Parental Rights Group Calls for National Review of Youth Gender Transition Policies

Parental rights activists gathered on Parliament Hill on May 5 to call for an independent nationwide review of policies on gender transitioning for youth.

Speakers at the media event said Ottawa is out of step with a number of European countries and U.S. states that have tightened restrictions on puberty blockers, youth gender transition treatments, and gender-related medical interventions for minors.

“We demand two immediate actions from the federal government,” said Mia Hughes, director of Genspect Canada, an organization that advocates for greater scrutiny of youth gender transition policies.

First, Hughes said, the government should commission a “full independent review” of current protocols, modelled on the UK’s Cass Review. The 2024 Cass Review raised concerns around the evidence for youth gender transitioning and led to reforms in treatment offered to youth in the UK suffering from gender dysphoria.

Hughes also called on the government to repeal Bill C-4. Passed in 2022, the legislation prohibits certain activities that relate to “conversion therapy,” which is defined as “any practice, treatment, or service designed to change or repress an individual’s sexual orientation.”

“While presented as a ban on conversion therapy, it effectively criminalizes efforts to help gender-distressed youth explore non-medical paths, while leaving medical interventions as the primary option,” Hughes said.

Hughes noted that reviews in several countries beyond the UK, such as Sweden and Norway, have also prompted changes to rules around youth gender transitioning and puberty blockers.

“Seventeen systematic reviews—the gold standard for assessing medical treatments—have all concluded that the evidence for pediatric gender medicine is low to very low quality,” Hughes said.

While Alberta has introduced restrictions on puberty blockers and gender-related surgeries for minors, most Canadian provinces continue to permit puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones under existing medical guidelines.

Bill C-4

A number of speakers at the event argued Bill C-4 has made it harder for parents and therapists to question gender transition treatments for minors.

Bill C-4 amended Canada’s Criminal Code to prohibit conversion therapy nationwide, regardless of the age or consent of the individual involved. It passed the House of Commons unanimously in 2021.

David Lametti, who was justice minister at the time, defended the law at the time as necessary to prevent damage caused by “myths and stereotypes.”

Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also backed the legislation, calling conversion therapy a “despicable and degrading practice that has no place in Canada.”

Several speakers at the May 5 event, which was organized by advocacy group Mayday-Kids in Crisis, detailed the harms they said they suffered as a result of being encouraged to pursue gender transition. This included Faith Groleau, who said medical professionals told her she should transition to male despite a record of prior mental health struggles and abuse.

“There was no way for me to have given informed consent, because, for one, I was a minor,” Groleau said. “Two, they did not give me all of the information.”

Kellie Lynne Pirie of advocacy group Detrans Alliance Canada said she has to leave Canada to receive therapy recognizing her sex at birth because of legal uncertainty created by Bill C-4.

Scott Nugent, a transgender man who said he has helped draft legislation in several U.S. states restricting youth gender transition, also spoke at the event.

“I stand before you as someone who was told that changing my body would heal my pain,” Nugent said. “It did not. It did not cure anything.”