Stories of the year: Sask. Party MLAs banned from Pride events as legal clash over Bill 137 continues

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The Leader-Post and the StarPhoenix are looking back on some of the stories that had the most impact on us in 2024. Today: The ongoing legal battles over Bill 137, and how Pride organizations throughout the province have responded.

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During Pride Month, cities and towns throughout Saskatchewan host exuberant parades with music, dancing, glitter, balloon-decorated floats and hand-lettered signs.

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But when those rainbow crowds took to the streets in 2024, there was a notable green-and-yellow absence: Sask. Party MLAs were banned from the largest Pride festivals.

In May, organizers in Regina, Prince Albert and Moose Jaw decided Sask. Party MLAs would not be welcome, after the government passed Bill 137.

That law, introduced in 2023, requires Saskatchewan students under 16 to get permission from their parents or guardians to change their name or pronouns in school.

The provincial government says Bill 137 is about ensuring parents have a role in their children’s education and know what they’re doing at school.

Leading up to the 2024 provincial election, Sask. Party Leader Scott Moe also said his “first order of business” if re-elected would be to enact a policy restricting the change rooms trans, nonbinary and gender-nonconfirming children could use. After narrowly winning the election, he walked those comments back and said he “misspoke.”

The UR Pride Centre for Sexuality and Gender Diversity brought legal action against the policy preceding Bill 137 in August 2023.

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To pass the law, the provincial government chose to use the notwithstanding clause to override portions of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms — including guarantees to life, liberty, personal security and equality.

Government lawyers have argued that invoking the notwithstanding clause meant the court no longer had jurisdiction, and “the only place the government is now accountable is at the ballot box.”

The court disagreed.

In February 2024, King’s Bench Justice Michael Megaw said UR Pride’s case could continue, with a new focus on Bill 137 rather than the preceding policy.

Despite vocal and near-universal protests against the law from 2SLGBTQ+ communities and organizations, who say it puts queer, trans and gender-nonconforming children at risk, the provincial government has stood firmly behind the law and kept fighting for it in court.

That’s why Queen City Pride was surprised in May when the Sask. Party applied to take part in the organization’s upcoming events.

Queen City Pride replied with an emphatic, public refusal: As long as Bill 137 is on the books, Sask. Party MLAs are not welcome at Regina Pride. The organization also canceled its traditional Pride flag raising with MLAs at the legislature.

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“We will not allow them to masquerade as allies and supporters, then put our community in danger for the other eleven months of the year,” the organization said in a news release.

Other Pride groups quickly followed.

Prince Albert Pride expressed willingness to meet any MLAs who wanted to learn and discuss — but said politicians who kept supporting Bill 137 would not be welcome at Pride.

In Moose Jaw, Sask. Party and Sask. United Party MLAs were also banned from Pride Week while they continue to “support and pass legislation that directly harms queer people and their loved ones,” organizers wrote in a statement.

Saskatoon Pride concurred, saying the Sask. Party’s “voting record and rhetoric is disgraceful.”

“How to move forward? Repeal Bill 137 and a wary conversation can begin,” the organization said.

In September, lawyers representing the province, UR Pride and a host of other ‘intervening’ groups and organizations, were back at the Court of Appeal to argue whether the judicial system can decide if Bill 137 violates citizens’ charter rights.

As of December, a decision is still pending.

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— With files from Brandon Harder and Alec Salloum

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