Jennifer Evans’ Writes Article in Hill Times

History Professor Jen Evans has written an article for the Hill Times in response to the Alberta Government’s transgender bills and the use of the notwithstanding clause. A short excerpt is below with the full article, “Alberta’s intent to suspend the Charter of Rights and Freedoms for trans health care for youth sets a dangerous precedent,” available online.

When Alberta Premier Danielle Smith invoked the notwithstanding clause to prevent the courts from challenging three transgender bills in Alberta, she used the very tools of democracy against itself. Trading in false truths and emotion, such actions threaten the very foundation of Canadian society. We should all be concerned.

Transgender health care is a particular flashpoint, but this is also a ruse. First in Hungary and Poland in the 2000s, and especially now south of the border, illiberal actors fixate on gay, lesbian, and trans issues. These fundamentally private matters provide a focus to incite public outrage and provide a pretext to introduce legislative oppression. In each country, this has occurred in the context of democratic backsliding and social (Christian) conservatism.

Worryingly, each instance has been based on deliberate misinformation, a woeful disregard for truth, and a rejection of science.

Alberta’s intent to suspend the Charter of Rights and Freedoms for trans health care for youth sets a dangerous precedent and worse, the evidence does not support this threat. An Amicus Brief to the U.S. Supreme Court by a panel of experts reveals there is, in fact, a long history to trans medicine.

There have always been trans people—in the Catholic Middle Ages some of them were saints. Across all histories, cultures, and religions, gender non-conforming people have lived among us, sometimes accepted, sometimes vilified, but always there.