News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 20, 2024

REGINA – UR Pride Centre for Sexuality and Gender Diversity, represented by Bennett Jensen, Director of Legal at Egale Canada, and a team from McCarthy Tétrault LLP led by Adam Goldenberg and Ljiljana Stanić will be back in court Monday to continue the fight to protect gender diverse young people in Saskatchewan. 

Last fall, the Government of Saskatchewan took the unprecedented and disgraceful step of passing legislation invoking the Notwithstanding Clause to implement a school pronoun policy that the Court of King’s Bench had held would cause irreparable harm to gender diverse young people in the province. 

Now, the Government of Saskatchewan – supported by the Governments of Alberta and New Brunswick – is asking the Court of Appeal to rule that it can limit the Charter rights of vulnerable young people and unilaterally prevent the courts from considering whether those limits are reasonable and demonstrably justifiable in Canada’s free and democratic society. The Court of King’s Bench rejected the government’s arguments on this issue earlier this year.

“The legislation passed by the Saskatchewan government continues to cause irreparable harm to gender diverse young people in Saskatchewan,” said Bennett Jensen, co-counsel for UR Pride and Director of Legal at Egale. “We cannot forget what this case is really about: ensuring that all young people are safe and able to attend school as themselves.”

80% of trans students in Egale’s Still in Every Class in Every School study who were prevented from using their chosen name and pronouns agreed that “I don’t like being at school” and 77% agreed that “It is hard for me to feel accepted at my school”. 

“Youth under 18 are legally required to be in school, and how they are treated there has a huge impact on their wellbeing, mental health and success in school and life,” said j wallace skelton, UR Pride board member. “We need to tell 2SLGBTQIA+ children and youth that they matter, that we believe them, and that we care about them, otherwise school, a place our government requires them to be, becomes profoundly less safe. The current legislation is in effect the government bullying young people, and when the government bullies 2SLGBTQIA+ children and youth, it emboldens other bullies too.”

“Saskatchewan has put gender diverse young people in a lose-lose situation: either be forced to come out by the government, or be misgendered and misnamed at school,” said Adam Goldenberg, lead counsel for UR Pride and a partner at McCarthy Tétrault LLP.

We call on the government to rescind this harmful and regressive policy. Until it does, we will continue to use every tool at our disposal to fight.

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Representatives from Egale Canada are available for further comment on this matter. To schedule an interview please email: media@egale.ca.