Saskatoon Police Service is advising motorists of potential traffic disruptions in the area of 20th Street East and Spadina Crescent East as a result of protest activity beginning at 9:00 a.m. today. Police will also be escorting a march beginning at 11:00 a.m. from the area of 21st Street East and Spadina Crescent East. Traffic restrictions will be in place that affect the area bordered by Spadina Crescent East, 21st Street East, 3rd Avenue North/South, and 24th Street East.

“Not yield or be swayed by the threats of activist organizations, and to stand with Saskatchewan parents as the primary educators and caregivers of their children.” That is some of the wording in the petition that the United Party has launched in addition to its social media campaign titled Invoke the notwithstanding clause Moe.

There are marches and rally’s planned today, across Saskatchewan organized by the group 1 million march 4 children which uses the slogan Hands off our Kids and is in support of the Moe government’s pronoun in schools policy while the other group is No Space for Hate and is a counter protest. The counter protest is in the vicinity of the Vimy Memorial while the 1 million march 4 children is at the Bessborough skating rink site.

The last time Saskatchewan threatened to invoke the notwithstanding clause was in 2017 after the court ruled it was unconstitutional for the province to keep paying for non-Catholic students to attend Catholic schools. In 2021, the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear the appeal of a Saskatchewan court ruling that upheld public funding for non-Catholic students attending Catholic schools. The dispute stemmed from a 2003 decision to close the village of Theodore’s public school, but residents formed a separate school division, operated the school as a Catholic School but less than a third of the students were Catholic.