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The Supreme Court of Canada says it will hear appeals in a challenge of Saskatchewan’s school pronoun law.
No date has been set for the court to hear the cross appeals from the provincial government and UR Pride, an 2SLGBTQ+ group in Regina.
The law prevents children under 16 from changing their names or pronouns at school without parental consent.
Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government introduced it as a policy in 2023, arguing parents should be involved in decisions their children make at school.
Lawyers for UR Pride challenged the rule in court, arguing it violates Charter rights and causes irreparable harm to gender diverse youth.
A judge granted an injunction to halt the policy. But a month later, the province put it into law and invoked the notwithstanding clause, allowing it to override certain Charter rights for five years.
The province argued the challenge should be thrown out because it invoked the clause, but Saskatchewan’s Court of Appeal ruled earlier this year it can continue.
It said the court can’t strike down the legislation because of the notwithstanding clause, but it can issue a declaratory judgment on whether the law violates constitutional rights.
It also ruled UR Pride can still argue the law be struck down, because the clause wasn’t applied to Section 12 of the Charter — the right to be free from cruel and unusual treatment. The province cited other sections when it invoked the clause.
The group and the province both appealed and asked Canada’s highest court to expedite the case to be heard alongside a challenge of a Quebec law that prevents public sector workers from wearing religious symbols on the job.
Quebec also invoked the notwithstanding clause in its law.
