A spirited debate took place inside the Saskatchewan legislature, as people protested outside, over a bill to protect parental rights—before the legislation was even introduced.
Although the bill, called the “Education Parents Bill of Rights Amendment Act,” will likely not be introduced into the legislature until Oct. 12, debate over the bill took up much of question period on Oct. 10.
NDP Leader Carla Beck accused the government of ignoring problems in health care, while attacking vulnerable children.
“Why is this premier instead using the notwithstanding clause against kids instead of acting now to fix what is a broken health care system?” Ms. Beck asked.
“That’s about preserving the right for parents to be involved in their child’s education,” responded Mr. Moe. “Something that the NDP can now explain to parents as to why they cannot support that parental inclusion in their children’s education.”
The debate was later taken up by Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill and Matt Love, the NDP critic for education.
“The tired and out-of-touch government has completely lost the plot,” said Mr. Love.
“They’ve called us back to the assembly for an emergency session to ram through a bill that takes rights away from already vulnerable kids, all while a school in Saskatoon has a gaping hole in the roof, water pouring in. Get back to the basics, things that matter to Saskatchewan parents.”
The education minister fired back.
“We have heard from tens of thousands of people who are supporting this policy,” said Mr. Cockrill.
He pointed out that schools require parental permission for many things.
“Parental consent is required to go on a field trip … to be administered medication,” he said. “We believe that these important discussions around changing a pronoun or changing a name, that should also require parental consent.”
“Why is the minister pushing ahead with a policy that the independent children’s advocate says will violate human rights in Saskatchewan?” he asked.
“Why are we pushing forward with this policy?” responded Mr. Cockrill. “We’ve heard from tens of thousands of parents across this province.”
“Parents who are seeing policies in school divisions that explicitly exclude them from important conversations, policies from school divisions that were opening the doors to wider third-party involvement around sex education and other controversial issues … we believe the default position of government should be that parents are involved.”
The province’s justice minister also defended the decision to use the notwithstanding clause, invoking the words of a former NDP premier.
“The notwithstanding clause is part of the law. It’s part of the Canadian Constitution,” said Bronwyn Eyre.
“Provinces, including Saskatchewan with [former NDP Premier] Allan Blakeney fought hard for the inclusion of the notwithstanding clause in 1982. And it was Mr. Blakeney who said that the clause does not amount to a ‘suspension of rights’ … that there would be instances when ‘rights collide.’ This is one of those instances.”
Mr. Love fired back.
“I can assure that minister that Premier Blakeney never envisioned the notwithstanding clause being used to trample the rights of vulnerable children in our province,” he said. Mr. Blakeney was premier of Saskatchewan from 1971 to 1982 and was one of the leaders involved in negotiating the 1982 Constitutional Act.
However, Ms. Eyre pointed out that Quebec has used the notwithstanding clause 16 times.
“The Charter and its notwithstanding clause are a part of a sophisticated balance between legislative and judicial, federal and provincial,” she said.
“And as Allan Blakeney put it, the clause ensures that ‘the state could for economic or social reasons, or because other rights were found in the circumstances to be more important, choose to override a Charter protected right.’ That was Mr. Blakeney. We agree.”
The bill is not expected to be introduced until Oct. 12. Debating it—and passing it into law—will take more time. But with the government’s 46-seat majority, compared to 14 for the NDP in the 61-seat legislature, there is little doubt the bill will pass.
In August, the government of Saskatchewan announced a new policy around pronouns.
The policy also said parents and guardians must be informed about the sex education curriculum and have the option to decline their child’s participation.
Saskatchewan’s Legislature was recalled two weeks earlier than scheduled to deal with the issue.
