Mail carrier suspended after refusing to deliver flyers calling for ban on 'child sex-change'

A Canada Post worker says she was suspended after refusing to deliver flyers that compare gender-affirming medical care to child mutilation.

The flyer from Campaign Life Coalition, an anti-abortion group based in Hamilton, Ont., calls for a ban on "child sex-change." 

Shannon Aitchison said she is the mother of a transgender adult and given that gender-affirming surgery is only available to people aged 18 and above, believes the wording of the flyers is harmful and discriminatory against transgender people.

"It's misinformation. It is lies and misinformation being presented as truth," she said.

This is the third flyer sent by the group since August. The first two were in support of the Blaine Higgs government's changes to Policy 713, requiring parental consent before school staff can use a child under the age of 16's chosen name and pronouns.

Higgs's campaign manager, Steve Outhouse, has previously said the Progressive Conservatives have "no involvement with this flyer or the actions" of the group. 

The most recent flyer calls for banning gender-affirming health care for youth.

Gender-affirming surgeries are available for those over 18 years of age in New Brunswick.

Gender-affirming treatment can be given earlier with parental permission. Medical professionals may grant exceptions for older teens who are deemed mature enough to make the decision.

The flyer says, "No child is 'born in the wrong body. God doesn't make mistakes."

Aitchison said she's delivered mail in the past that she personally didn't agree with, but the flyer goes a step further. 

"This is the first time I have ever drawn a line in the sand and said … I will not be party to delivering propaganda," she said.

A lawyer for Campaign Life Coalition sent a letter to Canada Post in late August, stating that any limitation of the group's flyers would be an infringement of its freedom of expression guaranteed under the Charter.

"The flyers … do not bear any illegal or prohibited messages, characteristics or markings. They do not contain sexually explicit material. The flyers contain no graphic images, obscenity, or hateful expression," the letter said. "The flyers merely make a comment on a policy enacted in the Province of New Brunswick. As such, they constitute political expression which lies at the core of the constitutional guarantee of free expression."