Ottawa ‘watching closely’ as provinces change school policy on pronouns, names 

Saskatchewan recently became the second jurisdiction to change its policy around pronoun use and name changes for students younger than 16.

Canada’s minister for women, gender equality and youth says policies in Saskatchewan and New Brunswick that require parental consent before students under 16 can have schools use their preferred pronouns and names puts transgender and nonbinary kids in a “life-or-death situation.”

And while Marci Ien declined to comment on whether Ottawa sees a role for itself in any potential court challenges, the cabinet minister said the Liberal government is keeping an eye on what unfolds.

“What I can tell you is that we’re watching closely as this develops,” she told The Canadian Press in an interview Wednesday.

“Obviously anything is possible, but I’m not going to comment on anything hypothetical at this time.”

Saskatchewan recently became the second jurisdiction to change its policy around pronoun use and name changes for students younger than 16, making it a rule that teachers must first seek permission from those students’ parents. The provincial government says the change originated out of concerns from parents and a desire to apply one uniform policy across all school divisions.

Premier Scott Moe signalled plans to make the change ahead of the coming school year, after the topic of parental consent over issues of sexual health, orientation and gender identity was in the summer spotlight.

The Saskatchewan government suspended Planned Parenthood from giving sexual health presentations in schools this spring after a Grade 9 student in Lumsden, north of Regina, took home a pamphlet containing graphic, sexual words. Planned Parenthood says the brochure, intended for older audiences, had been grabbed from a side table, where it had been inadvertently been mixed with other materials.

An August byelection in the riding where the high school is located saw the Saskatchewan United Party, a fledgling right-of-centre party, eat into the governing Saskatchewan Party’s rock-solid rural vote after campaigning on the issue of “parental rights.”