Un-Queering Canadian Schools

Strategies for Eliminating Gender Ideology

Photo by Ivan Aleksic on Unsplash

The stranglehold of gender ideology on the Canadian education system is slowly being challenged. Conservative governments in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan have issued policy directives which require schools to notify parents when their children change name and pronouns in schools.

This very modest change brought a fierce response from trans-activist groups. In both Saskatchewan and New Brunswick activist organizations have started lawsuits to challenge the new policy under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. After a judge issued an interim injunction preventing the enforcement of the Saskatchewan policy pending trial, the government introduced legislation to override the Charter by invoking the notwithstanding clause.¹ The New Brunswick litigation is still in progress.

Governments in Alberta and Quebec have also signalled a willingness to review their policies around gender identity in schools but have not yet taken any action. The lack of haste in these provinces is encouraging. The governments in Saskatchewan and New Brunswick seem to have acted without much consideration, and are now bogged down in court challenges. Effective change will require careful planning and a long-term strategy.

What Needs to Change

The current focus on school policies regarding parental notice when students want to change names and pronouns is too narrow. An real solution has to deal with problems both upstream and downstream from this point.

The upstream problem is the school curriculum and teachers that promote transgender identification in the first place. Sexual health education which is science based and age appropriate is being displaced by mis-education based on Queer Theory which breaks down boundaries and creates confusion in the minds of children whose understanding of sex is not yet fully developed. The SOGI 123 program which is now being introduced across the country indoctrinates children in the belief that people have a gender identity separate from their sex from the earliest grades.

In provinces which have not officially adopted a SOGI based curriculum the same ideas are often introduced by individual teachers or by third party presenters. Children who are struggling with mental health or social problems who are exposed to these programs can easily latch onto the idea that they are born in the wrong body and that changing genders will solve their problems.

The downstream problem is the health care system which is stuck on affirmation only mode. Telling parents that their child now identifies as the opposite sex a few months before they would otherwise have found out does little good if the parents are then told that their only choice is to affirm their child without question and proceed with medical interventions to the extent the child desires.

These problems cannot be dealt with separately. The Charter challenges in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan are based on the underlying premises of the gender affirming model of care that immediate affirmation of a child’s self-declared identity is the only safe response. It is not possible to present an effective defence of the proposed policy on parental notification without challenging both the current medical model of care and the belief system that supports it.

Obstacles to Overcome

Any government which tries to make major changes to the curriculum and policies around gender identity will face major opposition. A Minister of Education can issue policies and regulations but getting them applied at the classroom level requires cutting through multiple layers of bureaucratic resistance.

Teachers are employed by elected school boards and directly supervised by district superintendents and the school principal. They are protected by powerful unions. University faculties of education, private text book publishers and well funded advocacy groups will also weigh in on major policy issues. All of these institutions are strongly committed to gender ideology and not subject to provincial government control.

Even the provincial civil servants, although officially committed to implementing the policy of the government of the day, will have their own agendas. Forcing change on an entrenched bureaucracy can take more political energy than a government is willing to spend.

Changing institutional structures can carry huge political risk. When the Manitoba Conservative government attempted to reform the school system by abolishing school boards. The government had a large majority in the legislature and could have pushed through the legislation but the public backlash was so intense that it led to the resignation of Premier Brian Pallister. The new Conservative premier scrapped the law.

Starting Points and Strategies

A government which is serious about protecting children from the effects of gender ideology can’t look for a quick fix for political points. It needs to develop a long-term strategy which will ultimately gain non-partisan acceptance.

Do Your Research

Before taking any action, a government should ensure that key Ministers, political staff and civil servants are thoroughly briefed on the issues. This is difficult since the information from the mass media and the usual institutional sources is hopelessly biased. It takes time to review the critical literature compiled by groups like Genspect and Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine and to assemble a group of experts who can provide backing for the government’s policies as necessary.

The Saskatchewan government ignored this step and paid a price when it was faced with a Charter challenge to its school policy and had to scramble to put together expert evidence to support the policy. It should have had supporting experts lined up before the policy was announced.

Move Beyond Parents’ Rights

It is unfortunate that the policy changes on names and pronouns have been described as measures to protect parents rights. This has allowed opponents of the policies to argue, correctly, that in Canadian law parents’ rights are subordinate to the best interests of the child and claim victory, Instead, the starting point for the government case should be that social and medical transition without parental involvement represent a serious threat to the best interests of children.

Build a Coalition

 Expert evidence is necessary in a court case but there is no substitute for a visible public support in the political battle. This should be a diverse group which includes LGBT people as well as both religious and secular critics of gender ideology. Maintaining this coalition requires that any policies be fair to all potential members of the coalition. This means that the hardcore social conservative base, which is providing much of the political momentum for the policy changes, will have to make some significant compromises in order to accomplish anything.

There is no going back to the days when LGBT people were invisible and sex education emphasized abstinence. Research in the United States found that abstinence only programs are ineffective in reducing the rates of sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies. All students should receive sex education that is scientifically accurate, age appropriate and LGBT inclusive. Even the idea of a parental opt-out on religious grounds is questionable since family members and religious leaders are frequently perpetrators of child sexual abuse.

Raise Public Awareness

While there is broad public support for change in gender policies, there is a need for greater understanding in order to counter the resistance from organized opinion. Raising awareness is difficult in Canada because, with a few exceptions, media coverage has been totally one-sided.

A public inquiry is one tool that governments can use to increase awareness and shift public consensus on an issue. The inquiry can commission experts reports, such as a systematic review of the gender medicine, and hold public hearings. Quebec appears to be starting this process with its expert committee on gender identity issues.

Opportunities for Action

Bringing about lasting change will be a long-term process but there are things that the government can do in the short term which will both improve the immediate situation and set the stage for long term systemic change.

Government Information Services

The government can control the content of information directly created by government departments. Pamphlets and internet sites run by departments of health and education on gender issues can be revised to include information on the risks of gender medicine and provide links to organizations like Genspect which provide an alternative to the medicalised approach.

Funding Third Party Organizations

Many of the organizations that promote Queer Theory in education and healthcare receive substantial government funding. Cutting off this funding would reduce the flow of harmful material into the health and education systems, but this needs to be do with care. Funding to groups that exist primarily to produce so-called education materials and do advocacy could be cut immediately. The government could also look for third party organizations that would produce alternate material. The issue becomes more complicated with organizations that provide valuable social services in addition to their advocacy role. There is also a political problem that many of the groups promoting Queer Theory in the classroom have strong links to the corporate sector which also forms a key part of the conservative base.

At the same time, there needs to be alternative material for schools to use. It is not possible simply to scrap the current Queer Theory based materials and bring back programs from 5 or 10 years ago. Too much has changed. Children who have been indoctrinated since kindergarten need to be deprogrammed and introduced to the real scientific facts on human sex. In New Zealand Resist Gender Education has started work on an alternative curriculum. Canada urgently needs a similar group which can provide a reality-based alternative for Canadian schools.

Enhanced Protection for Free Speech

One of the frustrations that any politician trying to challenge gender ideology will quickly encounter is the discovery that there are many people in the health care and education systems who agree that something needs to be done but who are not willing to speak up for fear of losing their jobs. Any potential dissidents realize that supporting a politician who could be gone after the next election against an administrator or union leader who is there for the long haul is a risky proposition.

The only way to eliminate gender ideology from the schools permanently is to discredit it through open discussion. There are some steps that governments could take to enhance protection for freedom of expression so that the needed discussion can actually happen.

• Add philosophical and political beliefs as protected categories in human rights and employment standards legislation to protect people from being fired for gender critical beliefs (see the Maya Forstater case in the United Kingdom);

• Restrict the power of professional associations to discipline members for opinions expressed outside of their direct professional practice to avoid a repeat of the Amy Eileen Hamm fiasco; and

• Introduce whistleblower protection legislation of the type that Jamie Reed relied on.

The problem here is that an effective stand in favour of free speech has to be principled and consistent. No Canadian party has clean hands in this regard. Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper was criticized for muzzling government scientists from speaking out on climate change. The Trudeau government promised change, but it was slow and partial.

Conversion Therapy Law

The Criminal Code ban on conversion therapy is an obstacle to providing ethical and evidence based therapy for gender dysphoria. In Canada, while the Criminal Code is federal legislation, prosecutions are brought by provincial Attorneys General. An Attorney General could provide reassurance to mental health professionals by issuing a policy statement confirming that exploratory psychotherapy for gender dsyphoria and caution in recommending medical transition will not be considered grounds for criminal charges.

Human Rights Law

Many of the current policies around gender identity in schools are defended on the basis that they are required under human rights law. There are two points to bear in mind. One is that most of the issues that have arisen in schools, such as access to sports and sex-segregated washrooms, have not actually been litigated before a human rights tribunal. Current policies simply represent the preferences of school administrators and human rights commission staff.

Second, human rights codes are ordinary provincial legislation and if the government disagrees with an adjudicator’s decision, it can amend the law. Human rights decisions are sometimes given a sacrosanct, quasi-constitutional status which they do not deserve. There is no reason for a decision by a single politically appointed adjudicator should be the final word on policies which effect thousands of children.

A number of provincial human rights codes have express protection for sex segregated spaces to protect “public decency.” Provinces that do not have this provision should introduce one and all provinces should make it clear that sex and gender identity are separate concepts; that sex is defined by reproductive biology and that women and girls have a right to single sex washrooms, showers, sports and sleeping accommodations.

The Road Ahead

There is no quick political fix for the problems gender ideology has created in health care, education and society at large. It took years of patient work, most of it out of the public eye, for gender ideology to capture so many institutions. Correcting course will require similar patience. .

1. The notwithstanding clause is a provision in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which allows Parliament or a provincial legislature to protect a law from being challenged in court for a violation of the Charter.The declaration must be renewed every 5 years,