Investigative Reports Uncover Disturbing Reality of Transgender Treatment
The Story: As part of an undercover Radio-Canada investigative report, a 14-year old girl in Quebec was able to obtain a prescription for testosterone within 9 minutes of seeing a doctor. The investigation , captured on hidden cameras, also showed the doctor asking the young girl within 5 minutes about whether she had considered surgery.
A separate report on the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) was released shortly after. WPATH sets the international standards of care for transgender patients, which are followed in Canada. The investigation revealed mass medical malpractice, including an admittance by Dr. Marci Bowers, President of WPATH, that puberty blockers—which WPATH advocates for minors—have no long-term studies detailing their effects. Other revelations include a known link between some treatments and cancer, open comments that minor patients were incapable of understanding the consequences of lost fertility, doctors stating that they have never declined treatment, and that underlying mental health conditions should not prevent someone from being given hormones or even surgery.
The Significance: Both of these horrific reports dispel the claim that transgender “medicine” is “just following the science.” WPATH, which provides legal cover to doctors such as the one in Quebec, is not a scientific group. Rather, it is a radical advocacy group that uses science as a proverbial fig leaf.
This should not surprise Christians: science, properly understood, is the study of God’s natural revelation. Nothing in science can contradict that which God has revealed to us—in this case, the undeniable truth that “male and female He created them.” If there is a legitimate contradiction, the fault can only lie with fallible scientific understanding, not with God’s revelation.
The members of WPATH must be held to account for all the lives they have destroyed, and our leaders must move to block outright this horrific abuse of the human body.
Read More: Daniel Payne, Catholic News Agency, “Leaked files reveal transgender group’s ‘pseudoscientific’ crusade, ethical abuse”
Pro-Hamas Protestors Shut Down Toronto Reception for Italian PM
The Story: Anti-Israel protesters shut down a reception which was intended to end an important day of meetings between Prime Minister Trudeau and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on a positive note. A shouting mob blocked the guests of honour from entering the building and caused enough disruption that the event was cancelled for security reasons.
This is just one of a number of recent Anti-Israel incidents across Canada as authorities continue to struggle with how to address the aggressive, and frequently antisemetic, pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
In Toronto, a Jewish MP was unable to hold a fundraising dinner after guests were aggressively blocked from entering. In Montreal guests were both unable to enter or leave the Jewish Community Center and Holocaust Museum because of demonstrators yelling antisemitic chants and death threats at attendees.
One of the most disturbing incidents occurred in front of a Jewish Community Centre. A young woman was arrested for either striking or attempting to strike a police officer. After she was arrested, however, the mob of protesters overwhelmed police and carried the young woman away with no repercussions or follow-up arrests.
The Significance: Protestors overpowering police and shutting down important diplomatic events with no serious consequences have made it exceedingly clear who is in charge on the streets of Canada—and it isn’t law and order.
Although most Canadians believe that Hamas was not only wrong to massacre Israelis on October 7, but also that Israel’s war in response to the attack is just, antisemitic protesters have faced no serious pushback. Political leaders in Canada are not doing their part to stand up against antisemitism and violence, even when it’s directed against their own colleagues.
In BC, a member of the NDP government resigned from her Caucus because she felt unsupported as a Jewish member of the Legislature. Meanwhile, reports indicate that Canada will resume funding of the UNWRA in Gaza, despite the UN verifying that employees of UNWRA took part in the kidnapping, rape, and murder of young Israeli women.
There have been increasing incidents of Jewish people being attacked and murdered around the world. Canada is heading toward its own incidents if our leaders don’t step up now. “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it” (Prov. 27:12).
We do not need to live in fear, but we do need to recognize that our country is heading toward danger.
Read More: Canadian Press, “Reception for Trudeau, Italian PM cancelled after pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked entrances”
BC Announces Funding for In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF)
The Story: The Government of BC has announced that the Province will begin partially funding in-vitro fertilization (IVF) for residents of British Columbia. Although details of the program have not yet been released, the Government has indicated that the new subsidies will cover a portion of the approximately $20,000 cost of a single IVF cycle.
The in-vitro fertilization process begins with the collection of sperm from the prospective father and eggs from the prospective mother (the former through self-stimulation). The isolated sperm is then infused into a single egg inside a petri dish, creating a distinct human embryo. For efficiency, several embryos are created at one time and are then frozen inside cryogenic chambers until they are implanted inside a woman’s womb. Faulty (disabled) embryos are often destroyed prior to freezing. In a typical IVF cycle, multiple embryos are implanted at one time to increase the odds of at least one embryo surviving the implantation process. If more than the desired number of embryos survive the implantation process, the additional embryos are often selectively reduced (aborted) until only the desired number remains. Once the couple is satisfied with their family size (or circumstances such as death, divorce, or a change of heart intervene), the remaining frozen embryos are either discarded or frozen indefinitely.
The Significance: Children are a gift from the Lord and the desire for children is good, natural, and well-ordered. Moreover, human beings have been given a mandate to “multiply and fill the earth.” Because of this, the desire of some Christians—especially married couples struggling with infertility—to utilize IVF is understandable. However, there are issues of deep moral significance lying beneath the surface. In the first place, IVF requires the creation and destruction of a large number of human embryos. Although some of these embryos are implanted and live throughout the duration of a pregnancy, millions of others are destroyed, aborted, or left to freeze for decades with only faint hopes of implantation.
In a world obsessed with functionality, outward beauty, and consciousness, these embryos are nothing more than biological waste. This is not, however, how the Bible speaks of human embryos. David, writing about God’s relationship with his preborn self, declares that “my frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” (Ps. 139:15-16; emphasis added).
Each embryo “discarded” in the IVF process is a human being created in the image of God with a distinct genetic makeup, family history, and future—both temporal and eternal. As a result, the intentional destruction of a human embryo is the interruption of God’s relationship with his image bearer and the theft from a “people yet unborn” (Ps. 22:31) of any opportunity to labor in God’s earthly service. Moreover, IVF severs childbearing from its natural place within the exclusive covenant union of one man and one woman, and institutes a factory-like process in which the timing (and, in some cases, physical characteristics) of the child are chosen according to parental preferences—transforming children from a gift to be received into a commodity to be manufactured.
IVF promises much, but destroys more. Christian couples who desire children but struggle with infertility should turn away from IVF and instead pursue options such as adoption—including, perhaps, the adoption and implantation of frozen orphans who have long been forgotten by their parents but who will never be forgotten by their God.
Read More: Camille Bains, The Canadian Press, “Questions remain about B.C.’s IVF funding plan”
Court Strikes Down Mandatory Minimum Sentences for the Sexual Abuse of a Minor
The Story: The Ontario Court of Appeal has struck down as unconstitutional the 12-month minimum sentence for sexual abuse of a minor. The case, R. v. Basso, was an appeal for a 22-year-old male convicted of a sexual assault on a 14-year-old female who had escaped a youth prison. The original trial judge stated that, despite some facts being in dispute, the male’s testimony in his own defense was enough to convict him.
The Court of Appeal upheld this decision, yet chose to overturn the mandatory minimum based on a hypothetical situation where the 12-month sentence would be a “grossly disproportionate” sentence for the sexual assault of a minor.
Despite upholding the conviction, the court permanently stayed the duration of the sentence, meaning the man only served 6 of his 12 month sentence in prison.
The Significance: It is an undeniable sign of a morally ill society that a hypothetical injustice toward a criminal matters more than actual injustice toward a child.
The Bible tells us that “whoever says to the wicked, “You are in the right,” will be cursed by peoples, abhorred by nations” (Prov. 24:24). While our courts are not yet at the point of declaring rapists to be innocent, they have made a pattern of reducing the punishment for crime to the point of hollowing out justice. This stems from a warped view of mercy that places it in opposition to justice rather than in its proper place in harmony with justice: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another” (Zech. 7:9).
Read More: Decisions of the Court of Appeal, R. v. Basso
Surrey School Board Bans Classical Books from Curriculum
The Story: The Surrey School District in Surrey, BC, has banned several pieces of classical literature from its educational curriculum, citing inclusivity. The list of banned books include John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and Harper Lee’s anti-racism classic To Kill a Mockingbird. With regard to To Kill a Mockingbird, the Board’s review cited the book’s “portrayal of Black characters as one-dimensional, the use of the white saviour trope, the use of ableist language, the use of the N-word, noting it’s normalized in the text and not necessarily used as a slur, but often as another word for Black people. And that’s completely offensive and inappropriate.” To Kill a Mockingbird is widely recognized as one of the most significant pieces of literature in protesting the poor treatment of Black Americans in the southern United States during the 20th century.
The Significance: The Surrey School Board’s decision to ban classical literature from its curriculum has two points of significance. First, the inclusion of To Kill a Mockingbird on the list of banned books demonstrates the severe lengths to which secular, so-called “anti-racist” activists will go to demand ideological purity within their movement. A book, that in its time, was a significant statement against the evils of racism, is now itself condemned as racist. This demonstrates a lack of understanding of both the details of history and the reality that no person, organization, or book is perfectly flawless. Second, however, the innate desire to censor materials which may convey “harmful ideas” betrays the secular progressive’s reflexive response to intellectual challenge. Rather than encouraging intellectual challenge to see which claims are most accurate, secular progressivism requires the suppression of contrary ideas—knowing that the ideals of secularism will never be able to withstand the light of the truth. Against this, Christians should support the free flow of ideas and the defense of religious freedom, not because every idea or religious principle is good (they are certainly not!), but because we are confident that the truth will always prevail over evil and we can trust that the Lord will ensure this, in his good timing. Of course, some legitimately destructive materials (such as pornography aimed at children) should be removed from schools. Good books with hard ideas, however, should not.
Read More: Quinn Patrick, True North, “BC school board bans classic literature from curriculum”
Quick Hit
Court of Appeal Upholds Quebec’s Secularism Law
Quebec’s secular anti-religious symbols law, commonly known as Bill 21, has been upheld by the Court of Appeal. This result was largely expected as Premier Legault’s government had used the notwithstanding clause to shield much of the bill from judicial review, leading to a narrow and ultimately unsuccessful legal claim on the grounds of gender rights, to which the clause does not apply.
Some pundits have pointed to this decision as a reason why the notwithstanding clause should be abolished, but we should remember that it is merely a tool that gives voters, rather than a few judges, the final say. The issue is not the constitutional tool, but the fact that Quebec has become anti-religious as a society, making Bill 21 a winning issue for Premier Legault. Quebec is now a mission field and it is up to us to give her the gospel.
Read More: Verity Stevenson, CBC News, “Appeal Court upholds Quebec law that bars teachers, police from wearing religious symbols”
A Truth To Consider