‘We’re on the side of kids’: Alberta premier pushes back on court injunction against law banning doctors from providing gender-affirming care to youth

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks during a press conference in Edmonton, Tuesday, May 6, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

Danielle Smith said she welcomes a debate in court after an Alberta judge put a hold on a provincial law that bans doctors from providing gender-affirming care to youth on Friday.

On her Saturday radio show, Your Province, Your Premier, Danielle Smith said she believed her government’s case was solid, measured, evidence-based – and on the side of young patients that Justice Allison Kuntz said faced “irreparable harm” if she didn’t issue a temporary injunction against the law before it fully came into effect.

“The evidence shows that singling out health care for gender diverse youth and making it subject to government control will cause irreparable harm to gender diverse youth by reinforcing the discrimination and prejudice they are already subjected to,” Kuntz wrote in the judgment.

The law, passed late last year but not fully in effect, would have prevented doctors from providing treatment such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy to those under 16.

“I think the court was in error,” Smith said. “That’s part of the reason why we’re taking it to court. The court had said there will be irreparable harm if the law goes ahead. I feel the reverse. I feel there will be irreparable harm to children who get sterilized at the age of 10 years old – and so we want those kids to have their day in court.

“We want those who were counselled to have sex change operations prematurely who now feel like they weren’t protected to be able to be witnesses so we don’t make these kinds of mistakes.”

Kuntz wrote that denying access to this care not only risks causing youth emotional harm but also exposes them to permanent physical changes that don’t match their gender identity.

“Intentionally or not, the ban will signal that there is something wrong with or suspect about having a gender identity that is different than the sex you were assigned at birth,” Kuntz wrote.

“Gender diverse youth will bear the entire burden of that speculation.”

Smith said there’s a long history of governments making decisions that have caused harm.

“We had a sterilization of those who were committed to mental institutions that we had to do a major payout on,” she said. “There are Indigenous women who are challenging their sterilization that happened at the hands of doctors that they want to make a criminal code provision on that–we shouldn’t be capricious in taking away a person’s right to have children.

“So we want to battle this out,” she added.” And the way you do that is you go to the higher levels of court.”

Last month, the Canadian Medical Association and three Alberta-based doctors launched a legal case challenging the constitutionality of the bill, arguing it violates their Charter right to freedom of conscience.

Alberta’s other two pieces of transgender legislation — banning transgender women from competing in women’s sports and preventing youth under 16 from changing their name or pronouns in the school system without parental consent — have yet to be challenged in court.

The education bill also requires parents to opt in for their children to receive lessons in school on sexuality, sexual orientation and gender identity.

‘Demonizing vulnerable kids’: Nenshi

Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said in a statement that his party was pleased to see the court decision, calling it a “great day for young Albertans who simply want to live authentically and safely.”

“The court has determined what we already knew that this ban could cause irreparable harm to gender diverse young Albertans,” Nenshi said.

“This was never about doing the right thing: it was always about demonizing vulnerable kids to boost Danielle Smith’s political fortunes.”

LGBTQ+ advocacy groups Egale Canada and the Skipping Stone Foundation took the case to court, and in a statement Egale said the decision was a “historic win.”

Also listed as applicants in the case are five transgender youth who will be directly affected.

Egale’s legal director Bennett Jensen said Friday that the decision was a “huge relief” for the youth involved.

“(The legislation) does not solve any real issues in the medical system,” Jensen said in an interview.

“It simply creates them and targets an already very vulnerable, small group of young people with further discrimination, and that’s what the judge found.”

Despite the Friday decision, Smith expressed confidence moving forward.

“We actually think we’ve got a very solid case,” she said. “We think we’ve been measured, we think we’ve been evidence-based, and we think we’re on the side of kids.

“So we want to see how long that process will play out, but we think it’s really important for these issues to be debated in court.”

With files from The Canadian Press and Aaron Sousa