Pierre Poilievre backs J.K. Rowling's support for new Olympic gender policy

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, March 25, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is supporting a ruling this week by the International Olympic Committee that bans transgender women from women’s sports at the Games.

The policy change comes ahead of the next Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028 and aligns with an executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump.

The new policy will require athletes to undergo mandatory genetic testing to establish their gender.

The test involves a screen of saliva, cheek swabs or blood samples to test for the SRY gene, which is a piece of DNA “typically found on the Y chromosome that initiates male sex development in utero,” the policy said.

Poilievre shared a post on social media from author J.K. Rowling, who called the decision a “welcome return to fair sport for women and girls.”

Rowling added, “I’ll never forget the scandal of Paris 2024, when people who consider themselves supremely virtuous and progressive publicly cheered on men punching women.”

The post included a photo of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who won a gold medal in Paris in 2024 amid intense controversy over misconceptions about her sex.

Poilievre reposted Rowling’s message on X and added, “What she said.”

Rowling and Trump have referred repeatedly to Khelif as a male. 

She was born female and met IOC eligibility rules in 2024.

World Boxing implemented a policy last year to require all fighters to take a genetic test that would identify the presence of a Y chromosome.

Khelif recently told CNN she would take such a test if it was conducted by the IOC.

Secretary of State for sport Adam van Koeverden said in a statement Friday that the government believes in a sport system that “provides opportunities for all Canadians, including the transgender community, to participate in sport and excel without discrimination.”

“We are aware of the International Olympic Committee’s recent policy decision,” he said. “While international and national sport organizations operate independently from government, we will work closely with our sport partners to review the impact of this decision on Canadian athletes.”

Van Koeverden said the priority is to ensure there is a path forward for sport in Canada that preserves the integrity and fairness of sport categories while promoting equal opportunities and respecting human rights. 

“Together, we will lead with the empathy, respect and care that all Canadians deserve,” he said. 

Chromosome testing was common in Olympic sports during the 20th century, but was largely abandoned in the 1990s because of numerous ambiguities that couldn’t be easily resolved by the tests, collectively known as differences in sex development.

The OIC said eligibility for any female category in individual and team sports is “now limited to biological females.”

It’s not clear if any transgender women are currently competing at an Olympic level. In 2021, transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard competed at the Tokyo games and did not win a medal. 

IOC president Kristy Coventry set out to review the female category after taking over in the role last June.

She said in a news conference Thursday that the decision was a priority for her before Trump took office and there was no pressure on the IOC from outside the Olympic movement to make the change.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association said in a statement Friday that the changes are fundamentally at odds with the Olympic Charter, which affirms the practice of sport as a human right.

“These measures not only bar transgender women from competition, but target and disqualify cisgender women with differences in sex development,” the CCLA said.

Adam van Koeverden, Canada’s secretary of state for sport, has not said anything publicly about the changes. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• READ MORE: Transgender women athletes banned from women’s Olympics events
• READ MORE: ‘This is people’s lives’: Canadian soccer star Quinn continues trans advocacy

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 27, 2026.

— With files from The Associated Press

Canadian Press staff, The Canadian Press