Are parents dangerous, abusive and untrustworthy, such that they should be kept in the dark about what is happening with their own children at school?.This seems to be the belief of some sexual minority advocacy groups such as Egale Canada..The organization has threatened to sue the Saskatchewan government over its new policy requiring students under 16 to seek parental consent before changing their pronouns or preferred first name in a school setting..As Saskatchewan’s former education minister Dustin Duncan explained, “If we are requiring school divisions to get parental consent to go to a half-day field trip to the science center, then I think we need to be treating this issue with the same amount of seriousness.”.In wanting to keep parents in the dark about what is going on with their own children at school, Egale Canada also seems to believe that political activists, teachers, social workers, politicians and government-funded youth advocates are always safe and trustworthy, and care more about other people’s children than parents care about their own children..The truth here is nuanced, not black and white..A very small number of parents are truly abusive, not merely imperfect, and a very small number of children actually do need the help of the state to be protected from their own parents..Likewise, a very small number of teachers are abusive and dangerous to children and should not have any access to children..The same goes for political activists, social workers, professional youth advocates and so on: Every barrel has a few bad apples..The fact a small number of drivers pose a serious danger to other drivers and to pedestrians is not a valid reason for taking away everyone’s driving license..The possibility a very small number of parents might beat their children over expressing confusion about gender identity is not a valid reason to remove the right of all other parents to know what is happening with their own children at schools..The position of Egale Canada, that parents should not be informed if their own children start using different names and pronouns, ignores the fact that the love that parents have for their own children vastly exceeds any amount of love or concern that teachers and political activists might have for other people’s children..A mother and father would not think twice about running into a burning building to rescue their own children, whereas a political activist might think twice before risking her own life to rescue someone else’s children from a burning building..Parents have a far greater right — and need — to be informed about their own children, as opposed to any right of access anyone might have to other people’s children..Children are entitled to the love, support, guidance and nurturing of their own parents. When parents are kept in the dark by political activists, parents are severely hindered in providing that love, support, guidance and nurturing..Egale Canada’s two-page letter to Saskatchewan education minister Jeremy Cockrill is truly frightening..References to “the best interests of students” and “devastating and irreparable harm to gender diverse students under 16 years old” presuppose that sexual minority activists have a greater love for other people’s children than the love parents have for their own children..The letter also presupposes the only way to help gender-confused children is to place them firmly on the path of puberty blockers, opposite-sex hormones and ultimately the removal of health body parts..Egale Canada seems to believe parents should not be informed and thereby not be able to engage meaningfully with their own children before the children embark on a “social transition” journey in school through use of opposite-sex names and pronouns at school..Over the course of decades, Dr. Ken Zucker helped hundreds of children and teenagers at the Gender Identity Clinic in Toronto to accept their biological sex, saving them from a lifetime of drugs and surgeries that would need to be administered in the futile quest to acquire a biological body of the opposite sex..The vast majority of gender-confused children, when protected from ideologues and when supported by their parents, will be at peace with their sex by the time they reach the age of 18..Parents should be empowered, not hindered or prevented, from supporting their children, which parents cannot do if they are not properly informed..Egale Canada claims incorrectly that Saskatchewan’s new policy violates the “rights” of gender-diverse students under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms..In fact, children do not possess a “right” to have political activists, teachers, social workers or politicians keep parents in the dark, nor do children enjoy privacy rights vis-à-vis their own parents..Because children are not adults, they legitimately have no right to drive, vote, get married, join the military, purchase liquor or consume cannabis. Claiming children have adult rights, when children depend on the love and nurturing of fully informed parents, is a perversion of the Charter..Egale Canada is correct when stating, “In a constitutional democracy like ours, the rights of minorities are not decided by popularity contest.”.Indeed, the right of parents to make decisions about the health, education, moral upbringing and overall well-being of their own children should never depend on public opinion..John Carpay, B.A., LL.B. is the president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (jccf.ca)
