Saskatchewan Granted Permission to Appeal Court Decision in Pronoun Policy Case

Saskatchewan Granted Permission to Appeal Court Decision in Pronoun Policy Case
People attend competing rallies over Saskatchewan's pronoun bill outside the legislature in Regina on Oct. 10, 2023. The Canadian Press/Heywood Yu
Chandra Philip
Updated:
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Saskatchewan has been given the go-ahead to appeal a court decision that permitted the launch of a lawsuit targeting the province’s pronoun policy.

The policy required schools to have parental consent before students under 16 years of age could change their names or pronouns, Premier Scott Moe announced last August. The policy has since been rescinded and replaced with the Parents’ Bill of Rights.

LGBT peer support group UR Pride, which filed the lawsuit against the provincial policy, petitioned the court to amend the case to also challenge the new law. The group has now consented to the government’s appeal, a spokesperson for Saskatchewan’s appeal court told The Epoch Times.

Lawyers for the organization previously told The Epoch Times they would oppose both the appeal and the stay of proceedings.

“The Saskatchewan Court of King’s Bench has already found that the Saskatchewan government’s pronoun policy (now enacted into legislation) will inflict irreparable harm on vulnerable young people,” a Feb. 27 statement emailed to The Epoch Times said. “In response to that ruling, the government took the unprecedented step of using the notwithstanding clause to limit the rights of gender diverse students. The Court has again found in our favour — that our case must proceed.”