One of two rallies against the government's ban of student choice of pronouns drew over a hundred protestors. (Derek Craddock/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

Gender diversity in schools

P.A. Pride supports ongoing legal effort against Sask. pronoun policy

Jan 5, 2024 | 4:59 PM

The ongoing legal challenge by UR Pride, the organization that is fighting the Province of Saskatchewan’s pronoun policy, is being supported by Prince Albert Pride.

The local group said it backs the next leg of the legal action “against Saskatchewan’s transphobic pronoun legislation”.

“It’s extremely, extremely important. This is a human rights issue,” said Chelsea Bleau, chair of PA Pride.

“Two-Spirit and trans students have the right to feel safe, secure, and confident in the classroom and this includes having their names and pronouns recognized.”

The province introduced legislation in late August that prevents students from choosing their own pronouns and gender identification without parental permission if they’re younger than 16.

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READ MORE: Opponents of the policy held a rally in front of Alana Ross’ office.

Advocacy groups have been working to stop the legislation, saying it will be harmful to youth who have not told their parents about their gender identity, adding it could cause both emotional and potentially physical harm.

UR Pride then launched legal action that was hindered when Premier Scott Moe elected to use the notwithstanding clause to override the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

However, they have not given up and have asked to amend their application to specify, along with the violation of sections 7 and 15 of the Charter of Rights, the law also violates section 12 which is the right to not be subject to cruel and unusual treatment.

If they are successful under section 12, UR Pride’s legal counsel, Egale Canada, said the law would not be allowed to operate.

Closer to home, Bleau is disappointed in the lack of response P.A. Pride has gotten when reaching out to local MLAs, including Alana Ross (Prince Albert – Northcote), Joe Hargrave (Prince Albert – Carlton), Sask Rivers MLA Nadine Wilson and Moe himself, who represents Rosthern – Shellbrook as well as being Premier.

Sask Rivers MLA Nadine Wilson walked in a rally against SOGI, a school approach that aims to ensure gender-diverse students are welcome in schools. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

Ross has been part of previous events hosted by PA Pride, including the 2022 Pride in the Park.

“Despite our open line of communication, no MLAs reached out to Prince Albert Pride about the policy even when our membership expressed concerns. Prince Albert Pride condemns regional MLAs for not consulting with rightsholders before putting forward this legislation,” said the organization in a news release.

Bleau noted many letters were sent when the policy was first announced, along with rallies in all the major cities.

READ MORE: One protest in Prince Albert was at a Sask. Party fundraiser attended by Premier Scott Moe.

“I’ve only heard of a couple of people getting responses back from letters, even though hundreds of letters have been sent from many, many people,” they said.

Prince Albert alone had a lot of letters as they had a campaign and ran out of stickers for the envelopes.

The few responses have been vague and non-specific, according to Bleau. “There’s been no true and genuine response to any of the issues.”

Another concern for P.A. Pride is that local gender-diverse people have no voice in the legislature.

“MLAs like Alana Ross didn’t even bother showing up to vote during the emergency legislative sitting. She didn’t stand up for anyone’s rights: human rights or parent’s rights. The other MLAs have never expressed solidarity with the 2SLGBTQ+ community of Prince Albert and are now actively working against us. Prince Albert currently has no 2SLGBTQ+ allies representing them in the legislative assembly. It’s very disappointing,” said Troy Parenteau, P.A. Pride co-chair.

paNOW also reached out to all four MLAs and received a return call from Moe who said he is not aware of any communication attempts by PA Pride.

“I would say on behalf of not only myself but our Prince Albert MLAs and surrounding areas that we certainly do try to respond to people who have constituency concerns through our office,” he said.

With a scheduled election to happen in October of this year at the latest, Moe said that the decision to create the policy – now law – in the first place was not political.

“The decisions that we made were not political. They were made by MLAs in the governing caucus that had spoken to parents over the course of the last number of years but, in particular, over the last number of months,” he said.

He said the caucus had many, many discussions over the previous months that led to the decision to standardize policies that most school boards already had in place.

One division in particular changed its policy to not inform parents if students were using different pronouns, names, or gender identification in school.

Moe said that the flashcards a student in southern Saskatchewan got from a Planned Parenthood presenter in a classroom may have changed the conversation and called them “very inappropriate”.

“That most certainly raised the public discussion on what are the policies in our classrooms,” Moe added.

The education minister then decided to ban all outside presenters from classroom presentations of sexual education materials across the province.

When asked if a teacher with no specific training in sex ed could have the same ability to educate as a specialist, Moe was supportive.

“When it comes to health and the sex education part of health, I don’t think it’s out of line to be looking to our teachers, our in-class educators, to be providing that material,” he said.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com