Saskatchewan's education minister says the decision by Queen City Pride to shut out the Saskatchewan Party is "unfortunate" but won't change legislation on pronouns.Last October, Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill introduced Bill 137 to ensure students under 16 would not have their names or pronouns changed without parental approval. In response, Queen City Pride (QCP) announced Monday the Sask Party was barred from participating all Pride Month events in June.Read more: UPDATED: Saskatchewan Party barred from Pride Month and paradeCockrill told reporters after Question Period Monday, the QCP decision was "obviously disappointing," adding the point of the legislation was "to make sure that parents were included in important decisions, important conversations in their children's lives."Cockrill said Bill 137 was "meant to include, not exclude.""I feel quite comfortable with the fact that we've legislated the ability for parents to get involved in important conversations and decisions in a child's life. I'm comfortable where we ended up," Cockrill said.The minister, a business graduate from Trinity Western University, said he hadn't seen the statement from QCP and didn't know whether the parade was in July or June, nor if there was one in North Battleford where he lived."I'm not a resident of the city of Regina. Quite frankly, I don't even know when the parade was supposed to happen this year, but obviously, it's too bad... Obviously when we have large provincial events it's something we hope everybody is able to attend," Cockrill said.Cockrill said if he were invited, "I would certainly review it as part of my calendar requests."The minister said as he sat in the legislature that morning, he took notice of the Latin phrase on Saskatchewan's Coat of Arms motto Multis e gentibus vires ("From Many Peoples Strength").The motto is "something that I think this government takes quite seriously. We recognize that there's people of all different faiths, there's people of all different orientations that come for many many different countries around the world, and we're better because of it," he said."I don't know if any of my colleagues were planning to attend Queen City NDP Opposition Leader Carla Beck said the Saskatchewan Party was fickle, saying "one thing when they're in the Pride parade, and then we see something very different when it comes to things like the pronouns emergency session we had last year.""This is a concern that we continue to hear from people that the government likes photo ops, they like announcements, but completely stop listening and respecting what they hear from groups like Queen City Pride," Beck explained.Of her party's participation in pride parades, the MLA for Regina Lakeview said her party MLAs participates "in as many as we can usually."
Saskatchewan's education minister says the decision by Queen City Pride to shut out the Saskatchewan Party is "unfortunate" but won't change legislation on pronouns.Last October, Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill introduced Bill 137 to ensure students under 16 would not have their names or pronouns changed without parental approval. In response, Queen City Pride (QCP) announced Monday the Sask Party was barred from participating all Pride Month events in June.Read more: UPDATED: Saskatchewan Party barred from Pride Month and paradeCockrill told reporters after Question Period Monday, the QCP decision was "obviously disappointing," adding the point of the legislation was "to make sure that parents were included in important decisions, important conversations in their children's lives."Cockrill said Bill 137 was "meant to include, not exclude.""I feel quite comfortable with the fact that we've legislated the ability for parents to get involved in important conversations and decisions in a child's life. I'm comfortable where we ended up," Cockrill said.The minister, a business graduate from Trinity Western University, said he hadn't seen the statement from QCP and didn't know whether the parade was in July or June, nor if there was one in North Battleford where he lived."I'm not a resident of the city of Regina. Quite frankly, I don't even know when the parade was supposed to happen this year, but obviously, it's too bad... Obviously when we have large provincial events it's something we hope everybody is able to attend," Cockrill said.Cockrill said if he were invited, "I would certainly review it as part of my calendar requests."The minister said as he sat in the legislature that morning, he took notice of the Latin phrase on Saskatchewan's Coat of Arms motto Multis e gentibus vires ("From Many Peoples Strength").The motto is "something that I think this government takes quite seriously. We recognize that there's people of all different faiths, there's people of all different orientations that come for many many different countries around the world, and we're better because of it," he said."I don't know if any of my colleagues were planning to attend Queen City NDP Opposition Leader Carla Beck said the Saskatchewan Party was fickle, saying "one thing when they're in the Pride parade, and then we see something very different when it comes to things like the pronouns emergency session we had last year.""This is a concern that we continue to hear from people that the government likes photo ops, they like announcements, but completely stop listening and respecting what they hear from groups like Queen City Pride," Beck explained.Of her party's participation in pride parades, the MLA for Regina Lakeview said her party MLAs participates "in as many as we can usually."
