UR Pride threatens lawsuit over pronoun policy in Saskatchewan schools

The Saskatchewan government is receiving more backlash from its new education policies regarding students’ names and chosen pronouns.

The University of Regina-based 2SLGBTQI non-profit UR Pride Centre for Sexuality and Gender Diversity along with national advocacy organization Egale Canada have threatened the province with what they called “legal action.”

This is over the new policy requiring that schools seek parental/guardian permission when students under the age of 16 seek to change their names and pronouns.

“The policy does not appear to have been the result of any meaningful consultation or grounded in any good quality evidence about the best interests of students. If it is implemented at the imminent start of the school year, the policy will cause devastating and irreparable harm to gender diverse students under 16 years old who do not feel safe coming out at home,” Egale wrote in a letter to the province’s new minister of education, Jeremy Cockrill.

“These students will face an impossible choice: Be outed to their parents under the policy or remain closeted at school.”

The letter went on to describe the policy as “wrong” and “repugnant to the laws of Saskatchewan and of Canada.” Egale also said that on the policy’s face, it violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

It said the province will be met with “legal action” in the coming days.

“Among other relief, our client will ask the Court of King’s Bench to enjoin the implementation of the policy on an interlocutory basis pending the court’s determination of whether the policy is lawful,” the letter read.

“An injunction is urgently necessary to prevent imminent, significant, and irreparable harm to gender-diverse young people in Saskatchewan.”

Egale said that to avoid urgent interim relief, it is asking the province to suspend the implementation of the policy along with complying with a court order of the same effect.

“With the co-operation of your counsel, this interim delay could be limited to a few weeks’ pause, unless the court grants the interlocutory injunction that our client will be seeking, which would then remain in effect until the court makes a final determination of the policy’s lawfulness, including its constitutionality,” the letter said.

Other organizations, including the Saskatchewan School Boards Association, also have asked the government to pause the implementation of the policy

The letter said that if the province doesn’t agree to comply, Egale will take the government to court for interim as well as interlocutory court orders.

Egale has given the province until 5 p.m. Wednesday to provide consent for the terms.