Of all the things going on in the world, in Saskatchewan, from rent, to food costs, to healthcare, to climate change, to wild fires, forcing vulnerable gender diverse children into a closet they can only come out of with their parents permission is the top priority.
So important it required an emergency recall, debate and the use of the notwithstanding clause to override the charter rights of these vulnerable children.
To me, this is a national embarrassment and yet another example of what to expect when conservatives govern.
It's their right to force their child to work to help pay rent in these troubling times. I mean, it's what kids are for right? Why else would they have had them.
During the debate so far, virtually the entire 33-hour duration saw Opposition NDP MLAs share their concerns about the policy and read testimonials of those against the new law and against the use of the notwithstanding clause.
Later that day, Premier Scott Moe announced his government would recall the legislature early, invoke the notwithstanding clause and pass a law to protect the policy.
In his ruling, Justice Megaw said, "There is no indication … that the [Education] Ministry discussed this new policy with any potential interested parties such as teachers, parents or students," he wrote.
Finally, there is no indication the ministry sought any legal assistance to determine the constitutionality of the policy with respect to any potential considerations regarding the Charter," Megaw wrote.
"Absolutely, we have heard from tens of thousands of individuals in this province whether that be emails, calls, petitions, conversations at grocery stores or hockey games."
Howard Leeson, who was Saskatchewan's deputy minister of intergovernmental affairs in the Allan Blakeney government, was central to the 1982 negotiations that repatriated the Canadian Constitution and created the notwithstanding clause.
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