Saskatchewan Passes Bill Requiring Parental Consent for Pronoun Change at School

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe speaks to reporters at the Saskatchewan legislature in Regina on Oct. 10, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Heywood Yu)

The Saskatchewan legislature has passed a new law that makes parental consent necessary before a child under 16 can use a different gender identity or pronoun at school.

The legislation, known as Bill 137, passed on Oct. 20 following two months of heated debates, and received royal assent on the same day. MLAs voted along party lines, with the majority Saskatchewan Party government ensuring the bill’s passage.

The new law also requires schools to inform parents when sexual education content will be presented in their child’s class and gives parents the right to pull their kids from the class by providing written notification to the principal.

“Today in the Legislature, the Parents’ Bill of Rights was passed into law, ensuring that parents and guardians will be involved in all important decisions about their children’s education,” Premier Scott Moe said on social media on Oct. 20.

Mr. Moe recalled the legislature two weeks early in September so the bill could be debated and passed within days, saying that’s what the parents are asking for. The legislation is opposed by the NDP and activist groups.

During debate in the Saskatchewan legislature a day before the final vote, NDP Leader Carla Beck said that provincial human rights commissioner Heather Kuttai quit her job as objection over the legislation, and quoted the commissioner as saying that with the new law, “Saskatchewan will no longer be a place that takes care of all of its kids.”

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Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill said the government was moving the bill forward because many parents support the move.

“We’ve heard loud and clear from everybody on both sides of the issue that people want to be more involved in their child’s education,” he said on Oct. 19. “People believe that there is a right for parents to be involved in important decisions around their child’s education and important decisions that their child may or may not be making at the school.”

The government also plans to implement a support system for students who are not ready to talk to their parents about their preferred gender identity.

“We most certainly are going to work with the school divisions to make that a policy in schools across the province,” Mr. Moe said on Oct. 19. “This is about supporting our children across the province.”

Legal Challenge

The governing party used the notwithstanding clause in the Canadian Charter to move the bill forward after a legal challenge resulted in a court injunction to the proposed policy.

The bill was challenged in court by UR Pride Center for Sexuality and Gender Diversity, an LGBT peer support group, and on Sept. 28 the Court of King’s Bench of Saskatchewan issued an injunction.

At the time, Mr. Moe said his party would be moving the policy forward using the notwithstanding clause, a move that was criticized by the federal government.

School Policy Prompts Government Action

The bill was developed after a policy was implemented in Regina Public Schools allowing educators to keep a child’s change of gender a secret from parents if the child did not want to share it.

“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. “That’s when the government moved forward with respect to this policy.”

The policy at Regina schools was released in June 2022, and was developed in consultation with parents, students, and staff, a spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.

The policy, dubbed Administrative Procedure #353, states:

“Division staff will respect confidentiality and privacy and not disclose sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or gender expression of students unless the student has given permission or there is an impending safety concern.”

Saskatchewan’s move comes after a similar one in New Brunswick where the government said it would require schools to seek parental consent if students want to change their gender pronouns or identity.