The Alberta government has introduced a trio of bills focusing on transgender people, including one that would require children under 16 to have parental consent if they want to change their names or pronouns at school. Premier Danielle Smith says it's all in an effort to keep children safe, while NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi says Smith's government is picking on vulnerable people.
The Canadian Press
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has introduced legislation to limit gender-affirming treatment for transgender youth, ban transgender participation in women’s and girls’ sports divisions, and require parental consent for name and pronoun changes in school.
If passed, critics say the United Conservative Party government’s laws would be the most restrictive in Canada regarding gender, sexuality and identity.
The government’s intention is to set up guardrails to protect the health and safety of Alberta youth, Ms. Smith said during a news conference held before the bills were tabled Thursday. She was joined by nine supporters, including an 18-year-old track athlete, who said she unfairly had to compete against a transgender woman in high school; DeTrans Alliance Canada founder Kellie-Lynn Pirie; two transgender women who are vocally conservative; and two physicians.
“All three pieces of legislation have been developed, drafted and tabled with the express purpose of striking the right balance for the health, safety and well-being of all children and youth in our province,” the Premier said. “We’re also upholding the rights of parents to care for, teach and protect their children.”
The legislation would also require parents to opt-in for their children to receive instruction related to gender identity, sexual orientation or human sexuality.
Ms. Smith first announced this raft of proposals in a video posted to social media in January. Her plan quickly drew widespread condemnation from medical experts and transgender advocates across the country, in addition to federal ministers and the mayors of Alberta’s two major cities. Advocacy groups Egale Canada and Skipping Stone Foundation have said they will launch a legal battle against the government.
The Opposition New Democratic Party has accused the Premier of pandering to the right flank of the governing UCP ahead of her leadership review, which takes place this weekend. NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi told media on Thursday that thousands of Albertans have reached out to him to express how the legislation hurts them and their loved ones.
“This callous, venal, evil act that they’re bringing forward today is just so she can get a few votes on a Saturday night in Red Deer,” Mr. Nenshi said.
The legislation intends to prohibit doctors from performing gender-reassignment surgeries on minors – which is already incredibly rare in Alberta – and from prescribing puberty blockers and hormone therapies for children aged 15 and under.
Ms. Smith said this is because minors are not able to “fully understand” the risks of these procedures and treatments. When asked by media if she was bigfooting the relationship between physicians and their patients, she said: “Doctors aren’t always right.”
Bottom surgeries already do not take place in Alberta. The Globe and Mail found, in January, that only eight pediatric mastectomies had been performed for gender-affirming reasons between January, 2022, and November, 2023.
Kristopher Wells, the Canada Research Chair in the public understanding of sexual and gender minority youth, who was recently appointed to the Senate of Canada, said history will remember Ms. Smith’s proposals as the most anti-LGBTQ legislation in the country.
“The fact that this is being introduced on Halloween is an irony that should not be lost on us,” Dr. Wells said. “Trans people are not monsters, trans people are human, and trans people are deserving of human rights. This legislation is unconscionable, and it is not fuelled by a shred of evidence.”
Kathleen Ross, president of the Canadian Medical Association, said the organization remains deeply concerned about the proposed restrictions.
“Canadians have a right to make personal choices about their health with the support of their families, the guidance of licensed, regulated health professionals and free from political interference,” she said in a statement.
There are questions about how this legislation will stand up against the UCP’s proposed amendments to the Alberta Bill of Rights, announced Monday, that reinforce people’s right to choose whether to receive any medical procedure and that protects people from discrimination owing to their gender identity or expression.
Ms. Smith said Thursday that she is confident the new legislation will not breach liberties protected in either the provincial Bill of Rights or the Canadian Charter of Rights of Freedoms.
“The Charter allows for limits on rights that are reasonable in a free and democratic society. We think what we’re putting forward is reasonable,” she said.
But she declined to say whether her government would invoke the notwithstanding clause, which is a rarely used mechanism that allows government to override certain sections of the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms for up to five years.
The Saskatchewan government, last September, invoked the notwithstanding clause to pass similar legislation that requires parental permission for students under 16 to change their names or pronouns at school. New Brunswick had also adopted a similar pronouns policy, but premier-designate Susan Holt, who defeated the Progressive Conservative incumbent in last week’s provincial election, said she plans to modify it.
JJ Wright, an assistant professor of sociology and gender studies at MacEwan University in Edmonton, said the legislation could increase the risk of suicide among transgender youth. Prof. Wright said the opt-in process for sexual-health education – which has been proven to reduce the chance of sexually-transmitted infections and dating violence – could also prevent children from learning about consent, healthy relationships and basic anatomy.
The current practice elsewhere in the country is that parents can opt out of sex education for their children, which assumes consent by default unless specified.
Ms. Smith did not make clear how the new legislation, specifically in relation to sports teams, would be enforced. Government officials suggested during a press briefing earlier on Thursday that it would be a complaints-based process and that the “source of truth” would be an individual’s birth certificate.
Safaneh Neyshabouri, an assistant professor at the University of Calgary, said in a statement on behalf of the institution’s gender and sexuality studies department that the sports policy change will “strengthen the transphobic belief that transgender females are not ‘real’ women or girls.”
PB Berge, an assistant professor at the University of Alberta who teaches transgender studies, said the policies serve to “legislate trans life out of existence.”
The proposed amendments to the Health Professions Act would not prevent Albertans from changing the gender on their birth certificate. Youth who are already receiving gender-affirming care will not have that care terminated if the legislation passes.
With a report from The Canadian Press