The father of a transgender child has come forward to warn Albertans of the “mature minor” designation, a loophole that makes gender transitioning accessible to children without parental consent. The Calgary dad, whose 14-year-old underwent so-called “gender-affirming care” in 2014, alerted the Western Standard to Alberta’s medical system allegedly transitioning hundreds of children they have deemed “mature minors.” The age of consent in Canada is currently 16 years old. The father, who will be referred to as John, as the Western Standard has agreed to withhold his identity due to concerns of creating unnecessary family rifts, said his daughter was 14 when she started to have symptoms of gender dysphoria, a psychological disorder where the patient feels their biological anatomy does not align with their gender, per the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V.).“In my view, the mature minor designation is a loophole created by the Alberta Medical Association (AMA) (and other Canadian medical associations) to allow doctors, whether qualified or not, to make important medical designations which can have life-long adverse effects on a child living in Alberta,” said John. “Medical associations in Canada are influencing medical practices with their collective personal ideologies. I find the practice of children being allowed to make decisions in regard to life-changing surgery and drug regimes to be reprehensible. If this isn’t playing politics with our nation’s children, I don’t know what it is.”The mature minor designation is an option for children in provinces across the country. .Children who are granted the “mature minor” determination can bypass the established channels of parental permission or even government thresholds, such as the recent policies proposed by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, to undergo medical intervention to change genders or access Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD). All it requires is for the child to provide “informed consent” through a simple downloadable form and a brief consultation with a pediatrician, said John. .The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta states: “Alberta has established no set age for a mature minor. The more serious the proposed treatment, the greater the level of maturity required before a child can be considered a mature minor. The courts generally recognize approximately 16 years as the threshold for maturity, and none have recognized any individual younger than 14 years. Child Welfare authorities in Alberta consider 12 years of age sufficient for a child to be consulted on decisions that affect the child, although the child’s opinion is not determinative of what does occur. These consultations are typically related to the disclosure of information or decisions about the custody of the child.".The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta slate the age of 12 “sufficient” to be deemed a mature minor, and is entitled to give consent for a proposed treatment. “A guardian has no authority to override or veto the mature minor’s decision (mature minor doctrine),” says the college..John and his former wife shared joint custody of their daughter, who will be referred to as SR, from when she was a baby to 14 years old. He said he had always been close with his daughter, and she “was always a very smart kid” who maintained 87% grades, was on the dean’s list and the honour roll.“I had a very close relationship with my daughter. I think kids get deeply conflicted, the stress comes out,” said John.At the age of 14, SR lived exclusively with her mother. That’s when the “alienation” started, John said. He acknowledged the way divorce and “family problems” impact children..Age 14 is also when SR started taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to suppress female hormones and promote testosterone. Her parents were not on the same page about her transition. Her mother encouraged it, while John voiced concerns she should wait until she is at least 18. “This gender switching doesn’t happen unless there’s a real family problem, a high-stress problem. I think it’s built into this. I don’t think it happened by accident. I think this happens when there’s an environmental issue, the living environment,” said John.“I don’t think this transgender stuff happens all by itself.”He also brought up the influence and social contagion kids face at school. SR had many friends who called themselves transgender or “gender fluid.” There were three Calgary-based doctors who aided in SR’s transition. All told John she was a “mature minor” without him providing consent and despite his 50-50 custody. John said SR was prescribed Lupron (leuprolide acetate), a drug which the US National Institute of Health says is used to treat prostate cancer, endometriosis and uterine fibroids, by pediatrician Dr. Jorge Pinzon at the Metta clinic, which is part of the Alberta Children’s Hospital, at the age of 14. He also is a clinical professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the University of Calgary.Pinzon confirmed with the Western Standard over the phone he had been involved in the process of transitioning "many" minors, but refused to give any details or elaborate further..John said he asked Pinzon why he thinks this child is a mature minor “but he didn’t really give a good answer. He just said, ‘that’s my assessment.’”“He said ‘I’m deeming this child a mature minor, and the child can make their own mind up about that,’” John told the Western Standard. “He was the least-qualified person to say that because he’s not a psychiatrist or psychologist. He’s a pediatrician. (Imagine) the authority to deem your child a mature minor.” During the initial meeting, in a discussion that clearly “was not an assessment,” his daughter “did very little talking.”“Dr. Pinzon spent most of his time talking about what the drugs could do,” John said and only asked SR “a few general questions.”“There was no discussion of any potentially harmful effects of the drugs,” he said.“I asked Dr. Pinzon if he thought it was reasonable to prescribe such powerful and life-altering drugs to a minor. He replied it is the child who gets to make the decision as to whether the drug regime can be approved.”“In my view, as a pediatrician, he is not qualified to deem a 15- or 16-year-old child to be a mature minor.”.SR was also at the time meeting with Calgary-based psychiatrist Dr. David Gibbs, who “personally told” John “he had 500 kids come in, and issued hormone drugs to 496 of them.” “There’s only four (minors) that he didn’t issue drugs (to). One of them he said was a lunatic holding a knife, and he was going to kill himself if he didn’t,” said John. “He told me, and he was not shy about telling me, I couldn’t believe he was telling me this stuff.”John went to meet Gibbs before a scheduled appointment with SR because he “wanted to talk to him and find out what’s going on with this guy.”He found out all 496 were designated mature minors. “And that was 2014, that was 10 years ago,” said John.“The big excuse they all use is, if the kid doesn’t get the drug, they’re threatening suicide. That’s always their excuse, it’s a real common excuse.” Gibbs, now at the Calgary Counselling Centre, did not return multiple phone calls from the Western Standard. .The third doctor involved in SR's transition was Dr. Jonathon Dawrant, an endocrinologist at the Endocrine Clinic of the Alberta Children’s Hospital.Dawrant had “mentioned to me he has administered (hormone) drugs, I think it was Lupron, to a 12 year old boy,” said John. John went to the Children’s Hospital to get his child’s medical history to see if she was prescribed any drugs, and was refused.“No, you can’t have them. Your child's a mature minor. We’re not going to give you your own child's, a 14-year-old’s, medical records,'" John said he was told at the time. Dawrant did not return multiple phone calls from the Western Standard.Hormone replacement drugs are often used to treat symptoms of menopause; however, institutional guidance recommends adult women not be on the drugs for longer than two to five years. The Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) in 2004 took a strong position against menopausal women taking estrogen and progestin simultaneously, due to increased breast cancer risk. Currently the CCS website says taking both hormones at the same time is the “most commonly used” treatment because “taking estrogen alone can cause cancer in the lining of the uterus.”. CCS now recommends that women avoid taking HRT for any reason other than to relieve severe menopausal symptoms that have not responded to other treatment," a statement on its website says."If you and your doctor decide that taking HRT is right for you, the lowest effective dose should be used for the shortest period of time possible.".John in highlighting CCS’s advisories mentioned, “this is for 50-year-old women. How dangerous is it for a kid?” .SR is now taking testosterone “and doesn’t understand the risk.” John said his child was “indoctrinated, totally indoctrinated with this stuff.” “Kids need encouraging. They can go off the rails pretty quickly," he said. .John said based on his own experience, including joining a support group of other parents going through a similar situation, his is not an isolated experience. It's a whole system, he explained. "The courts support it. So you got the courts, you got the psychiatry association, you got the medical association. And they all are on the same party line. And even the university profs. They’re all provincial or federal employees. They’re employees. And that’s why they think they’re deemed to be the ‘saviour’ of our society. That’s what they’re going to do, they’re going to ‘save’ these kids,” he said. “I don’t know why they think that, but they sure do.” "The judge will say a child at the age of 14 is capable of making a decision. A lot of judges in Canada will use that. They claim a 14-year-old can make a decision. So the judges are buying into this too.” “(Kids) are extremely immature at that age. What do they know at 14? To make decisions about Lupron, and changing their sex.”.“There’s another angle, it’s the psychologists. They’re being extremely political with these psychologists and doctors," said John. "The question is, why are they dictating to their members that they have to think a certain way? They have given them the authority to deem these kids as mature minors. But why are they doing that? I think a lot of these medical associations are very left wing. You know, ‘we know everything, and we’re going to tell you how to live.’”“Once these kids say they want to be the other sex, it’s over and done with. You can’t do anything about it.” John said the weight of the responsibility goes all the way to the top.“The federal Liberals, they're pretty supportive of this whole program," he said.“Trudeau’s even said he fully supports all trans people. He’s come out and said that lots of times. And he marches in gay parades, he’s totally supportive.""The bottom line is once a child is designated as a mature minor by someone who practices medicine, in many cases this essentially rules out a parent from being part of the decision for a child to proceed with potentially life changing procedures and with being administered potentially dangerous and/or life changing drugs.”
