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A human rights tribunal in British Columbia recently <\/span>fined<\/span><\/a> a man $750,000 for public statements he made opposing a school board\u2019s promotion of gender ideology. The tribunal found his comments, speeches, and social media posts brought \u201cinjury to their dignity, feelings, and self-respect.\u201d <\/span>The same tribunal <\/span>fined<\/span><\/a> a woman $10,000 for privately disagreeing with a friend\u2019s gender transition.<\/span><\/p>\n In Canada, enforcing gender ideology comes at a steep cost: the suppression of free speech, the erosion of medical integrity, and harm to the wellbeing \u2014 perhaps even the future fertility \u2014 of young Canadians. And it is all justified as a necessary sacrifice for the \u201cgreater good\u201d of a tolerant society, an ideal now woven into Canada\u2019s national identity.<\/span><\/p>\n The scientific evidence against so-called gender transition, however, is mounting. Most countries around the world are beginning to realize it \u2014 except Canada.<\/span><\/p>\n In 2024, the United Kingdom moved to <\/span>ban<\/span><\/a> puberty blockers outright. Australia\u2019s state of Queensland <\/span>prohibited<\/span><\/a> puberty blockers in January, while New Zealand <\/span>imposed<\/span><\/a> strict controls in November. In February, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons <\/span>released<\/span><\/a> a position statement on gender surgery, warning against its potential harms.<\/span><\/p>\n Yet <\/span>every<\/span> Canadian health agency claims affirmation is the default solution for gender dysphoria. <\/span>The Canadian Pediatric Society recommends accepting one\u2019s gender identity as valid \u2014 even <\/span>six-year-olds<\/span><\/a>. The same organization explicitly <\/span>dismissed<\/span><\/a> the findings of the Cass Review, a landmark <\/span>study<\/span><\/a> that discovered the weak evidentiary basis for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.<\/span><\/p>\n Such stark defiance of evidence-based care is nothing short of negligence \u2014 not surprising for a country that now includes <\/span>death<\/span><\/a> in its definition of health care. But negligence alone is an insufficient explanation. Canada is not catching up with the rest of the world to dismiss medical transition because their commitment to it is rooted in ideology, not science. And it is propagated by elites through a centralized system of top-down planning.<\/span><\/p>\n First, legislation enforces affirmation of gender identity. Canada <\/span>passed a ban<\/span><\/a> on so-called conversion therapy in 2021, defined as a practice designed to \u201cchange a person\u2019s gender identity to cisgender.\u201d But the \u201cconversion therapy\u201d of changing a person\u2019s body to match their gender identity \u2014 which is defined in a circular way \u2014 is allowed. In fact, it\u2019s effectively mandated. Those convicted under this law can receive up to five years in prison. There are no carve-outs for adults seeking sex-affirming therapy to help them with gender dysphoria.<\/span><\/p>\n Where there is no law directly prohibiting speech, Canadian courts create one. The latest examples both come from British Columbia: the man fined $750,000 for public statements and the woman fined $10,000 for a private conversation.<\/span><\/p>\n Such outrageous penalties have a chilling effect on speech. Absent any serious dissent, the monolithic worldview promoted in Canadian schools, hospitals, and traditional media will continue unchallenged. And the children don\u2019t stand a chance.<\/span><\/p>\n Consider Julia Malbogat, a Toronto mom who <\/span>wrote<\/span><\/a> in 2021 about her daughter \u201ccoming out\u201d as transgender. During a family trip to their cottage, her daughter said that she\u2019s a boy, to which Julia replied with a simple \u201cok.\u201d When asked how she knew, the child pointed to the school\u2019s Rainbow Alliance, a grade 4-6 club teaching \u201csexual and gender diversity.\u201d Julia dismissed the possibility her child was mistaken and noted that surgery wouldn\u2019t be an option until 16. By then, she assumed the dysphoria would be \u201cinsistent, persistent, and consistent\u201d enough to justify medical intervention.<\/span><\/p>\n But how could someone\u2019s gender dysphoria be anything except persistent if they are affirmed from the moment it is expressed? Gender-confused children rarely hear a serious alternative from schools or clinicians \u2014 though some later wish they had. Ask the detransitioners.<\/span><\/p>\n The largest <\/span>study<\/span><\/a> of detransitioners in Canada and the United States suggests that many who reversed a gender transition wish doctors \u201ctook a more neutral approach to care.\u201d The participants reported feelings of alienation, emphasizing the high social cost of detransition. One woman <\/span>said<\/span><\/a> she was \u201cghosted\u201d by the doctor who did her mastectomy. Treating gender identity as immutable and patients as infallible leaves minors, who are already going through emotional and physical changes, at risk of serious harm.<\/span><\/p>\n Look no further than their chosen cultural symbols. Publicly funded spaces across the country are decked out in pride flags, including city halls, legislative assemblies, walkways, libraries. This imagery is so pervasive in places of cultural importance that a first-time visitor might mistake it for the national flag.<\/span><\/p>\n In the absence of their rich traditions, Canadians have united around a new vision of the good. This new orthodoxy is summed up well in Bill C-4\u2019s preamble, which states that conversion therapy \u201cpropagates\u201d the myth that \u201ccisgender identity is to be preferred over other gender identities.\u201d While Canada elevates the dubious idea of an inner, gendered essence, it denounces the view that our bodies are essential to who we are.<\/span><\/p>\n That is a philosophical claim, not a scientific one. Science can\u2019t disprove it.<\/span><\/p>\n Until Canada re-examines its commitment to this new orthodoxy, it will keep ignoring the warnings \u2014 until the damage is too widespread to dismiss.<\/span><\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n