October 02, 2023

Dear family and friends, it has been a busy summer this year. Outside of us all squeezing in some time off with family, we’ve been working hard on court submissions and exploring strategies not only for our legal efforts but also for the Organization and its vision of an informed and engaged citizenry.

Legal update

In the last newsletter, we shared the news that CANS is moving forward with its legal work in a self-represented capacity. We remain in that state and find the challenge invigorating and cerebrally very satisfying. Our co-applicant in this review, who is a minor, has legal representation. We are working collaboratively with the Board, our co-applicant and other volunteers on the Judicial Review and are grateful for the leeway that the Court has shown us.

We have filed two motions in the last few months:

- An Amendment to the Notice for Judicial Review

- A Motion for Public Interest Standing

Everything we file is a matter of Public Record at the Nova Scotia Supreme Court so our filings will be on the website soon for anyone interested in reading them.

We also filed what is called an Admission of Facts which is a court document officially asking the other party to agree on some fact or a definition. This allows the review to go forward with the confidence that we are all speaking the same language (so to speak). We are doing some re-work on this filing so keep an eye on the filings page for an updated version.

We have had a response prepared to the Mootness Motion filed by the Respondents in August of 2022 for a short while now but will need to re-think the contents as the components involved in the Judicial Review, and which were the focus of the Mootness argument, from our end have changed. Many of you know that we had a potential nurse co-applicant joining the Review. She withdrew her interest and application when our counsel stepped back. While we were unable to persuade her to stay with the Review, we wish her nothing but the best and hope that she, along with so many of us, will see the benefit of the results of the Judicial Review.

The Record Motion gets filed next. This is where we  clarify issues or gaps with the Record that was submitted by the Respondents on October 31, 2022 (yes, the Pagan Day of The Dead). This one will be a particularly interesting read as we’ve delved into the material presented by the Respondents and have had lots of conversations around it.

Haven’t seen the Record yet? Download it from the website (scroll down to see the Record section). It’s over 7 gigabytes of compressed data so make sure you have room! You can also selectively download parts of the Record; use the handy Index file spreadsheet for a table of contents of all the documents.

Our next in-person Court date is late January of 2024 and we will be arguing Public Interest Standing. Stay tuned for information on how you can participate or listen online.

Education TownHall

There are currently important conversations between parents and teachers that are not taking place when it comes to the health and safety of their children. The sexual orientation and gender identity curriculum content being handed down by the Department of Education to be taught in schools is considered by many to be age-inappropriate and outside the jurisdictional scope of government and teachers. Parents do not ask for someone else to teach their children how to use the toilet. In fact, many schools will refuse to take a child that is not potty-trained. Bodily functions and anything to do with the bodies of other people’s children should all equally be off limits in an educational setting.

CANS collaborated with a local teacher to facilitate a conversation around school curriculum and age-appropriate content. Many teachers and parents are becoming aware of written and graphical materials being used in classrooms to teach topics that traditionally have always been the responsibility of the parents or family unit.

While the goal of the full day session was to come up with action items, there were many attendees for whom the TownHall was the first time they were able to discuss their concerns in an aware, non-judgemental group setting. The day’s agenda was re-jigged to allow for more talk at this first meeting and less solutioning. We all agreed to keep informing ourselves of what our children were learning at school and to also express our concerns in written format to either our government representative or school administrators.

We are currently working on a strategy for an action in the Education sphere and invite any one interested in volunteering to reach out to volunteer@thecans.ca. We have a working group called The People’s Take Back: Education Edition on the NS Community site that we encourage you to join.

These may still feel like baby steps but we all know how important those are as they lead to all future steps we take.

Upcoming Events

The annual Free Speech In Medicine & Science Conference is this month from Friday October 27 to Sunday October 29 in Baddeck Nova Scotia. Open-minded individuals from across the country will gather to discuss pressing issues related to free speech and censorship in the fields of medicine and science. This year the conference will delve into a range of topics including revisiting COVID policy, exploring the legal boundaries of a regulatory college’s control over free speech, examining transgenderism and analyzing the limitations of harm reduction strategies for substance abuse.

Volunteer with us!

We have so many ideas and need interested and willing hands to join us on our projects. If you have time to volunteer with us, we would welcome your participation with much gratitude. If you are already actively engaged in activities and actions that align with us, let us help you with the offer of a safe online space to organize and share with your group. I am referring to the NS Community Network platform; the vision for which has always been to offer organizers a safe place to have conversations and plan their community projects. Email volunteer@thecans.ca if you have any questions or are interested in collaborating.

Are you able to donate?

We are grateful for any donations to help with our ongoing legal actions. We are a self-represented working Board and have actively participated in all of the administrative / quasi-paralegal and strategy work for our legal efforts.
If you are so inclined, you can send e-transfers to donations@thecans.ca, click on the Donate button below or donate directly on our website (thecans.ca)

Thank you for your continued support!