Dozens of Saskatchewan teachers have signed a petition against the province’s law which requires parental consent when a student wishes to go by a different name or pronoun in school.
But despite the pushback, Premier Scott Moe has no intention of rescinding the law.
“This is a policy about when a school will recognize a change in name or pronoun or even gender,” Moe said. “Those are decisions that the parent should be part of before a school ultimately is going to recognize any of those changes.”
Moe, however, is not sure what consequences could look like for teachers who choose to ignore the legislation.
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Moe said now that the policy is law, it is up to the school divisions to make sure their employees are following it just as any other employer would be expected to enforce rules in their company.
“I don’t know what those protocols are, and if they differ between school divisions, but that is an inquiry that we may make at some point, but I haven’t made it yet,” Moe said.
For opposition NDP leader Carla Beck, she believes the policy should be scrapped all together.
Beck questions why the province needed to hold an emergency legislature session and use the notwithstanding clause to introduce the law, when the government doesn’t have a clear answer on how it will be enforced and followed.
“This was an ill-thought-out bill that was done without consultation,” Beck said Tuesday. “Had they consulted, they would have understood that these issues and I don’t think we’ve seen all of them would come to light.”
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