Labour groups apply to intervene in appeal of Sask. law that forces workers to 'out' trans youth

Three unions have joined forces to intervene in the appeal case over Saskatchewan's pronoun consent law.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Saskatchewan Federation of Labour (SFL) and the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) announced a joint application to intervene in the Court of Appeal over the province's pronoun law on Monday.

"I wish there were a situation where we didn't have to intervene to protect the Charter rights of kids, and workers," CUPE Saskatchewan president Kent Peterson said. "Unfortunately, this is the path the provincial government has taken."

The organizations say they are concerned the legislation inflicts harm on youth, compels teachers and education workers to inflict that harm and it sets a precedent to “override workers' Charter rights into the future,” according to a news release.

"Outing Saskatchewan young people in schools, in the case of Bill 137 — primarily trans students or those young people that wish to use different pronouns or different names — is a harmful and violent act," Peterson said.

"Bill 137 actually forces education workers to out that student and inflict violence on them in that way."

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The law requires parental consent for students under the age of 16 to change their names or pronouns while at school.

Initially introduced as a Ministry of Education policy in August 2023, the pronoun rules drew immediate pushback from the University of Regina's Pride organization, UR Pride, which launched a legal challenge alongside Egale Canada.

To prevent the pronoun rules from being struck down, the Sask. Party enshrined the policy into law last October, invoking the notwithstanding clause to shield it from a potential court order.

In February, a King's Bench judge said Egale’s Charter case could proceed anyway — even if the court could not strike down the law because of the notwithstanding clause, a judge could still hear the case and decide if the law violated the Charter rights of children.

The provincial government turned to the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal to intervene. It’s arguing that the use of the notwithstanding clause should prevent a judge from even hearing the case.

In a response to Monday’s application, the province said it would use “all tools necessary to protect parental rights when it comes to children’s education.” Because the matter is before the courts, they declined to comment further.

Peterson and his colleagues worry what precedent the case could set if the province is able to pass the law without any opposition because of the notwithstanding cause.

"If proceeding in this way sets a precedent that provincial governments, whether it's here in Saskatchewan or other provincial governments, can pre-emptively suspend Charter rights for workers, we don't think that should proceed without an argument in the courts," he said.

Peterson said throughout the legal process thus far there hasn't been any arguments from workers. Together, the three unions represent thousands of education workers, from teachers to janitors to secretaries.

"This has some pretty negative implications on Saskatchewan young people and workers and we ought to have the ability to engage in a legal discussion about that," Peterson said.

"Unfortunately, this is a situation we find ourselves in. And so we're going to hopefully proceed in this way if the court approves our application to intervene so that we can stand up for Saskatchewan kids and workers."

The bill also implements sweeping restrictions of sexual health education, including barring third-party health organizations and sexual assault centres from presenting in schools.

The Court of Appeal will finalize interveners for the appeal later this month. The appeal is scheduled for Sept. 23, 2024.

-With files from Rory MacLean