Canadian Province Shields Trans Laws from Legal Challenges

Canada’s federal government remains in the hands of the Liberals but some of Canada’s western provinces are much more conservative. Last year, the province of Alberta, which is run by the United Conservative Party (UCP) led by premier Danielle Smith, passed three new laws aimed at limiting trans rights when it comes to minors.

One of the laws prohibits sex reassignment surgery and access to puberty blockers or hormone therapy for minors. Another requires that schools notify parents anytime children under 16 attempt to modify their pronouns. The third law limits female sports in schools and colleges to women.

The laws were passed last year but are being challenged in court. The law limiting gender affirming care had already been put on hold by a court. However, this week the provincial government invoked a special clause in the Canadian constitution which limits the ability to challenge all three laws in court.

The conservative government of the western Canadian province of Alberta has invoked a last-resort clause in the country’s Constitution to insulate three sweeping trans bills from legal challenges…

The measures are considered by some advocates for transgender people as the strictest in Canada and the province’s constitutional maneuver essentially prevents individuals or organizations from pursuing legal challenges.

The bills passed the provincial legislature at the end of last year, and one of them is already suspended as it faces a court challenge that could be dismissed in light of the province’s constitutional maneuver…

The provision, known as the “notwithstanding clause” of Canada’s Constitution,  allows provinces or the federal government to enact laws that could otherwise be overturned because they violate constitutional rights.

Danielle Smith, the premier of Alberta, framed the move to invoke the notwithstanding clause — a measure no other constitutional democracy in the world has — as a matter of children’s safety.

The notwithstanding clause itself is being challenged in court, partly because a neighboring province, Saskatchewan, passed its own trans law. 

The government of Saskatchewan passed a similar school pronoun requirement law in 2023 and invoked the notwithstanding clause to shield it.

That challenge will be heard by the Canadian Supreme Court next year.

Naturally, all of the left-wingers in Canada consider the bills themselves and the effort to shield them an outrage.

Unsurprisingly, critics are up in arms. Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi told reporters this week that the government’s actions are “unconscionable” and implied the government was engaging in a bullying exercise.

“I can think of two reasons that the government would want to do this. Number one is because there’s so many horrible things going on and they are such bullies that they’ve decided that basic human rights don’t matter. Number two is because they’re drunk on power,” said Nenshi.

Allowing parents a say in their child’s potentially life-changing decisions is hardly bullying…

In most families, parents are the most reliable judges of what’s best for their children. Not schools, not doctors. Not even the courts, unless the family is dysfunctional.

Here in the US these are 80-20 issues. The extremism is on the other side, but you wouldn’t know it from reading the most of the news coverage of this topic.

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