The Saskatchewan government will be seeking a stay of proceedings and appealing a court decision that allows a lawsuit against its pronoun policy to continue, according to those behind the case.
An LGBT peer-to-peer support group, UR Pride, filed the lawsuit in August 2023, after the government announced a policy that would require schools to have parental consent before students under 16 years of age could change their names or pronouns.
On Feb. 16, Court of King’s Bench Justice Michael Megaw ruled that the lawsuit against the policy could continue, despite the government’s action.
“Unfortunately, the Government of Saskatchewan has indicated that it will seek leave to appeal the February 16th decision of Justice Megaw of the Court of King’s Bench of Saskatchewan granting UR Pride’s application to amend its Originating Application to challenge Bill 137 and allow the case to proceed,” Bennett Jensen, director of legal for Egale Canada and co-counsel for the case, told The Epoch Times in an email statement.
Mr. Jensen also said that the government indicated it was seeking a stay of proceedings in the case, but he said the case must be allowed to proceed.
“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,” the email 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.”
The Epoch Times reached out to the government but did not hear back by publication time.
Mr. Jensen said the group will oppose the government’s application for leave and stay of proceedings.
The plaintiffs say the policy proposed in August 2023 violated students’ charter freedoms, particularly the right to life, liberty, and security of the person and the right to equality.
However, by invoking the notwithstanding clause, no legal action is permitted against the changes to the Education Act that claims the legislation violates freedom of expression, association, conscience, religion, and peaceful assembly, or Section 7 of the Charter that covers life, liberty, and security of the person.
UR Pride said it wants to challenge the legislation based on Section 12 of the Charter, which prohibits “any cruel and unusual treatment or punishment.”
Premier Scott Moe has maintained the changes are important to protect parental rights in the province.
