been used by several media outlets. The photo is still available on the group's Facebook page.

In the Notice of Claim Milligan states that it is her "legal right" to attend public meetings and events on publicly owned property.

The court document says that the school district gave her no warning or ever asked her to leave school property or a school board meeting.

The Notice of Claim says Milligan "served" the notices of liability at a school district meeting Jan. 25.

In March, Acton said some 20 people had been regularly attending school board meetings and the group doesn't identify as parents of children at the district's schools.

At the time, Acton said the group raised questions about SOGI123 (a sexual orientation and gender identity policy) and made false accusations of pornography in schools.

Because of this, the school board made the decision to scrap the open-question period at its meetings. It still has a question period related to items on the agenda and parents can still email questions.

"We are not stopping people asking questions," Acton said at the time.

The move to limit question time falls in line with the Central Okanagan school district which brought in the same policy in March following comments about the sexual orientation and gender identities initiative.

"We received reports from staff and students that recent comments at meetings made them feel unsafe," Central Okanagan school board chairperson Lee-Ann Tiede said in a news release.

While Milligan's remain largely unknown, she did stand side-by-side with other ParentsVoice candidates Sylvian Herchen and Nellie Villegas.

Herchen helped organize one of the first protests against COVID-19 mandates in April 2020 calling the policies "tyranny." While she claims she is not an 'anti-vaxxer' she has referred to the COVID-19 vaccination as an "experimental vaccine."

Milligan also threw her support behind Genevieve Ring in her effort to recall the vote and unseat Vernon-Monashee MLA Harwinder Sandhu.

Ring was Vernon ParentsVoice's largest donor giving $1,250 to the organization. Ring has repeated conspiracy theories and told iNFOnews.ca last summer that it was "child abuse" to put masks on children.

Jewlie Milligan did not return our request for comment. A statement of defence has not yet been filed.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

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