Legal Challenge Against Sask. Pronoun Policy Resumes in Court

People attend competing rallies over Saskatchewan's pronoun bill outside the legislature in Regina on Oct. 10, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Heywood Yu)

A legal challenge to Saskatchewan’s pronoun policy has moved forward with a court hearing arguments from the provincial government and an LGBT group on Jan. 10 and 11 about whether or not the case should proceed.

The court case comes after the provincial government introduced a policy in August 2023 that would require schools to seek parental consent if a student under the age of 16 wants to change their name or pronouns.

The UR Pride Centre for Sexuality and Gender Diversity started a constitutional challenge to the policy, saying it would violate students’ charter freedoms, particularly the right to life, liberty, and security of the person and the right to equality.

Court of King’s Bench’s Justice Michael Megaw granted an injunction to UR Pride, pausing the policy from being put into effect until a full court hearing could take place, according to the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), who has provided lawyers to defend the government’s policy.

In October 2023, the province passed the Education (Parents’ Bill of Rights) Amendment Act, and Premier Scott Moe invoked the notwithstanding clause to protect the legislation from legal action.

“It wasn’t until one school division actually changed its policy explicitly to not inform the parents when it comes to a pronoun change, a name change, or a gender-identity classification change,” Mr. Moe said in the Saskatchewan legislature on Oct. 16, 2023. “That’s when the government moved forward with respect to this policy.”

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Invokation of the notwithstanding clause means that legal challenges to the Act that rely on Charter Section 2, freedom of expression, association, conscience, religion, and peaceful assembly, Section 7 covering life liberty, and security of the person, and Section 15, which applies to equality, cannot be heard in the courts, according to JCCF.

However, UR Pride is challenging the legislation based on Section 12 of the Charter, which prohibits “any cruel and unusual treatment or punishment.”

The Epoch Times reached out to UR Pride and the Saskatchewan government but did not hear back by publication time.

Ljiljana Stanic, who is one of the attorneys representing UR Pride, told the court on Jan. 10 that they will be arguing using section 12, according to media reports.

She said because the notwithstanding clause was not applied to that section, lawyers can argue how young people’s rights are violated based on that section.

Stanic said that teachers are employed by the government and their actions are considered treatment. Misgendering students or potentially outing them at school could be considered mistreatment, she said.

The province is asking the court to dismiss the case because the policy has been replaced by the Education (Parents’ Bill of Rights) Amendment Act.

“Saskatchewan argues that the Court should strike any section 7, 12, or 15 challenges to the Parents’ Bill of Rights from UR Pride’s application for various reasons, including the fact that the Notwithstanding Clause shields the Bill from section 7 and 15 challenges,” the release said.

Mr. Moe has maintained the legislation is key to protecting parental rights in the province.

“The default position should never be to keep a child’s information from their parents,” Mr. Moe wrote on social media in September 2023. “It is in the best interest of children to ensure parents are included in their children’s education, in their classrooms, and in all important decisions involving their children.”

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.