Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s threat to use the notwithstanding clause to deny Alberta youth gender-affirming health care is “cruel and unnecessary,” Amnesty International Canada says.
On Saturday, the Alberta premier said on her weekly radio show that she would invoke the notwithstanding clause as a “last resort” to protect a new law that bans youth under 16 from accessing gender-affirming hormone treatments as well as top surgery. Premier Danielle Smith said that if the law was found to violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, she would use the notwithstanding clause to ensure that the law can continue to operate.
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Two 2SLGBTQQIA+ advocacy organizations – Egale Canada and the Skipping Stone Foundation – are challenging the law in court, arguing that it infringes the Charter rights of trans youth.
“Premier Danielle Smith must walk back her cruel and unnecessary threat to use the notwithstanding clause to deny trans youth their rights,” said Ketty Nivyabandi, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada’s English-speaking section. “We remind Premier Smith that she, like all government leaders in Canada, has a duty to respect the Charter and uphold our domestic and international human rights obligations – even if they conflict with her personal views.”
Access to gender-affirming care associated with better mental-health outcomes for trans youth
Access to gender-affirming care can be a life-of-death proposition for trans and non-binary youth. Academic studies recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and the American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings show that starting hormone therapy was associated with a lower suicide risk among transgender youth in the U.S.
“Transgender youth are already extremely vulnerable, especially those who are additionally marginalized because of their race, income, religion, ability, or immigration status,” Nivyabandi said. “Stigmatizing them and undermining their rights only puts trans youth at greater risk of harm.”
Amnesty International Canada has already condemned the Alberta government’s efforts to restrict access to gender-affirming health care, sports, and comprehensive sexuality education. Earlier this year, Premier Smith announced sweeping new measures aimed at limiting 2SLGBTQQIA+ children and youths’ access to gender-affirming health care and stifling discussion of gender identity and sexual diversity in the province’s schools. Major media outlets in Canada have called Alberta’s anti-2SLGBTQQIA+ proposals the most restrictive in the country.
In a February 2024 statement, Amnesty International Canada said it was deeply troubled that the province did not engage in meaningful consultations with 2SLGBTQQIA+ communities, advocates, community organizations, and education and health-care experts before implementing these policy changes.
Despite the serious threats to their rights, Nivyabandi urged 2SLGBTQQIA+ people across the country not to despair. “We are determined to mobilize in solidarity with you in the struggle against heteropatriarchal hate and discrimination,” she said. “You are valued and loved, and we will continue to resist with you against threats to your human rights.”
Header photo credit: Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images
