Saskatchewan Party Leader Scott Moe said Thursday that his “first order of business” if re-elected this month would be to establish a policy restricting students’ use of change rooms in the province’s schools to their sex assigned at birth.
Moe made the announcement while surrounded by a cheering crowd of party supporters and candidates at a campaign office in Regina.
“I’ll be very clear, there will be a directive that would come from the minister of education that would say that biological boys will not be in the change room with biological girls,” said Moe.
Moe said some school divisions should already have a policy on change rooms, but that a directive from the minister of education would apply to all schools in the province.
When asked what he meant by “biological boys,” Moe said he did not know how much clearer he could be.
Terms like “biological boys” and “biological girls” can be used to imply that transgender people are still their assigned sex at birth, despite their identity.
An expert says the terms are used to deny the existence of transgender people.
“It is imagining some biological certainty about bodies. It pretends we are all binary. It pretends there’s some biological truth that they know about people. And it also sort of claims that trans people are duplicitous,” said j skelton, a professor of queer studies in education at the University of Regina.
Saskatchewan Party Leader Scott Moe said Thursday that his “first order of business” if re-elected this month would be to establish a policy restricting students’ use of change rooms in the province’s schools to their sex assigned at birth.
The policy announced this morning was not part of the party’s platform released over the weekend. Moe said the party was just alerted to change room-related concerns “recently.”
Moe did not specify how many complaints there were, but the Saskatchewan Party confirmed it “received calls and correspondence with concerns regarding the complaint at [a south Saskatchewan elementary school].”
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On Wednesday, news outlet the Western Standard published a story featuring a parent saying their daughter had been uncomfortable in a change room with two other students who identified as female, but were assigned male at birth, at a south Saskatchewan school.
When asked whether there were complaints from any other schools, the party said that providing “a fulsome and accurate response” would require accessing government resources, which it is not able to do during the ongoing election campaign.
Prairie Valley School Division, which oversees Balgonie Elementary, declined in a statement to provide any details that could jeopardize student privacy and safety.
Instead, the division said it believes all students should have the opportunity to learn and grow in safe and welcoming environment.
“Our policies and procedures align with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code,” the division said.
Scott Moe said a policy allowing a “biological male” to change in girl’s change room would be an “odd interpretation” of the Charter.
“What about the rights of all of the other girls that are changing in that very change room? They have rights as well, and they have a right to be safe,” said Moe, to claps and cheers from Sask. Party supporters and candidates.
Fae Johnstone, a transgender advocate and spokesperson for Queer Momentum, pushed back on the policy Thursday.
“Change rooms, washrooms, they should be safe for everyone and it’s as simple as that. There is no evidence, absolutely no evidence, that allowing trans people access to the accurate and correct gendered spaces increases risk for anybody else,” said Johnstone.
According to skelton, every piece of evidence shows that safety for women and girls comes from comprehensive sex education.
However, third-party programs that offer that information are no longer allowed in the province’s schools as a result of the Sask. Party’s ban instituted last year.
“If we look at data, if we look at patterns, if you look at crimes and hate crimes and behaviour, [it] says this is going to make schools less safe,” said skelton.
‘Ugly kind of politics’
NDP Leader Carla Beck said Moe’s proposed change room policy would make kids who are already vulnerable even more so.
Beck said it is not one of the most pressing issues in the province.
“This is the most ugly kind of politics. People in this province consistently are worried about health care. They’re worried about being able to pay their bills. They’re worried about education,” Beck said.
The policy announced Thursday serves a political purpose rather than addressing a real problem, skelton said.
“We have seen the Sask Party attempt to use transphobia to shore up their support and to get people out to vote. The timing of this in the election campaign feels really like that’s what’s happening here,” skelton said.
“[Moe] is paying attention to the genitals of 12-year-olds and I want to say that that’s not appropriate and never OK.”
Past legislation
The Saskatchewan Party government passed legislation last year that requires parents consent to children under 16 using different names or pronouns at school.
The law has faced backlash from some 2SLGBTQ+ advocates who argue it violates Charter rights and could cause teachers to out or misgender children.
Beck has said her party would repeal that legislation if elected.
