No decision on removal of gender markers on IDs
Families hoping to eliminate gender markers on government-issued IDs were stuck in legal-procedure limbo on Monday in a Regina courtroom.
Fran Forsberg and her nine-yearold transgender daughter Renn were among those at the Court of Queen’s Bench, where Justice Jennifer Pritchard heard a request for an injunction relating to Forsberg’s lawsuit. Pritchard has reserved her decision but hopes to issue it sometime next week.
Lawyer Larry Kowalchuk is representing several families in the suit, which seeks the removal of gender markers from IDs, as well as money to fund public education programs about gender diversity.
The plaintiffs argue that gender markers promote discrimination.
“We didn’t expect a decision today,” said Forsberg.
Nevertheless, the six-hour proceedings were frustrating for the families, the morning including references to other court decisions and legalese that was beyond a layperson’s comprehension.
“What really, really I find upsetting is I don’t understand what they’re talking about, their jargon,” said Forsberg. “What I do understand and what I see myself is that children are taking their lives. This government needs to take responsibility for this. They need to move on it now. It needs to be settled. It does not need to drag on and there’s no reason for it to do so.”
Lawyer Barbara Mysko represented the government, the respondent in the lawsuit. “The government is simply asking for procedural protection so that it doesn’t have to deal with two parallel proceedings pursuant to the same piece of legislation,” said Mysko.
That’s because the issue is not only the subject of a civil suit, but a human rights complaint.
Forsberg felt the government was arguing that “our lawsuit is frivolous.”
“I think what I’m hearing the government lawyer say is that we’re dragging this on. We have no reason to drag this on. We have every reason to get this done now for the safety of our kids,” said Forsberg.
“The arguments that we think are so clear and emotional and necessary are really being hung up on matters of procedure,” said Megan Cheesbrough, another plaintiff and mother of Noah Jensen, a nine-year-old who is exploring gender neutrality. “This argument about whether you don’t file a human rights complaint in the right way and wait for the right decision, that you don’t have a right to be heard or to have redress for what your child is going through, is a really frustrating argument to have to listen to.”
The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission is planning to take the government to court, as it has decided after a four-year investigation that Renn Forsberg ’s human rights were violated under the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code.
While the families had hoped for an interim decision on gender markers until the court case is ultimately decided, Pritchard made it clear that wasn’t happening.
“Nothing is happening today with gender markers come hell or high water. That’s way too big a stretch for anything on an interim basis,” she said. “The problem we’ve got today is this is a matter of procedure. The question is whether I can legally do any or all of what you’re asking today.”
SHRC chief commissioner David Arnot said the SHRC would apply to the Court of Queen’s Bench by the end of July. The government would be the respondent in that case as well.
Prior to its decision, the SHRC had been a defendant in Forsberg ’s lawsuit, as she waited four years for a decision in their investigation. “I’ll believe it when I see it, if the commission takes this to court before the end of this month,” said Forsberg.