Mia Hughes, who specializes in researching gender medicine, psychiatric epidemics, and social contagion, is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. Citing the Cass Review, a major U.K. government overview of available evidence on “gender-affirming care,” and other studies, Hughes writes:
Despite mounting evidence that a major medical scandal is unfolding, Canada has yet to launch a review of the practices in its paediatric gender clinics. Canadian guidelines remain closely aligned with those of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), an organization that has been discredited for prioritizing ideological commitments over scientific rigor … Canadian activists may insist the science here is settled, but that claim is becoming increasingly untenable. Science does not respect national borders. Canada has witnessed the same dramatic surge in referrals, the same demographic shift from mostly young boys to predominantly adolescent girls, and our gender clinics were among the earliest and most enthusiastic in adopting these experimental medical interventions. If other countries lack solid evidence or ethical justification for this treatment, the same holds true for Canada.
And yet, calls for a Canadian Cass-style review have so far gone unheeded, and the political environment continues to render even cautious scepticism as taboo. Canada’s inaction on this issue has already brought shame on the nation. There are two lawsuits underway, and there will undoubtedly be many more over the coming years as the number of detransitioners steadily rises.
Hughes is precisely right – and not incidentally, she is publishing her call for clarity in one of the only mainstream media outlets in Canada that has done even the most basic journalistic work on this file. As I have written countless times in this space over the past several years, Canada’s mainstream media has essentially functioned as a propaganda arm for the transgender movement, refusing to even cover many studies that directly rebut the claims made by proponents of “gender-affirming care.”
In fact, most mainstream media outlets cover the transgender issue as if the fierce debate raging around the world is not taking place. In a particularly egregious example, the CBC published an article titled, “N.S. Health works to expand access to youth gender-affirming care across province” on May 12. The article is straight propaganda dressed up (albeit unconvincingly) as news, and is authored by Andrew Lam who is, according to the CBC’s bio: “Lam (they/she) is a Chinese-Canadian and trans reporter for CBC Nova Scotia. They are interested in 2SLGBTQIA+, labour and data-driven stories.”
Lam’s article is a puff piece for a clinic specializing in transgender treatments. Lam writes:
Nova Scotia Health is working to expand access to youth gender-affirming care in the province by replicating a clinic model introduced in the Annapolis Valley last year. In February 2024, a youth clinic dedicated to providing this kind of health care opened in Kentville. Then another opened this March in Bridgewater, with more clinics in the works. “Accessing gender-affirming care isn’t just a city thing or an urban thing,” said mental health clinician Julien Davis, who is also trans. ”We exist in rural settings as well and … ideally should be able to access that care wherever we’re at.”
So what sort of “gender-affirming care” is Lam referring to here? The article continues:
The clinics provide puberty blocker and hormone therapy treatments to youth who have hit puberty, up to age 16. Children and their families can also be referred ahead of puberty to discuss questions and concerns. Puberty blockers are a reversible treatment that temporarily stop the progression of puberty, providing a child with more time to explore their identity – for example through clothing – without the distress that can come with going through developmental changes.
The blockers are not a new treatment, and have also been used for children who undergo puberty too early. Hormone therapy is partially reversible and involves prescribing hormones like estrogen or testosterone to help trans and gender-diverse people develop physical characteristics that are aligned with their gender.
Any actual journalist would observe, at this point, that these facts are very much disputed and indeed currently under dispute. As Hughes noted, a mounting body of evidence, not to mention recipients of these treatments, directly contradicts these bland-sounding, informational statements.
Lam does not note that puberty blockers have been found to impact brain development, reduce the density of bones, stunt growth, risk barring the user from reaching peak IQ, inhibit sexual function, thicken the blood, raise the risk of heart attack by up to five times, create a higher risk of blood clots and cancer, and result in vaginal atrophy. In recent years, even the New York Times has reported on these so-called side effects.
Pubety blockers also transform the natural development of the genitals. After taking testosterone for a while, young girls may see their clitoris grow to the size of a baby carrot. After a few months, girls grow body hair and beards, their voices lower, and they get acne and sometimes male-pattern baldness. The nose usually rounds, the jaw squares, and muscles become more pronounced. Sex becomes painful, if not impossible. Some of these changes will, contrary to what Lam states, be permanent: even if the girls stop taking testosterone, the body and facial hair will likely stay, as will the enlarged clitoris.
If girls opt for a “breast binder,” which are advertised as a way of flattening the breasts in order to “present” as male, back pain, shoulder pain, chest pain, shortness of breath, and fractured ribs can result.
None of this is mentioned in the article. Instead, Lam writes this:
“These are medical treatments that have existed for a long time and they are available and safe for youth to access,” said Becca Macdougall, a mental health clinician who sometimes refers patients and their families to the Kentville clinic. According to the Canadian Paediatric Society, gender-affirming care – health care that supports a person’s gender identity – is the standard of care for trans and gender-diverse youth.
Imagine being the parent of a child with gender dysphoria, and being presented with information that completely excludes studies that detail the dangers of “gender-affirming care” so comprehensively that they prompted a ban on puberty blockers for minors – not in American red states, but in the United Kingdom, under a Labour government. Imagine discovering, as so many parents have to their great grief and rage, that they were not given all of the information necessary. That they and their children could not give informed consent, because they were not informed.
This ongoing medical scandal is only possible with the help of journalists like Andrew Lam – and the taxpayer-funded CBC. When the full extent of the devastation of “gender-affirming care” finally becomes clear – as it will – some of the responsibility for that pain and destruction will be theirs.
