Legislation Considered: Human Rights, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Act, R.S.A. 2000, c.H-14
PDF Version: Gender Reassignment Surgery, Human Rights, and the Minister
When the Alberta government introduced its budget on April 7, 2009, one of its cuts was to de-insure new gender reassignment surgeries. According to the CBC, “[t]he province had funded a maximum of 20 gender reassignment surgeries [GRS] annually; the cut is expected to save the government about $700,000 a year.” The CBC also reported that a number of human rights complaints were filed by transgendered persons on April 15, 2009, alleging that the cut amounts to discrimination on the basis of gender identity contrary to Alberta’s Human Rights, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Act, R.S.A. 2000, c.H-14 (“HRCMA“). In response to a question about whether an Ontario case where a similar cut was found to violate human rights legislation would serve as a precedent in Alberta, Lindsay Blackett (Minister of Culture and Community Spirit) is said to have made the following comment: “We have a slightly different process, and we have slightly different value systems and a way of thinking in Alberta, and since most of the people on our commission are from Alberta, they may look at it a little differently then Ontarians do.” Blackett’s reported comment is disturbing on a number of grounds.