The Alberta government has invoked the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to prevent court challenges to a trio of laws impacting transgender youth and adults.
The clause is part of a bill now before the house, and Premier Danielle Smith says the move is necessary to protect children’s health and well-being.
She says their health could be jeopardized if challenges to the laws are tied up in court for a long time.
The notwithstanding clause allows governments to override Charter rights if deemed necessary as a way to balance the authority of both politicians and the courts.
The clause relates to laws that put restrictions on student pronoun changes at school, on girls’ and women’s sports, and on medical therapies for young people looking to transition.
Two of those bills are facing court challenges on the grounds they are harmful and unconstitutional.
I too feel bad for the kids that are having to detransition.
But then what? What does that have to do with these laws?
You keep dancing around the issue instead of just saying it out loud: you think that, because some kids suffer with detransition, we should make it harder to get access to gender affirming care. Yes or no? If no, then cool. If yes, then you need to inform yourself on the already enormous hardship that is getting gender affirming care and the overwhelmingly positive outcomes it generates.