The Alberta government has invoked the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to prevent court challenges to a trio of laws impacting transgender youth and adults.
The clause is part of a bill now before the house, and Premier Danielle Smith says the move is necessary to protect children’s health and well-being.
She says their health could be jeopardized if challenges to the laws are tied up in court for a long time.
The notwithstanding clause allows governments to override Charter rights if deemed necessary as a way to balance the authority of both politicians and the courts.
The clause relates to laws that put restrictions on student pronoun changes at school, on girls’ and women’s sports, and on medical therapies for young people looking to transition.
Two of those bills are facing court challenges on the grounds they are harmful and unconstitutional.
Really? You used the NWC for kids wanting gender reassignment medical help, kids asking to be called different pronouns, and kids figuring out which sports team they want to play on?
Oh fuck off. How about homeless people dying because of hunger, or people getting shot up during armed robberies. Literally life and death shit. How is perverting what the fuck is going on in Lisa’s pants more important than dealing with crime and income inequality?
Danielle - you’ve got more important shit to deal with than focusing all your attention on kids’ genitalia
Not even the first time. IIRC this was used against gay marriage in the 90’s.
Was it?
My memory is that gay marriage was declared unconstitutional by the Ontario Court of Appeal in July 2003. The Chrétien government of the time chose not to appeal it and instead referred a draft bill to the Supreme Court of Canada to ask them to issue a binding ruling. The government (now the Paul Martin government?) did slow things down by adding a fourth question to the referral, which even the Supreme Court called out as political bullshit. Once they came back (in late 2004) affirming that same-sex marriage needed to be legal, there was a lot of talk about using the notwithstanding clause as the only possible option to ignore their ruling. Ultimately, though, the bill legalizing gay marriage federally passed in February of 2005.
I remember in the debates during the subsequent election that Paul Martin accused Stephen Harper of planning to reverse it. Harper rolled his eyes and said that he considered the matter settled (since I think even a lot of Conservative voters were fine with it by then). Martin then promised to remove the NWC from the charter if reelected. He was not.