The declaration in Saskatchewan’s largest city largest city resonates in a province where the government stokes division over gender identity.
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Blake Tait sees himself as the “loud, angry queer of Saskatoon.”
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Tait, a transgender man and co-chair of Saskatoon Pride, appeared before a city council committee Wednesday about his request from 16 months ago to have Saskatoon declared a “sanctuary city” for gender diverse people like himself.
The original request from 2023 took place two months after protesters and counter-protesters flooded the streets of downtown Saskatoon over the issue of gender diversity and schools.
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The marches happened about a month before Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government recalled the legislature for an emergency session to pass legislation requiring that teachers get parental permission when students want to change their names or pronouns.
The new pronoun mandate was sealed by the unprecedented suspension of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code.
In November of 2023, Tait asked that Saskatoon be declared a sanctuary city for the LGBTQ community. The request considered by council Wednesday expanded that to 2SLGBTQQIA+.
“I apologize if I seem frustrated, but as a trans man in this city under a provincial government that is using my community’s rights as a way to win votes, I struggle to feel seen or heard,” Tait explained.
After some discussion about the unknown implications of the sanctuary city tag — which usually refers to sanctuary for undocumented immigrants — veteran Coun. Randy Donauer suggested using the word safe instead.
Rookie Coun. Jasmin Parker, who championed the declaration, agreed. Parker, elected in November, acknowledged the decision could be largely symbolic. But “symbols matter,” she stressed.
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Parker, who said she lives a safe and privileged life with her wife, added: “My community … currently experiences pressures from certain political spheres or political rhetoric.
“It can be very challenging to live in, whilst recognizing all the privilege I live with.”
It will likely surprise few that Parker pushed for this declaration, but it’s revealing that Donauer, a conservative who ran for the federal Conservatives in 2015, helped her. Council endorsed the declaration at committee unanimously, which means it is almost certain to pass at city council without further discussion.
Veteran Coun. Troy Davies, who is also identified with council’s right-wing flank, thanked Parker for her guidance.
But perhaps the most illuminating part of the discussion came from new Coun. Robert Pearce, largely because we know little about him aside from his crusade to close a provincial homeless shelter in his west-side neighbourhood.
Yet those who thought a Christian pastor like Pearce on council might provide a voice for conservative Christians, particularly the toxic ones, will be pleasantly surprised or sorely disappointed, depending on your perspective.
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Pearce said he was “wholeheartedly endorsing” the declaration.
“One of the things that I love about this city is I don’t think there’s anybody in this room who disagrees this should be a safe city for anybody who lives here,” Pearce added.
That declaration and the united support from council members of various political stripes and ideologies resonates in a province where the government continues to stoke the embers of division on gender diversity.
In October’s election campaign, Moe declared his top priority would be implementing a new change room policy in schools to ensure “biological” boys and girls are undressing in separate spaces.
Moe then backed away from this promise by deferring to school boards to produce their own policies. And he also conceded a setback with just one government MLA elected in either of Saskatchewan’s two largest cities.
But the image of a province unfriendly to gender diversity or willing to pacify those who harbour hostility will prove difficult to overcome, even though the Saskatchewan Party introduced legal protection based on gender identity in 2014.
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That shield matters little if a government is willing to suspend rights for political expedience. And the fact that Saskatchewan’s largest city is declaring itself safe for the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community suggests a lack of faith in that protection.
Ideally, though, Tait left city hall Wednesday feeling like he had been seen — at least by a united city council.
And, even though the declaration holds little legal power, Tait and others in Saskatoon’s gender diverse community had one less reason to be angry.
Phil Tank is the digital opinion editor at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
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