A Regina judge has ruled that the Saskatchewan government’s naming and pronoun policy should be paused for the time being, but Premier Scott Moe says he’ll use the notwithstanding clause to override it.
Moe, responding to today’s injunction issued by a Regina Court of King’s Bench Justice Michael Megaw, said he intends to recall the legislature Oct. 10 to “pass legislation to protect parents’ rights.”
“Our government is extremely dismayed by the judicial overreach of the court blocking implementation of the Parental Inclusion and Consent policy - a policy which has the strong support of a majority of Saskatchewan residents, in particular, Saskatchewan parents,” Moe said in a written statement Thursday afternoon. “The default position should never be to keep a child’s information from their parents.”
Last month, the province announced that all students under 16 needed parental consent to change their names or pronouns.
Children have a right to education. Parents do not have a right to keep their children ignorant. It is Orwellian doublespeak to say that they are “protecting parent’s rights” by invoking the NWC. The NWC has no capacity to grant rights, it can only take them away.
Exactly. This legislation is a violation of children’s Charter Rights.
The Notwithstanding Clause is the only way to legally violate Charter Rights in emergency situations like… *checks notes*… youth expressing their gender and sexual identity.