Christian activist group claims influence over Sask. gov’t sex ed policy

The Government of Saskatchewan is denying that a Christian activist group influenced it to implement its controversial new policy on sex education.

On its website, Action4Canada is claiming a win for itself in the provincial government’s policy change. It says it has been working very hard in the background to communicate with government, serving a “notice of liability” around the previously approved SOGI 123 resources, and going to a meet-and-greet held by Premier Scott Moe and others to talk to them about it.

The group also provided a petition and form letter calling on the government to ban the resources and Planned Parenthood. It claims the petition resulted in 10,000 emails being sent to Moe, the health minister and both the minister and deputy minister of education — though it’s not clear how many of those emails came from parents in Saskatchewan.

A government spokesperson told The Canadian Press that there wasn’t any influence from the group. Another spokesperson told 980 CJME in a statement that MLAs heard from many concerned parents and guardians of school-aged children about sex ed, Planned Parenthood, the ARC Foundation and SOGI 123.

They said the new policies were influenced by the ministry’s work over the summer and consulting with parents.

When ministers and the premier have been asked about who was asking for the changes since they were announced, they’ve talked about getting many calls into their offices and every government MLA hearing about it.

In late August, then-Education Minister Dustin Duncan announced changes to provincial education policy requiring:

• that any student under 16 will need parental permission to go by their chosen name or pronoun at school;
• that parents are to be informed about the sexual health education curriculum and have the ability to pull their kids out of the class; and
• that all third-party groups would be banned from presenting to school sexual education classes, and involvement with third-party groups would be paused — specifically citing the ARC Foundation and SOGI 123 program, the only organization to be named.

SOGI 123 describes itself as a resource to help teachers talk about issues and make schools more inclusive and safer for students of all sexual orientations and genders.

In June, Duncan suspended Planned Parenthood from making presentations in classrooms after some materials were left in a classroom at Lumsden High School.

Duncan said at the time the presentation concerned things like sexually transmitted infections and contraception, but the materials in question included a set of alphabet cards that explicitly described sexual acts and situations.

The changes have garnered a huge outcry from opponents who say the changes will harm gender diverse students and could result in students not getting information around sexual abuse and sexual health to keep them safe.

Action4Canada’s website is full of several different calls to action and claims around things like Canada being governed by the law of God, that critical race theory is intended to destroy the foundation of the country, and that 5G can give a person COVID-19.

— With files from The Canadian Press.