Girls' softball was an inclusive sport in Alberta. For this teen, a new law could end that
CBC
Riley Simpson has been playing softball since they were nine years old. They fell in love with the sport after watching their older sister play.
In June, their softball team won the Edmonton city championship and Riley was hoping to play on higher-level teams as they grew and got better.
In Alberta, where Riley is from, most competitive softball teams are girls' teams. This has never been a problem for Riley, who recently turned 15 years old and is non-binary, thanks to inclusive sporting policies, a co-ed mentality in softball and pre-puberty androgyny.
But the provincial government has enacted a controversial new law excluding athletes assigned male at birth from women's sports teams — known as Bill 29, or the Fairness and Safety in Sport Act — which goes into effect on Sept. 1.
Athletes not assigned female at birth will have to leave any girls' sports team belonging to any school, collegiate or provincial amateur competition level or play in boys' or co-ed divisions.
Some say that unfairly targets young athletes in recreational leagues.
The legislation is already having repercussions on some young athletes in the province: on June 24, Riley played what could effectively be their last competitive softball game ever.
"We won the city championship that day, so that's a good memory. But I also remember sitting on the pitching plate after the game, feeling so sad," Riley wrote, replying to emailed questions from CBC News.
Riley's mother, Eldyka Simpson, was at the game in Edmonton and, over the phone, recounted how most of her child's teammates weren't up to date on the reality of the new law until the team was drinking a ginger ale toast and one of the coaches announced it would be Riley's last game, and that she was proud they were a part of the team.
"Then people started to cry," Simpson said.
The team went to Dairy Queen for Blizzards afterward, but Riley stayed back and sat on the pitching mound "and just cried and cried, and cried," Simpson said.
It had been a difficult season for the teenager, who earlier in the year was turned away from a higher-level under-15 team, then qualified for an even-higher calibre U17B team — but was later voted off in what Simpson can only explain as transphobic sentiment coming from a small number of parents.
Simpson says one of them told her "boys don't belong" on a girls' softball team because they could have an advantage over the female players.
Simpson, who is also an umpire and has three other children, was frustrated. She says there were girls on the team stronger than Riley, who would have been probably the third or fourth pitcher. She turned to Softball Alberta — the association overseeing Riley's team — asking it to enforce its inclusion policy.
Six months after passing a law aimed at making it easier for new grocery stores to open, Manitoba's premier says lower grocery bills could be on the horizon.
Timothy Smith was acting in self-defence when he punched Landon Waddell, and shouldn't be found guilty of manslaughter, his lawyer says.
Thoroughbred horse racing at Vancouver’s Hastings Racecourse is ending after more than a century, with the operator announcing Friday it will no longer run a racing season at the historic facility.
A memorial to remember lives lost to gender-based violence was held in Charlottetown Friday, ahead of the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, which is marked annually on Dec. 6.
A Calgary dentist who defrauded five insurance companies over a decade should spend up to three years in prison, the prosecution argued Friday.
B.C. Conservation Officer Service says it has called off its search for a bear responsible for an attack on a group of school children in Bella Coola, B.C. on Nov. 20.
The union president called it a rally for solidarity as Iqaluit Housing Authority employees gathered Friday while negotiations are ongoing between the Nunavut Employees Union and the employer.
The federal government is stoking Quebec separatism by walking back its climate commitments — including in its recent deal with Alberta — Liberal MP and former cabinet minister Steven Guilbeault says.
Four more Alberta MLAs are facing recall petitions organized by their constituents, including the first NDP representative to be caught in the province's ongoing wave of recall efforts.
Frank Gehry, the Canadian-born renegade architect behind some of the world's most recognizable buildings, has died at 96.
Hundreds of P.E.I. parents can't find child-care spaces, especially for infants. The provincial government says expanding those spots remains a top priority — and it recognizes the concern.
An Alberta judge says a referendum proposal on Alberta separating from Canada goes against Charter and and Treaty rights, in a decision given less than 24 hours after the provincial government introduced legislation that would have ended the court proceeding.
The architect of Alberta's politician recall legislation says it was never meant to be used as a political weapon, but as an "ultimate tool of accountability" if a politician engages in illegal or unethical behaviour.