'Every tool at our disposal': Lawyers submit amended application to challenge Sask. pronoun legislation

LGBTQ2S+ advocates are not backing down in their legal fight against the Sask. Party’s Parents’ Bill of Rights, submitting an amended application against the legislation on Friday evening.

LGBTQ2S+ advocates are not backing down in their legal fight against the Sask. Party’s Parents’ Bill of Rights, submitting an amended application against the legislation on Friday evening.

“Gender diverse young people should not be forced to come out to their parents or guardians before they can be recognized and respected at school,” Adam Goldenberg, lead counsel for UR Pride said in a release.

It comes after lawyers for the provincial government said in October the previous application was moot, as the pronoun policy it was fighting was ‘rescinded’ following the bill being written into law.

“With the legislation being passed, in effect and proclaimed – the policy becomes redundant. So it has been rescinded,” Premier Scott Moe told reporters on Oct. 25. “I’m not sure how a court case would continue with no policy.”

“A court has already found that the policy, now enacted into legislation, will inflict irreparable harm on young people, and we will continue to use every tool at our disposal to fight it,” director of legal for Egale Bennett Jensen said.

Court documents say, “Bill 137 pre-emptively invoked the Notwithstanding Clause to declare that section 197.4 would operate notwithstanding Sections 7 and 15 of the Charter — the very Charter rights at issue in the Originating Application and which the Policy was alleged to have violated — as well as Section 2 of the Charter.”

“Despite the shocking move by the government to use the notwithstanding clause to ram through legislation that is harmful to vulnerable young people, we are not giving up on our priority to protect all trans and gender diverse students across Saskatchewan,” Jensen said.