Rally on Parliament Hill Calls for End to Childhood Gender Transition

A parental advocacy group is holding a rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa this week to call for an end to childhood medical gender transition.

Mayday Kids in Crisis, a group advocating for an end to childhood medical gender transition in Canada, will hold a rally and press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa this week.

The event, held by Mayday Kids in Crisis on May 5, will include a parliamentary press conference featuring experts and those with lived experience who will voice their concerns about gender ideology in Canada. A rally is also planned on the Hill that day, along with a presentation, panel discussion, and a Q&A session.

The keynote speaker is Scott Newgent, a transgender man who founded TReVoices, a group of transgender educators who oppose “radical gender activism” and seek to educate politicians and families about gender ideology and gender dysphoria. Newgent, who is 53 years old, transitioned from female to male at the age of 42 and has suffered severe health complications.

Other featured speakers include experts in psychology, transgender ideology, childhood education, and law; individuals with lived experience transitioning and detransitioning; as well as the event’s lead organizer, Jeff Evely, a Canadian Armed Forces veteran.

“The thinking behind this is to empower the voices, the people who’ve been affected, … those with lived experience to the harms of gender ideology,” Evely told The Epoch Times.

He is the father of a victim of gender ideology, Evely said, as his daughter was encouraged by the medical system to attend a clinic for medical transition starting at the age of 16.

These are the kind of voices Mayday Kids in Crisis is trying to bring to the public, he said.

Canada is “behind the curve” on this, Evely said, noting that countries such as the United States, the UK, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, France, and Italy have taken action to curb medical transition for children, including by tightening restrictions on puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and biomedical transitions for minors.

“It’s time for Canada to join the civilized world by ending the barbaric cultural practice of biomedical transitions for children,” Evely said.

The rally on Parliament Hill seeks to call for the immediate repeal of legislation like Bill C-4, which created new Criminal Code offences relating to conversion therapy in 2022; and Bill C-16, which added gender identity and gender expression to the Canadian Human Rights Act and Criminal Code in 2017; well as the restoration of parental rights and policies that prioritize child welfare over ideological agenda.

Evely noted that Bill C-4 made it illegal to “counsel a gender dysphoric youth to feel comfortable in their natural body, but you are allowed to counsel them to feel that they were born wrong.”

The legislation made it a crime in Canada to provide counselling to a person who is struggling with gender identity to help them feel comfortable with the body they were born with. The law means that the only legal option for doctors, psychologists, parents, and others is to support people seeking help in pursuing a reassignment toward the opposite sex.

Mental Health

Evely said he believes now is a good time to hold the event due to recent incidents of violence that captured the public’s attention and were committed by transgender individuals, such as the shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., on Feb. 10; a shooting during a youth hockey game at a U.S. ice rink on Feb. 16; and an alleged plot by two Canadian teenagers to commit a “violent attack” on students at their local schools in March.

Evely said studies have indicated that gender transition procedures lead to significant health complications and an “atrocious shortening of lifespan.” “Almost half of them die off about 12 years after transition,” he said.

A recent study by researchers in Finland found that severe mental illness is common among youth referred for gender-altering procedures, and that “psychiatric needs do not subside after medical gender reassignment.”

The study found that among youth who underwent medical gender reassignment, mental illness increased from 9.8 percent to 60.7 percent in male to female transitions, and from 21.6 percent to 54.5 percent in female to male transitions.

Evely noted that those who advocate for gender-altering procedures for youth have said that gender reassignment improves the mental health of youth, but this recent study has found that youth are significantly worse off.

Evely also co-organized the national 1 Million March 4 Children event in 2023, where thousands of demonstrators marched in cities across Canada to protest against the teaching of gender ideology in schools.

John Carpay and The Associated Press contributed to this report.