Read on Twitter
In today's submission before the Justice Committee reviewing Bill C-6 Adrienne Smith volunteered that the bill has nothing to do with "gender affirming" medical treatments which I assume means puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, mastectomies, etc. The problem is that 1/
the bill as written will almost certainly reduce or eliminate the pool of therapists who will be willing to provide talk therapy to gender dysphoric children and youth. Top clinicians and scientists predicted on day one of the hearings that the service will simply become 2/
unavailable. If this occurs the only available treatment path for gender dysphoric minors will be the very biomedical interventions that Ms. Smith says have nothing to do with the bill. It makes sense that therapists, who are generally not as well versed in the niceties of 3/
statutory interpretation and criminal jurisprudence as Ms. Smith, Mr. Lametti and his legal advisors, will look at the vague wording of the bill and choose to steer clear of that kind of work. What therapist will want to risk a police investigation, criminal prosecution, 4/
prison sentence and loss of career and reputation that could result from asking the wrong questions of a patient? This serious, unintended consequence of the bill would be remedied by creating an exemption for licensed, provincially regulated mental health professionals 5/
thereby providing them with the clarity and certainty they need to do their jobs effectively. Gender dysphoric minors have the same right to high quality mental health care as minors with other mental health challenges. @DavidLametti @VanAlias @RobMoore_CPC @iamIqraKhalid
