Yet another attempt has been made to ditch the words 'mother' and 'father'.

The decision of a school in Quebec City, Canada, to replace replace Mother’s Day and Father’s Day with a more inclusive ‘Parents’ Day’ led to general outcry.

The controversy began after Radio X host Dominic Maurais shared a screenshot of an email sent to parents of grade 2 students at the Ecole de la Chanterelle in Quebec City, in which teachers explain that „considering the heterogeneity of our students’ families this year, we have decided not to celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. However, we still want to recognize you (the parents) before the end of the year. To do so, we will celebrate Parents’ Day.”

The teachers’ move to cancel Mother’s Day and Father’s Day led to outrage on social media – with many Quebecers calling the move woke and nonsensical.

The Centre de services scolaire de la Capitale’s (CSS) school district then issued a statement, where it provided an explanation and apology regarding the situation.

„Considering that some of the students in their classes do not have a mother or father or are in foster care, the teachers decided instead to celebrate Parents’ Day this spring by asking children to make a craft for them. It is clear to the CSS that this initiative was based on a benevolent intention on the part of the teachers towards the students in their class. But clearly, their communication was clumsy and may have been misunderstood and misinterpreted, and we are sorry for that,” the school district wrote.

The CSS also said the school is committed to improving its communications practices.

The district’s statement was shared by the province’s education minister Bernard Drainville, who said erasing mothers or fathers from schools has been, and will always be, out of the question.

Conservative Party of Quebec leader Eric Duhaime also commented on the matter, saying

„wokism is embodied everywhere in our academic institutions. Are we going to cancel Christmas because some children are Muslim? Are we going to cancel Labor Day because there are unemployed people? The celebration of Easter because of diabetics? Are we going to cancel Valentine’s Day because some people are single? I hope not.”

Mr Duhaime also criticised Mr Drainville for not going far enough with his response, and called on him to also comment on news that another Quebec school intends to cancel Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

Schools in the rest of Canada are also opting to cancel Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, including the Dr F.W.L. Hamilton School in Manitoba, which has decided to „transition to a more inclusive practice” and refused to apologise for erasing Mother’s Day.

Initiatives by liberal decision-makers to scrap the words ‘mother’ and ‘father’ are not unprecedented. As also reported by V4NA, Jean-Marc Bonnaffous, deputy mayor of Marseille, announced that the city would update civil status forms, such as administrative documents and marriage certificates, in a bid to make them more inclusive, in compliance with the laws.

The forms had been updated in select districts before the changes were eventually extended to the entire city as part of the initiative. In line with the new rules, the words ‘mother’ and ‘father’ have been replaced by the terms ‘parent 1’ and ‘parent 2’ on all civil documents issued by the city.

Besides changing the terms on the official documents, some 300 civil registrars have been sent to participate in various LGBTQ-related sensitisation training programmes. Registrars will also receive training in issues related to sexual lifestyle and gender identity, said Sophie Roques, deputy mayor.

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Last November, Marlene Schiappa, French minister delegate in charge of citizenship, announced that civil registry forms would become more inclusive of same-sex couples and would no longer automatically include the terms ‘father’ and ‘mother’.

Alexandre Urwicz, president of the Association of Homosexual Families, welcomed the change but condemned that it had taken eight years to implement the policy, as France passed the law on same-sex marriage back in 2013. However, as early as 2019, the French parliament voted in favour of removing ‘mother’ and ‘father’ from school forms and replacing the words in question with ‘parent 1’ and ‘parent 2’, a move that to law professor Aude Mirkovic described as being unfair to the majority of families.

„Parents are not only legal guardians. They have the constitutive dimension of indicating to children their origin, and measures that reduce them to legal guardians deprive both children and parents of this identity,” he said.

The United States is also making efforts to expunge the word ‘mother’. President Joe Biden’s 6-trillion-dollar budget proposal has earmarked 200 million for the healthcare of ‘birthing people’.

The budget draft allocates 200 million dollars to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity rates nationwide. A part of the budget item is intended to help cities place early childhood development experts in pediatrician offices and create state pregnancy medical home programmes.

These measures are needed as the United States has the highest maternal mortality rate among developed nations, with an unacceptably high mortality rate for Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, and other women of colour, the provision says.

It is noteworthy, however, that the proposal refers to mothers as “birthing people”.