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Danielle Smith bids to transcend politics with Canada's toughest trans youth rules – CBC.ca

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Premier Danielle Smith swore for months that she didn’t want to politicize issues around the rights and aspirations of transgender, gender-fluid or questioning youth, and has now declared Canada’s most restrictive and wide-ranging set of policies governing the rights and aspirations of those same minors.

She didn’t want to politicize it, and yet there Smith was on Thursday, by herself at the news conference lectern. The health, education and sport ministers weren’t on hand to explain the various reforms, nor any civil servants or subject experts — only Alberta’s chief politician.

In the social-media video issued Wednesday that launched these dramatic moves, and again the next day, Smith said she wants those children to know “you are loved and supported as you work through your complex and often changing emotions, feelings and beliefs.”

However, the government policy will imply that those young people might be making a terrible mistake about who they want to be, and will not support, and in fact block, any minor from having gender-affirming surgery — in addition to imposing Canada’s first ban on hormone treatment and puberty-blocking medication for anyone under 16.

Pressed on that point, Smith tweaked her language about who she supports and when.

“I support the journey of adults who want to transition to another gender as far as they are adults and able to accept the consequences of those decisions,” the premier told reporters.

“I certainly do not want children to be making decisions before they’ve maybe even had sex about whether they want to stop that aspect of their life, or before they’ve even contemplated whether they want to have kids.”

(Gender-affirming surgery on lower body parts is already age-restricted by the Canadian Paediatric Society, making Smith’s promise to bar it in Alberta rather moot.)

Smith’s reforms stand to change substantially how Alberta trans youth explore their identity at school, pursue gender-affirming treatment, and participate in sports, though everything was only announced this week in broad strokes, details to come, and to take effect at various undetermined points later in 2024.

Some of that, perhaps, will be sorted out below the political level at which Smith states her United Conservative Party caucus approved these changes.

What it’s like to fight for health care as a trans teen

5 months ago

Duration 5:40

From being dismissed by doctors and denied treatment to eventually finding the medical and emotional support they need, CBC’s Paige Parsons finds out what it’s like to fight for health care as a trans teen — especially in a rural community.

While Smith’s age restrictions break new ground in Canada, she follows Saskatchewan and New Brunswick with her plan to require parental consent when teens under 16 want to change their names or gender pronouns in classrooms, and went further by requiring parents be notified if their 16- or 17-year-olds do the same.

In the Maritime province, this triggered internal revolt in the governing Tories; in Saskatchewan, a court injunction prompted Premier Scott Moe to squelch it with the notwithstanding clause, the constitutional rights override. Did Smith believe that those provinces politicized the issue?

She was asked. She did not answer.

Smith noted her limits on teens seeking gender-affirming care follow international precedent in the United States and Europe.

However, she did not point out the key distinctions between those two regions: European reforms have been largely spearheaded at the academic and health agency level, including the National Health Service in the United Kingdom, while North America’s major medical associations have made no such proposals. Stateside, like in Canada, politicians have led the charge — Republican lawmakers engaged in ongoing social culture wars that have been known to trickle north of the border.

Last week, Smith shared a stage with commentator Tucker Carlson after he’d caustically referred to surgeries that “castrate” youth, and Jordan Peterson, who puts the word trans in scare-quote marks and calls gender-affirming treatment “medical crimes.” Meanwhile, David Parker of Take Back Alberta, the activist group bidding to influence Smith’s government policy, said this week her changes mean teachers “no longer have permission to indoctrinate our children into [their] ideology.”

A man in a brown suit, a woman in a black suit and a man in a dark blazer stand in a ballroom.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith poses between Jordan Peterson, left, and Tucker Carlson, right, two prominent commentators who speak of transgender issues in often inflammatory rhetoric. They appeared at a Calgary speaking event together last week. (X/@abdaniellesmith)

While the trans policies put Smith on the hard edge of Canadian reforms, she certainly does not ape the rhetoric and terms of those commentators. Held up next to Carlson or Peterson, one could perceive her as moderate — the balance-striker that she proclaims herself to be on this front.

Until this point, even social conservatives had told this writer they didn’t believe that Smith, a self-proclaimed libertarian and social moderate, would tread too far on this topic. A decade ago, she pushed against the Wildrose Party she led on LGBTQ issues, and against the then-governing Tories. When she appeared on Peterson’s podcast last fall, she boasted to him that a senior Alberta Justice official is transgender.

As much as she spoke of somehow not politicizing trans issues, her political grassroots had demanded action on this front at her party’s political convention — and it was to that UCP base that she first pledged to do something on parental rights.

Questions will remain about who is or isn’t politicizing this. Is she? Are the critics, including the Alberta NDP and federal politicians, as well as teachers and doctors? What about the vocal supporters, with their rhetoric?

Politicians might be no better equipped to judge who is or isn’t politicizing something than, say, journalists are.

But it holds true that one political figure alone made these announcements and is taking responsibility for them. While the consequences for her will be political support (or opposition), there will be more concrete impacts for those doctors and teachers required to enact the reforms, and of course trans individuals themselves who must navigate a very changed Alberta for them.

Reactions to Alberta’s gender policies for youth, children show a polarized province

17 hours ago

Duration 4:02

Premier Danielle Smith says the government’s sweeping and controversial gender policies for children and youth will ultimately protect young Albertans from making decisions they would later regret. Critics, however, have accused the premier of politicizing an issue that should ultimately be personal, and say the move will further marginalize LGBTQ youth.

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‘Disgraceful:’ N.S. Tory leader slams school’s request that military remove uniform

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HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.

Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.

A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”

Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.

“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.

In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”

“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”

Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.

Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.

Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.

“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.

“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.

“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”

Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.

“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”

NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”

“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Saskatchewan NDP’s Beck holds first caucus meeting after election, outlines plans

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REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.

Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.

She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.

Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.

Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.

The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Nova Scotia election: Liberals say province’s immigration levels are too high

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HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.

Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.

“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.

Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.

“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”

The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.

In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.

“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”

In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.

“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”

Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.

Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.

“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”

In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.

In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.

“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”

Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.

“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”

The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.

“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.

Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.

“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

— With files from Keith Doucette in Halifax

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