Gender Dysphoria in the Canadian Public School System

"It is important not to involve the parents/caregivers of gender variant youth unless the youth themselves have already disclosed their identity to the families."

Public Health Agency of Canada 

"As we celebrate Pride Month, we would like to take this opportunity to share important reminders about student privacy. All students have a right to privacy. Unless specifically directed by the student, schools must keep a student's trans identity confidential."

"Therefore, school staff should not disclose a student's gender identity to others unless there is a specific 'need to know' [e.g. to fulfill a specific accommodation request] or if the student has given permission to share."

"Some trans or gender diverse students are not open about their identity at home for safety or other reasons. A school should never disclose a student's gender identity to the student's guardian[s]/caregiver[s] without the student's explicit prior consent. This is regardless of age or grade, even in elementary."

Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board, Ontario

Canadian schools accept name and pronoun preferences, provide gender-neutral washrooms and teach from a young age about gender identity. In some cases, they can even refer students directly to gender-treatment clinics. Photo by Getty Images

That pretty well sums up the universal position within Canadian provinces overall on 'gender rights'. Parents shut out of their children's decision-making with respect to their gender-choice wishes. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is on record as equating a parent's wish to be consulted about their children's choices, as 'far-right', essentially equating parents who insist on that parental right as keeping good company with racists and homophobes.

"Trans kids need to feel safe, not targeted by politicians."

"Far-right political actors are trying to outdo themselves with the types of cruelty and isolation they can inflict on these already vulnerable people. Right now, trans kids in New Brunswick are being told they don't have the right to be their true selves, that they need to ask permission."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

A recent SecondStreet.org poll collected by market research firm Leger last month indicates that Premier Blaine Higgs of New Brunswick is expressing public opinion with his government's controversial redrafting of provincial guidelines on gender identity in schools. Policy 713 now requires parental consent if transgender or non-binary students under age 16 want to change their preferred pronoun or name officially.

"When it comes to informing parents about gender issues involving their children, the government appears to be on the same page with the majority of New Brunswickers."

"Most Canadians think parents shouldn't be kept in the dark about gender issues involving their kids at school."

"I think we have to ask the question 'How can a parent help a child who is struggling if the parent is kept in the dark by the school? It's a pretty serious discussion for a school to be having with a child about changing their gender and using new pronouns when you consider schools can't even give children Tylenol."

SecondStreet.org president Colin Craig

Official policy in Canada has been to ensure that parents are kept out of the loop should their children declare themselves trans to their teachers. A policy that was achieved silently, stealthily, became widespread, all-encompassing and completely compromising of the natural trust and confidence between parents and their children. A situation that will prove, in the long run to be fractious between family members, undermining parental guidance and harming children, and ultimately society itself.

Teachers and the educational establishment have taken upon themselves a role never envisioned for educators in a public school system. The highly controversial subjects of trans rights, gender identity and gender dysphoria may require public debate and calm consideration, but it is not a given entitlement to enter and disrupt children's lives, along with those of their families. These divisive policies, led by the federal government have proven typical of this particular government that proudly considers itself 'progressively woke'.

Hundreds of bills in the United States have been developed covering subjects from health care to sports to bathroom access aimed at transgender people, children included. Florida, Alabama, Oklahoma and South Carolina are enacting laws to require schools to inform parents should their child express interest in identity change. A not-too-surprising backlash to the infiltration of LGBTQ-2S activism reaching into public schools, influencing children and society in a broadening of the sensitive matter of science and biology meeting non-conventional gender identities.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis signs the Parental Rights in Education bill at Classical Preparatory school, March 28, 2022 in Shady Hills, Fla. The controversial bill is otherwise known as the 'Don't Say Gay' law. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times/The Associated Press)

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in the U.K. expressed his opinion of being "very concerned" following a report that revealed some schools routinely failed to inform parents when children changed identity, failing the expectation that parents should be notified on such important matters. His response was to pledge new guidelines so schools "know how to respond when children are asking about their gender. These are really sensitive areas, it's important that we treat them sensitively, and that parents know what's going on, and we'll make sure that that happens."

 

The Association of School and College Leaders representing 23,000 teachers responded they had waited for guidance for years on the topic held to be a "minefield of strongly held and opposing views". It is obvious that in the United States and the United Kingdom, the controversial subjects of gender identity issues and parental rights are being discussed. Not so in Canada, where the issue appears to have been decided by schools, education officials and bureaucrats, spurning parental involvement, led by government.

Recent skirmishes at Canadian school boards 'point to the ways … in which conservative parents see themselves as a political lobby and are using the platform of parental rights,' said Jen Gilbert, an associate professor at York University. (Paolo du Buono/Twitter)