Alberta Premier Danielle Smith faced an icy reception in Ottawa Monday as a Liberal cabinet minister from her province called her proposed transgender policies “reckless” and “irresponsible” and left the door open to a court challenge.
Speaking to reporters shortly before Smith opened her province’s new office in Ottawa, Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault said he’s prepared to fight what he called “the most draconian and harmful policies for young people in the country.”
Referring to proposed policies that would demand that some Alberta trans kids get parental consent to use their preferred names and pronouns in school, Boissonnault said Smith is intent on “forcing kids out of the closet before many of them are ready.”
The timing of someone’s coming out “doesn’t belong to a teacher or a school, and it definitely does not belong to a premier,” the Edmonton MP said.
Boissonnault accused Smith of putting at risk the lives of trans kids whose parents don’t accept their gender identity.
“Why is the premier doing this? Why is she targeting the most vulnerable in our community?” he said.
“This is Ron DeSantis’s ‘don’t say gay bill’ in Florida coming up north,” he added, referring to the former candidate for the Republican presidential nomination and his state government’s highly controversial gender and sexuality policy.
Alberta’s move on gender-affirming care is ‘American-style’ politics, Boissonnault says
Alberta Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault spoke out against Alberta’s new policy on gender-affirming care and called out Conservatives for not talking about the issue, saying ‘silence is complicity.’
Boissonnault said the Liberal government doesn’t want to turn to the courts to fight the new policies — it wants to help inspire a public uprising against the policies before they’re enacted.
But Boissonnault said the federal government will “look at every single option” to stop Smith’s programme.
Smith later defended her policies when speaking with reporters, saying she doesn’t want children to make life-altering decisions they may come to regret.
She said it’s prudent to introduce “guidelines” that will dictate when a child can start using puberty blockers and hormone therapies.
She said there needs to be a more “rigorous process” before trans kids start their transition journey.
Premier Smith defends proposed new gender policies during Ottawa visit
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, visiting Ottawa to open a new provincial office, says her planned policy changes on gender identity are part of ‘a debate that we have to have.’
Puberty blockers are hormone-suppressing agents that pause the progression of puberty for as long as people are on them. They are sometimes prescribed for younger children after consulting with a doctor.
They may sometimes be combined with hormone therapies, some of which could have long-term, irreversible effects.
Smith is also pitching a moratorium on so-called “top” and “bottom” surgery for children, a practice that’s very rare in Canada because it goes against the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH)’s standards of care.
Smith said her government has been approached by some trans people who have “very serious reservations” about the kind of care and counselling they received in Alberta before their transition.
The premier said she recently spoke to one trans woman who told Smith she had “shame and regret” about pursuing bottom surgery at the age of 19.
“The child needs to be mature enough to understand the consequences of the decisions they’re making,” Smith said, citing the risk of infertility for some trans people.
“We just need to take a considered approach on this to make sure young people are being fully informed, not being rushed.”
In a later interview with CBC News Network’s Power & Politics, Smith said Alberta is following the lead of other jurisdictions that have curbed access to transgender care for kids.
She pointed to the U.K., where the National Health Service recently closed its only gender identity clinic after an independent study found the services offered at Tavistock were “not safe or viable as a long-term option for the care of young people with gender-related distress.”
But Smith doesn’t have all doctors on her side.
Dr. Sam Wong, the head of the pediatrics section of the Alberta Medical Association, said he’s angered by the province’s proposed policies.
“There’s a degree of sadness. And it’s disheartening. I’m angry. That was my initial impression of the video when I was watching it,” he said.
“Transgender patients who are youth and adolescents have suffered enough mental health issues as it is without being picked on by the government and being denied treatment.”
Wong said the province is taking away parents’ right to pursue medical options for a child with gender dysphoria.
As for Boissonnault’s suggestion that Ottawa could intervene legally to try and stop her policies, Smith called the threat “premature” and said the new policies won’t be introduced until September.
Boissionnault also called out Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and his caucus over their silence on the issue.
The Conservative leader’s office told CBC News last week that Poilievre has “no comment” on Smith’s proposed policies.
The Globe and Mail has reported that Conservative MPs have been told not to speak about the issue publicly.
“Pierre Poilievre’s entire caucus, including all the Alberta Conservative MPs, have been muzzled — they’ve been instructed to be silent on this, just as they’re silent on the CPP,” Boissionnault said, referring to Smith’s campaign to pull the province out of the Canada Pension Plan.
Poilievre goes after Trudeau after being asked about gender issues
Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre says the prime minister should ‘stop distracting and dividing Canadians, let parents raise their kids and provinces run their schools and hospitals.’
Asked about his tight-lipped approach to the issue at a Monday morning press conference on crime, Poilievre said Liberals and the media are “spreading disinformation to distract” from the government’s perceived failures on housing.
He wasn’t clear about what sort of “disinformation” is being disseminated about him and his MPs.
“Justin Trudeau does not want to defend his appalling record of sending two million people to food banks so he’s spreading disinformation on this subject, with help from the media,” Poilievre said.
“It’s time for Justin Trudeau to stop distracting and dividing Canadians. Let parents raise kids and provinces run schools and hospitals. That’s my commonsense approach.”
New Alberta ’embassy’ in Ottawa
Smith is in Ottawa to open a designated provincial office to act as a provincial “embassy” of sorts in the nation’s capital.
She said that with so many federal public servants being bilingual Quebecers, the province needs to have its own voice in Ottawa.
Under Smith’s leadership, the province has had a contentious relationship with the federal government.
Smith has said the plan is unworkable for a province like hers that relies on fossil fuels to keep the lights on.
She’s said solar panels and windmills are less useful than natural gas when the temperatures dip well below zero, as they did recently. She’s also called the regulations an act of unconstitutional overreach by the federal government.
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has defended the plan as a way to green the grid and make Canada a leader in climate action.
Smith said Guilbeault is hard to deal with.
“I’d like to see a change in the environment minister so we can try to reset our relationship. There is one extraordinarily ideological member of that cabinet who seems to be running the show. I don’t know why the prime minister hasn’t reined him in,” Smith said.
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.
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.
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.
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