Conservatives have decried staff guidelines issued to staff at Service Canada, to avoid words like ‘mother’ or ‘Mr’, as ‘ridiculous’

Canada’s federal government has defended its decision to ask frontline employees to adopt gender-neutral language when interacting with the public, after the move was branded as ridiculous and mocked by opposition politicians.

Earlier this year staff at Service Canada – the federal agency that connects Canadians to government services and benefits such as pension and employment insurance – were issued guidelines asking them to use gender-neutral or gender-inclusive language so as to avoid “portraying a perceived bias towards a particular sex or gender”.

The directive, published this week by Radio Canada, offered the terms mother and father as examples of gender-specific language in contrast to the neutral term of parent. The use of honorifics such as Mr, Mrs or Ms “can be seen/perceived as gender specific by a client”, it noted, and instead encouraging employees to address people by full names or ask how they preferred to be addressed.

Reaction to the news was swift. LGBTQ group Egale Canada welcomed the move, with its executive director, Helen Kennedy, noting in an interview with the CBC that the task of accessing government programs can often be uncomfortable for those who don’t fit into “neat boxes”.

The federal New Democratic party also threw its support behind the idea. “If we want to create a society where we respect everyone,” leader Jagmeet Singh told reporters, “we must give more consideration to individuals who are in minority positions who have experienced a lack of respect for years.”

Other opposition politicians, however, took aim. “Totally ridiculous,” said Conservative MP Larry Miller. “I have a mother and I have a father. Anybody out there, even if you were born through a surrogate you still have a mother and a father biologically … We all have a mother and a father.”

Bloc Québécois MP Louis Plamondon suggested the government was headed down a slippery slope. “Should we stop talking about the ‘black market’? Should we ban that? Should we also ban the term ‘whitewashing’? This is all very philosophical, isn’t it?”

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Conservative leader Andrew Scheer linked the guidelines to Justin Trudeau’s use of the term peoplekind at a town hall last month. “He claimed it was a bad joke,” Scheer told the House of Commons on Wednesday. “Can the prime minister tell us why this bad joke has become a directive from his government?”

The directive comes amid a wider government push towards inclusivity. Last year the Liberal government joined more than half a dozen countries around the world in allowing its citizens to identify as gender X on their passports as well as passed legislation to better protect transgender Canadians from discrimination and violence.

On Wednesday Jean-Yves Duclos, Canada’s minister of families, children and social development, defended the guidelines, noting they had been drafted in response to public complaints.

He stressed that Service Canada would continue to use Mr and Ms when interacting with clients. “We are only confirming how people want to be addressed as a matter of respect,” he wrote on Twitter. “We are proud that Service Canada reflects the diversity of Canada’s population and is working to adapt to the reality of 21st-century families.”