EDMONTON – An Alberta legislature member says the province has a duty to step in to deal with “bad parents,” and he compares transgender surgery to the castration of livestock.
United Conservative backbencher Shane Getson made the comment in chamber debate over a bill that uses the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to protect a trio of transgender laws from court challenge.
One law bans gender reassignment surgery for those under 18 and prohibits drug therapies for gender reassignment for anyone under 16.
LGBTQ+ advocates say the law is an intolerable infringement on the rights of patients, and doctors say it’s a dangerous political intervention in what should be clinical decision-making.
Getson says using the notwithstanding clause to override rights in this case is necessary, because some parents need intervention to prevent them from making decisions that may not be in the best interests of their children.
He gave the example of castrating a bull to make it a steer, saying once the animal is steer, there’s no going back.
“You’re not going to grow back those parts if you change your mind,” Getson said late Wednesday afternoon on the first full day of debate on the bill.
“If the steer changes his mind, too late; you’re a steer.”
Premier Danielle Smith’s UCP government has been criticized as having a double standard with parental direction over a child’s decision-making. The government says parental rights are paramount.
Getson told the house unfortunately that can’t be the rule when it comes to some parents and that it’s sadly reflected in social worker interventions.
“You have to defend parents’ rights to the end, unless they’re bad parents,” Getson said.
“That’s why we’ve got all these other checks and balances.
“We want to make sure that these kids — God bless them — get to a point of maturity where they can make that decision and that their parents’ best intentions — or maybe not, I don’t know — don’t cause irreparable damage.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2025.
