Alberta judge grants temporary injunction blocking a transgender health-care bill
CBC
An Alberta judge has put on hold a provincial law that bans doctors from providing gender-affirming care to youth.
Justice Allison Kuntz, in a written judgment Friday, said the law raises serious issues that need to be hashed out in court, and issued a temporary injunction against the law before it fully came into effect.
Kuntz wrote that a temporary stop is needed to prevent what she calls "irreparable harm" coming to young patients while the issue is debated.
"The evidence shows that singling out health care for gender diverse youth and making it subject to government control will cause irreparable harm to gender diverse youth by reinforcing the discrimination and prejudice that they are already subjected to," Kuntz wrote in the judgment.
The law, passed late last year but not fully in effect, would have prevented doctors from providing treatment such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy to those under 16.
Kuntz wrote that denying access to this care not only risks causing youth emotional harm but also exposes them to permanent physical changes that don't match their gender identity.
"Intentionally or not, the ban will signal that there is something wrong with or suspect about having a gender identity that is different than the sex you were assigned at birth," she wrote.
"Gender diverse youth will bear the entire burden of that speculation."
2SLGBTQ+ advocacy groups Egale Canada and the Skipping Stone Foundation took the case to court, and in a statement Egale said the decision was a "historic win."
Also listed as applicants in the case are five transgender youth who will be directly affected.
Egale's legal director Bennett Jensen said Friday that the decision was a "huge relief" for the youth involved.
"[The legislation] does not solve any real issues in the medical system," Jensen said in an interview.
"It simply creates them and targets an already very vulnerable, small group of young people with further discrimination, and that's what the judge found."
Premier Danielle Smith has said she believes the legislation is needed to protect young people from making permanent, life-altering decisions.
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