MINDERHOUD: Alberta's right to use notwithstanding clause to limit medical transitioning for minors

Levi Minderhoud is a policy analyst for the Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) Canada.How does a politician ensure that a law remains constitutional when judges think otherwise? (No, this isn’t the setup for a lame joke.) They invoke the constitution themselves.That’s what the Alberta government is doing by invoking the notwithstanding clause for three gender-related bills. It is relying on the constitution to ensure that laws that prevent harmful medical interventions, ideology in classrooms, and unfairness in sport can take effect. .OLDCORN: Alberta’s ‘Dual Practice Model’ — finally, a healthcare system that works for the people.Alberta has led the country in all three areas, passing three key bills late in 2024. The health bill contained provisions to ban “puberty suppression,” “hormone replacement therapy,” and “sex reassignment surgery” to treat gender dysphoria or gender incongruence for any minor under the age of 18. The education legislation required all teaching material touching on gender identity to be reviewed by the provincial government and required parents to opt their children into classes on such material. The sports bill took steps to preserve girls-only sports.But these efforts were not without constitutional challenges. One pro-trans activist organization, EGALE, brought a Charter challenge against the legislation banning medical transitioning for minors this summer. In that case, Justice Allison G. Kuntz issued a preliminary injunction to prevent the ban on puberty blockers from coming into force, claiming that the law might infringe on Charter rights. There are two ways to get around this legal obstacle. The government is already pursuing the first option: appealing this injunction in hopes that an appellate court will find the law constitutional. But that takes time (the legal process can take years to resolve). Meanwhile, hundreds more children will be hurt through medical gender transitioning. The only way to prevent that is for the government to invoke the notwithstanding clause to ensure that the ban remains constitutional. .Once considered the nuclear option to resolve differences between courts and legislatures, this provision is experiencing a renaissance (outside of Quebec, which has a long history of using the clause). Ontario used the Notwithstanding Clause to amend election spending rules. Saskatchewan invoked the section to preempt legal challenges to its legislation requiring parental consent for their children’s attempts to change their name or pronouns at school. The federal Conservatives have repeatedly promised to use it to ensure that criminals are appropriately punished. And just last month, the Alberta government relied upon the notwithstanding clause to end a teacher’s strike.Protecting minors from the harms of medical transitioning is at least as important a cause. Over 1600 minors have visited Alberta’s two main pediatric gender clinics (at Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary and Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton) in the last five years, according to one freedom of information request. Another FOI disclosed that 36 minors had their gender surgeries over the past decade..CARPAY: How Ottawa ‘nudged’ a nation — Inside Canada’s covert behavioural science campaign.This is despite the fact that over 80% of cases of pre-pubescent gender dysphoria among children resolve naturally after puberty. When clinicians cannot tell with any certainty whether a young person will persist or desist in their gender dysphoria, the responsible option is to wait and see, rather than turning to medical interventions that prevent development or surgically remove healthy organs.Rather than being cautious, clinicians in Canada are often far too quick to refer gender dysphoric children to the progression of medical transitioning. According to one study, over 62% of children and young adolescents referred to gender clinics in Canada were provided with hormones on the very first visit. .Rather than providing kids time to think, taking puberty blockers sets children on the path of a further medical transition. As many as 98% of minors who take puberty blockers go on to take cross-sex hormones.And while pro-transition advocates claim that these interventions are “medically necessary” to protect the health, well-being, and even the life of “gender diverse” young people, the evidence to back that claim up is sparse at best. The United Kingdom’s Cass Review and the United States’ Health and Human Services Review find that there is little to no high-quality or long-term evidence to support the benefits of medical transitioning for minors. Earlier this year, two Canadian studies found the same thing..SLOBODIAN: Canada’s secret pipeline to late-term abortions in US.For these reasons, Alberta was right to limit medical transitioning for minors. Despite Justice Kuntz’s legal opinion, they are still right. And invoking the notwithstanding clause shows that the Alberta government has the courage to do what is right.Levi Minderhoud is a policy analyst for the Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) Canada.