‘What if this was any other child of any other MLA in this chamber? Would this be acceptable? This is the premier’s legacy.’ — Jared Clarke.
“Premier (Scott Moe) put a target on the backs of my two 12-year-old kids,” said NDP MLA Jared Clarke in his throne speech reply. “He held a press conference to stoke fear and outrage about two kids at an elementary school, while my children’s picture was circulating on social media, identifying them, while unimaginable hate was raging down on my family …
“Mr. Speaker, what do you think would be going through a 12-year-old’s mind when they hear the premier of their province targeting them? What if this was any other child of any other MLA in this chamber? Would this be acceptable? And yet the premier didn’t even hesitate. This is the premier’s legacy.”
The comments made in a stony silent assembly came a day after both Moe and newly minted Speaker Todd Goudy implored MLAs to be kinder to each other.
Moe’s then No. 1 priority — mercifully disregarded in Monday’s throne speech — was proclaimed by the premier immediately after a story on an alt-right website alleging an anonymous complaint at the Balgonie elementary school where Clarke’s children attend, over boys using female change rooms.
Pictures of Clarke and his outed children were circulating online through both social media and the alt-right website — something that Clarke said in the assembly Tuesday was a personal attack on his family constructed by the Sask. Party.
“Now just to be clear, we have heard from two sources in the Sask. Party (suggesting the party had) been sitting on this information about my kids since last year in the byelection,” said the Walsh Acres MLA, first elected in an August 2023.
Clarke further noted this was the second time in his brief tenure that Moe and the Sask. Party have gone after LGBTC2S+ kids.
“The premier owes my children an apology. He owes all transgender people in this province, especially kids, an apology for how he has made them feel so unsafe over the last year.”
Moe’s communication staff had yet to respond to Clarke’s request for an apology to his family, but the party did issue a statement Tuesday suggesting Moe had no knowledge that the children in question were Clarke’s children.
Clarke did not speak outside chamber, but when asked Wednesday why he chose to go public and risk heaping further abuse on his family, the NDP issued a brief statement.
It said he wanted to “put on the record into Hansard this is part of the Sask. Party’s legacy,” how this event has impacted his family and the “hope that something good can come from this terrible event” by allowing people to “hear a side to the story of being transgender they may not have heard before.”
Tuesday, a proud dad also talked about the kids he loves.
No parent would choose a path for their children “where they regularly fear for their safety,” Clarke told the chamber.
But parents of transgender kids are faced with the stark choice: “to outright reject the feelings and words of your child when they tell you who they are or to choose to embrace your child and love them with all your heart.
“I cannot tell you how proud I am of my children,” Clarke continued. “They are kind, smart, adventurous, loving. They are musically talented … And they have the incredible strength to live as their authentic selves.
“Transgender kids are not scary. Transgender people are not scary. They are not people that we should be afraid of. They are people who deserve to be treated with respect and dignity and love.”
Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
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