By Steve Scherer
OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canada’s Conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre on Wednesday expressed support for a gender identity policy that would forbid minors in the Western province of Alberta from receiving hormonal treatments like puberty blockers.
Alberta’s guidelines, which were announced last week and are expected to be implemented later this year, would be the strictest in Canada. They would ban hormonal treatments for children who are 15 and under, and require parental consent for 16- and 17-year-olds.
Advocates for transgender rights have pointed out that access to medical transition care, if desired, has been proven by research to have mental health benefits among youth who have much higher suicide rates than their peers.
Alberta’s rules for children are already fueling a debate in Canada that has polarized political parties in the United States for some time. The conservative-led provinces of New Brunswick and Saskatchewan already have their own guidelines.
“We should protect children. Let them make adult decisions when they become adults,” Poilievre told reporters. He specifically said minors should not be able to take puberty blockers.
Randy Boissonnault, the minister of employment and workforce development who is from Alberta and is openly gay, accused Poilievre of mimicking U.S. Republican Party rhetoric.
Whether to take puberty blockers is “a conversation that should take place between a young person and their doctor. I don’t see M.D. after Pierre Poilievre’s name,” Boissonnault said.
“There is an entire coordination in this country between conservative premiers and the leader of the Conservative Party … to literally follow the MAGA-style politics from the United States,” he added, referring to supporters of Republican former U.S. President Donald Trump. MAGA is the acronym for Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan.
Poilievre has a huge lead in opinion polls over Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, an advantage he has created by hammering the government on cost-of-living issues, including a housing shortage.
Poilievre had been steering clear of divisive social issues, and has repeatedly refused to answer questions about Alberta’s planned policy for the past week.
“Justin Trudeau is again puffing out his chest, trying to divide Canadians and attack parents who are trying to protect their kids,” Poilievre said on Wednesday.
Last November, Poilievre told supporters that Trudeau “does not have a right to impose his radical gender ideology on our kids and on our schools,” without elaborating.
Later on Wednesday, Trudeau said Poilievre’s view on puberty blockers “is anchored in ideology and is not about protecting the most vulnerable,” adding that his government would stand up for vulnerable people, “including our trans youth”.
Canadian LGBTQ advocacy organization Egale has pledged to take legal action to challenge Alberta’s gender identity policy when it is introduced.
(Reporting by Steve Scherer, additional reporting by Ismail ShakilEditing by Bill Berkrot)
