Details included in court proceedings Tuesday have revealed that Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Education developed its pronoun consent policy over the span of nine days before it was announced in August.
The timeframe was spoken of during submissions from both applicant and respondent counsel during an injunction hearing on Tuesday, sourced from an affidavit of assistant deputy minister Michael Walter submitted by the provincial government.
The injunction has been requested by UR Pride Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity, as part of an originating application filed against the province challenging the constitutionality of the policy.
UR Pride counsel Adam Goldenberg raised the detail first, stating the policy “went from zero to a final version in nine days in August,” according to Walter’s statement.
He argued that this detail is relevant to UR Pride’s stance that proper consultation during development was not done, meaning the policy does not serve the public good.
“Experts could not have been consulted, there was not time,” he told sitting justice Michael Megaw.
The government’s counsel Mitch McAdam countered that the expediency of development is not indicative of the policy’s integrity.
“The fact this policy was put together quickly does not do away with the presumption of public interest in any way,” he said.
Premier Scott Moe also responded Wednesday morning, calling the claim of a nine-day timeline “not correct.”
“This is a policy that’s been discussed at the elected level of government for some period of time,” he said.
“Most certainly, there’s broad support for this policy across Saskatchewan. That’s why the government is ultimately committed to ensuring its implementation today and into the future.”
Former and current ministers of education Dustin Duncan and Jeremy Cockrill have previously been asked who was consulted when creating the policy, but have not provided any specifics to date.
Provincial children and youth advocate Lisa Broda expressed similar concerns over consultation to those raised by UR Pride in her report released last week examining the policy.
The Saskatchewan School Boards Association has also made clear that school divisions were not consulted.
Leader-Post asked the Ministry of Education if further context of that timeline could be provided, but the ministry was not able to do so by the time of publication Wednesday.
Those in court Tuesday also heard that according to Walter, the Minister of Education’s office received 18 letters between June and the policy’s release in August expressing concern about pronoun usage in schools.
Eleven letter writers did not identify themselves as parents of school age children. Most were speaking to New Brunswick’s recently announced Policy 713, not to Saskatchewan.
Goldenberg said the province declined to attach those letters in the affidavit or provide them to his legal team.
Government officials have not publicly provided a clear number on how many letters or emails were received from concerned parents about this topic, stating only there have been a number in contact with MLAs on the issue.
In an emailed response provided Wednesday, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General advised the Walter affidavit is “only one snapshot” of evidence to be advanced by government in this case, which continues in November.
Moe also reiterated previous statements on Wednesday that he remains open to using the notwithstanding clause to counter a successful injunction order.
“We’ll use the tools to ensure the policy ultimately is in place,” he said.
Source : Regina Leader Post
