In addition to the Charter, across Canada, provinces and territories have laws about protecting personal information. These rules apply to schools too. Most of the time, your personal information can only be collected, used, or shared:
The Right to Privacy
(From Parents, Peers, and Teachers)
Do provinces and territories have policies that support queer students’ privacy?
If you give consent
OR
If it’s needed for a clear school purpose (like making a class list or putting your photo in the yearbook)
These laws may also provide for certain exceptions, allowing personal information to be shared in emergency situations or when students are at risk of harm.
Stemming from students’ right to privacy, particularly with respect to their sexual orientation and gender identity, teachers should take care to protect your dignity by your chosen name and pronouns in communications with parents should you choose. However, teachers should also protect students’ privacy by using your legal name or different pronouns in parental communications if that is your preference.
Some provinces and school boards have specific policies protecting the privacy rights of queer students in schools. The details set out in the Ontario, Manitoba, and Quebec policies are important to protecting queer students from having their personal information disclosed against their wishes, either to their parents, school staff, or other students.
- Ontario’s Human Rights Commission’s Policy on preventing discrimination because of gender identity and gender expression says that “educational institutions should develop policies and procedures to recognize, among other things, that…students have a right to privacy and schools must keep a student’s transgender status confidential. It should not be communicated to others unless they have a ‘need to know’ to fulfill a specific accommodation need, or if the student requests it.” The policy also says that privacy and confidentiality of any information related to a trans person’s gender identity should be maximized, or to the extent that the trans person wishes.
- Manitoba’s policy on Supporting Transgender & Gender Diverse Students in Manitoba Schools includes the requirement that “school personnel are not to disclose a student’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to others, including other students, parents/guardians, or other school personnel, unless required to do so or unless the student has provided their consent.” There is also a protocol for contacting the home of a trans or gender diverse student. It requires school staff to first determine from the student an appropriate way to reference their gender identity, gender expression, name(s), and pronoun(s).
- Quebec’s policy on Measures for Openness to and Support for Trans and Non-Binary Students recognizes that trans students may want to keep either their gender identity or their assigned sex at birth private. The policy says that school “administration and staff are not to disclose any information that might reveal the trans student’s gender identity to any other individual, including their parents (if the student is over 14 years old) and other members of the education staff without their express authorization. Only the trans or non-binary person, and their parents if they are under the age of 14, can decide which information they want to disclose and to whom, even if they assume their identity publicly at the school, centre, CEGEP, or university.”
Moves Against Rights:
Saskatchewan and Alberta
For students living in Alberta and Saskatchewan, if you ask to be called a new chosen name or by new pronouns at school, your disclosure may not be treated as private.
Recent changes in Saskatchewan have hurt the privacy rights of queer students. Since 2023, students under 16 need parental permission to use their chosen name or pronouns at school. This means teachers and staff may be required to tell your parents or guardians if you ask to be recognized by your gender identity at school. The law is being challenged in court.
Beginning September 2025 in Alberta, students under 16 will need parental consent for chosen names or pronouns, and parents of 16- and 17-year-olds will be notified. If telling your parents is likely to cause harm, schools are supposed to connect you with counselling first. As previously mentioned in this guide, these amendments also target learning and teaching resources related to gender identity, sexual orientation, or human sexuality, and impacts access to sex education in Alberta.
These policies have a major impact on privacy and safety for queer and trans students.
Advocacy in Action:
Trans Student Wins Privacy Rights Case
In 2016, an adjudicator ruled that a school in Edmonton had violated the privacy of a trans student when teachers repeatedly revealed her birth name and gender to the class. The adjudicator said that the school had failed to protect the student’s personal information because the school did not make reasonable security arrangements to prevent disclosure of her birth name and gender. The school was ordered to implement a better system to prevent unauthorized disclosure.
If you think that your right to privacy has been violated, and you are considering what to do next, please see the section entitled “What to Do if You Think Your Rights Have Been Violated” as well as the list of Resources at the end of this guide.
