News & Events News Appeal court rules litigation of Sask. pronoun policy can continue

Appeal court rules litigation of Sask. pronoun policy can continue

August 13, 2025

We were part of a nice win at the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal this week.

As the CBC reports, the Court of Appeal upheld a lower court decision that a law requiring parental consent for children under the age of 16 who want to use a different name or pronoun at school can be challenged even though the Saskatchewan government used the Charter’s Notwithstanding Clause when it passed the law:

On Monday, the Court of Appeal ruled that litigation over the law can continue at the Court of King’s Bench.

It clears the UR Pride Centre for Sexuality and Gender Diversity, an organization at the University of Regina, to argue that the amendments to Saskatchewan’s Education Act violate sections 7 and 15 (1) of Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

That’s despite the province’s use of the notwithstanding clause on challenges related to sections 2, 7 and 15 of the Charter.

CBC also set out some of the background to the litigation:

The legal battle goes back to August 2023, when the Saskatchewan government announced the pronoun consent policy.

Later that month UR Pride filed an application against the new policy, requesting a judge strike down the changes. It said the policy was not justifiable under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and denied gay and gender-diverse students “a safe and welcoming educational environment in which to be themselves.”

UR Pride also argued that the policy outed children who weren’t ready to express their new identity to their parents, and that that would potentially put them at risk of harm.

The province then passed The Parents’ Bill of Rights in October 2023, writing the policy into law and employing the notwithstanding clause — a rarely used measure that lets governments override certain Charter rights for five years.

The province then applied to have UR Pride’s challenge dismissed.

In response, UR Pride amended its legal challenge to say that the law violates Section 12 of the Charter, which protects Canadians against cruel and unusual treatment or punishment. The province did not name Section 12 when it invoked the notwithstanding clause.

When it lost in court, the government appealed. There is a link to the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal’s decision in the CBC report.

The Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, Canadian Union of Public Employees, and Canadian Teachers’ Federation intervened in the appeal in support of UR Pride. They were represented by Steven Barrett, Mel Anderson, Adriel Weaver and Char Wiseman.