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Thursday, October 19, 2023
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A new front opens in Saskatchewan’s battle over parental rights
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Third parties ‘paused’ cation to kindergartners, and up to higher grades in an effort to teach them about body safety, good versus bad secrets, boundaries, unhealthy relationships, and other concerns like human trafficking, calling body parts by their anatomic names, pornography dangers, consent and the dangers of sexting as a minor. “We know we have high rates of missing and murdered Indigenous women, and all of this stuff [high rates of pornography viewing in Grades 5 and 6 and high rates of sex trafficking] is related to genderbased violence,” Stewart said. “We could go set up at the library, or our office here, and the concern was — those parents that would bring their kids to those things, are not necessarily the kids and parents that we’re concerned about not getting information. “It’s child abuse prevention, is really what it is.” In light of recent demonstrations in the Battlefords which were focused on ‘protecting parental rights,’ and, ‘standing up to indoctrination in schools,’ Stewart says that there
Staff Reporter
Almost two months after the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education announced that third-party sexual health organizations would no longer be allowed in the province’s classrooms beyond oneon-one counselling, some are standing up. Battlefords and Area Sexual Assault Centre (BASAC) — one of three sexual assault awareness organizations that released a statement last week — say that they’re being unfairly lumped in with sexual health educators and that the third-party ban risks the safety of students. “Sexual violence is not what you see on Law and Order SVU. We’re not worried about strangers in an alley with a knife, right? We’re trying to teach kids that boyfriends are luring their girlfriends into human trafficking and sex trafficking,” Amber Steward, BASAC’s executive director told the News-Optimist as she spoke about their programming. Stewart said that BASAC used to provide edu-
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needs to be more clarity around what BASAC does in the Battlefords. She added that BASAC does not provide sexual health, educate on STIs or talk about contraception. When it comes to gender, the organization explains some untrue stereotypes to children ranging from the idea that boys shouldn’t cry, or that girls are supposed to be polite. In an earlier statement, Stewart was clear that the BASAC has always followed the curriculum and offered parents the opportunity to opt-out their children. “I would say, it’s totally outrageous. And again, we are not delivering education on sex, right? And so we really feel like we should not have been lumped into this,” she said, noting that the policy was too vague and shouldn’t include BASAC. “I have heard that it is the name of our organization, that is an issue for people because it has sexual [in the name] ... I would push back and say like, if that’s an issue for you, then you maybe need to look inside of a why that is an issue for you.” Continued on Page 5
the Western Development Museum’s Fall Tea in North Battleford Saturday included a fashion show and a prize of a tea set. See inside for more. | Photo by Averil Hall / Freelance Photographer
Shocking details of child abuse revealed in court By Lisa Joy
SASKTODAY.ca
Battleford man Lyle Aaron Bear – who was taking college courses to become a social worker – was sentenced Friday of last week in Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench to 807 days in prison for the abuse and neglect of a foster child in his care. Court heard that the toddler’s condition and injuries were so severe that he had to spend three weeks in a Saskatoon children’s hospital. A doctor had noted that even though the child was almost three years old, he was the size of a six-month-old baby due to starvation. In addition, his numerous fractured and
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broken bones were so severe, he would have been in obvious, constant pain. “The complete lack of care for this child is one of the most shocking things I have ever seen in my career,” Crown Prosecutor Jennifer Schmidt told the court. She said it’s important to distinguish that the Crown isn’t alleging Lyle Bear caused any of the injuries. Schmidt said that when the COVID-19 pandemic began and schools were shut down, she wrote a social media post saying she was afraid there would be a rise in domestic violence and that children in tragic situations would be in worse situations. Continued on Page 2
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