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.
I’m not sure that matters when the question is about whether children are eligible for human rights. Unfortunately, we live in a world where we put many children in danger by telling parents who their child is.
Higher Priority: Basic rights of the child
Lower Priority : Parent’s access to the internal lives of another human
As per the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
Article 5
States Parties shall respect the responsibilities, rights and duties of parents or, where applicable, the members of the extended family or community as provided for by local custom, legal guardians or other persons legally responsible for the child, to provide, in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of the child, appropriate direction and guidance in the exercise by the child of the rights recognized in the present Convention.
I don’t think you’re arguing in bad faith, but I’m not going to engage with that because I don’t want to get lost in a semantic argument.
Have you ever been bullied before? When you were young, did kids ever call you names? It sucked, right? Even in kindergarten you were smart enough to be hurt by it.
Now, imagine the teacher started calling you mean names as well.
And your parents.
And everyone you love.
And now imagine that you tried to carve out a small part of your life where you weren’t being called something horrible.
Wouldn’t you have deserved that? Weren’t you smart enough to know you didn’t deserve to be called names?