Juno News - Nova Scotia gov silent on teen transgender surgeries

00:00:00.000 the nova scotia government won't say whether or not it's funding genital surgeries for teens

00:00:10.760 leaked emails show that the liberal government has directed the rcmp to find a hundred million

00:00:17.040 dollars in budget cuts conservative mps are pushing to pass a bill that will prohibit

00:00:23.100 assisted suicide to those whose sole underlying condition is mental illness hello canada it's

00:00:29.580 friday july 11th and this is the true north daily brief i'm cosmic gerja and i'm clayton domain we've

00:00:36.840 got you covered with all the news you need to know let's discuss the top stories of the day and the

00:00:42.160 true north exclusives you won't hear anywhere else nova scotia's progressive conservative government

00:00:50.880 is remaining silent on whether it's funding genital surgeries for teenagers despite mounting evidence

00:00:57.540 suggesting that the province is referring minors to canada's largest transgender surgery clinic in

00:01:03.920 montreal freedom of information records obtained by true north confirm that nova scotia's current policy

00:01:10.840 allows youth to access irreversible medical treatments without comprehensive psychological

00:01:16.920 assessments or parental consent nova scotia's health insurance program has funded genital

00:01:22.980 surgeries for minors including at least five vaginoplasties performed on teenage patients under

00:01:30.100 the age of 19 additional procedures such as ovarectomies and panectomies were also authorized though their exact

00:01:38.900 number remains undisclosed the province's progressive conservative government has not acknowledged the concerns

00:01:45.860 that affirmation based care lacks sufficient evidence and may cause harm dr roy apin one of the signatories

00:02:00.180 said quote it's shocking that the nova scotia government seems unaware of this data and is bringing more such

00:02:07.220 questionable care to its citizens true north reached out to premier tim houston and health minister michelle thompson

00:02:14.980 for comment neither office responded the documents also outline a sweeping reform effort led by a network of activist

00:02:23.300 clinicians advocacy organizations and political insiders 2023 nova scotia health and iwk health implemented a revised

00:02:33.380 care policy for transgender youth that replaced earlier assessment safeguards with a simplified informed

00:02:39.940 consent model that allows minors to consent to life-changing procedures without parental involvement

00:02:46.020 stacy burgess executive director of clinical care at nova scotia health confirmed in an email

00:02:52.580 to true north that genital surgeries for minors continue to be approved and funded this includes referrals to grs

00:03:00.580 montreal a private quebec-based clinic led by dr pierre brassard nova scotia's policies have been shaped by

00:03:08.660 ideological alignment with the world professional association of transgender health whose guidelines

00:03:14.660 remove age minimums for surgeries and promote affirmation first care for a conservative government this

00:03:21.540 seems like a major issue that you would assume gets a lot of attention but just going through the most

00:03:29.700 recent election at least there hasn't really been any discussion within nova scotia politically about trans

00:03:38.820 issues and the issue of minors being rushed into often without proper safeguards and guidance into these

00:03:48.340 life-altering procedures so clayton is there a reason why premier houston and the progressive conservatives of nova

00:03:57.380 scotia continue to fund these surgeries potentially for minors and teens yeah there's a there's at least

00:04:06.740 a couple of different explanations here at least possible explanations um one of those situations is

00:04:12.980 where so-called conservatives go along with whatever progressive agendas are being pushed at the time

00:04:18.740 it's easier for a lukewarm conservative to go along with progressivism and position themselves

00:04:25.540 in a more liberal province especially as conservative but as in you know conservative but i won't go after

00:04:34.100 those sacred cows of the woke religion or um conservative but i'm not like danielle smith in alberta for

00:04:42.500 example houston even released an ad dogging on pierre pauliev and the gist was essentially that

00:04:48.180 saying i'm conservative but i'm sensible and progressive and i saw even liberal people who likely would never vote

00:04:55.460 conservative no matter what applauding houston uh for for similar reasons saying he's you know he's not

00:05:03.940 like the other ones and why can't all conservatives be like that um but you know pushing back against

00:05:10.980 transgender treatments for minors like danielle smith has done in alberta puts a target on one's back 0.72

00:05:17.060 and it's one of those pick your own battle moments for houston likely it's also a possibility

00:05:22.900 that the premier wasn't aware of these surgeries and has opted to shove his head in the sand

00:05:28.660 um and avoid you know stepping onto the stage for to join in the battle on this um just playing it safe

00:05:41.300 a leaked internal email shows the federal government has directed the rcmp to identify nearly a hundred

00:05:47.860 million dollars in annual savings as part of prime minister mark carney's cost cutting initiative the

00:05:53.940 leaked email obtained by true north from a whistleblower informed members on wednesday that

00:05:58.900 due to federal government initiatives the federal police force would have to reduce its estimated budget

00:06:05.380 of over six billion dollars by two percent annually for three years rcmp commissioner mike du haim

00:06:12.980 told rcmp members in the email quote given the alignment of our mandate to government priorities

00:06:20.100 and recent investments the rcmp will have a reduced savings target of two percent for the rcmp this

00:06:27.940 means annual savings of 98 million dollars which will require difficult decisions that may have an impact

00:06:35.540 on our workforce according to the email most government departments under the liberals comprehensive

00:06:41.460 expenditure review are required to find 15 percent savings to their respective budgets over the next

00:06:48.260 three years the department of national defense was similarly asked to cut two percent from its over

00:06:55.220 35 billion dollar annual budget according to a chief of defense staff memo released on wednesday

00:07:01.300 the department of national defense cuts would amount to an estimated over 700 million dollars a year

00:07:08.020 over the next three years the announcement noted that the cuts wouldn't affect carney's recent funding

00:07:13.780 pledges for the canadian armed forces notably carney recently pledged to increase defense spending

00:07:20.820 after canada had missed the prior two percent of gdp targets set by nato for years now carney has committed

00:07:28.100 to spending five percent of gdp on defense after nato raised the spending goal the cuts are part of the

00:07:35.060 government's responsible government spending initiative announced in the 2024 budget carney's

00:07:40.660 liberal government has yet to release a budget for this year but claims it will be released by

00:07:45.540 september the internal rcmp letter noted that the rcmp was already proactively working towards reducing

00:07:52.180 its spending through efficiencies still it warned that important activities might need to be scrapped

00:07:58.020 as the federal police organization seeks additional savings over the next few weeks the letter

00:08:03.860 said a comprehensive list of a finalized savings plans the letter said a comprehensive list of a

00:08:09.300 finalized savings plan would be presented in the 2026 to 2027 main estimate slated to be tabled by

00:08:16.420 march 1st 2026. so cosmon we're hearing about across the country uh especially since trudeau has come into

00:08:23.620 office a rise in crime it's still historically low compared to decades ago but um there is a lot of crime

00:08:31.460 happening there's a lot of new people in the country is reducing the national police services budget a good

00:08:41.620 idea so the canadian government desperately needs cuts across the federal level and i'm not one to say

00:08:50.980 that any department even policing should be untouched because when you actually look at the things the

00:08:58.500 rcmp has spent money on the rcmp has spent money on i can point to at least 30 million dollars that could

00:09:04.580 be cut today as part of this that were essentially useless funds that didn't actually go towards real

00:09:12.980 policing activity so the canadian government desperately needs cuts across the federal level and i'm not one to

00:09:22.180 say to say that any department even policing should be untouched because when you actually look at the

00:09:29.460 things the rcmp has spent money on i can point to at least 30 million dollars that could be cut today

00:09:38.500 as part of this that were essentially useless funds that didn't actually go towards real policing activity

00:09:46.100 so if the cuts target things like diversity equity inclusion initiatives the useless spending that has

00:09:55.060 gone into the gun ban and the buyback program absolutely those need to be made and just to rewind a

00:10:03.940 little bit these things i'm mentioning were reported by true north in 2023 it came out that the rcmp set

00:10:12.180 aside over 15 million dollars in taxpayer money to collect race-based data and study how they themselves

00:10:21.060 the national police force are systemically racist that's real and that's still running until 2027

00:10:28.580 they're still spending that money let's maybe start there then there's also the gun grab as i mentioned

00:10:34.740 true north also reported last year that the rcmp has already blown 13.4 million dollars on the useless

00:10:43.780 gun ban and buyback and we all know that not a single gun has actually been retrieved from by the federal

00:10:50.900 government and that program itself is set to cost i think like over a hundred million dollars i can't

00:10:57.940 remember the exact last estimate but it's growing uh exponentially even so that was last year 13.4

00:11:06.180 million dollars spent uh by the rcmp to not collect a single gun and that figure is also likely much higher

00:11:14.820 today so yeah there are cuts to be made and if the rcmp wants to be taken seriously they need to stop acting

00:11:23.380 like a social justice department and start focusing on police work but i will add if those cuts include

00:11:32.500 actually depriving of rcmp officers of equipment resources or recruitment that is a problem given

00:11:40.420 the issues that canada has seen with regards to crime across the country

00:11:44.820 the conservatives want to amend the criminal code to prohibit assisted suicide in cases where the sole

00:11:54.500 underlying condition is a mental illness via a private member's bill introduced to the house of

00:12:01.220 commons conservative mps tamara jensen and andrew lawton held a press conference in langley bc on wednesday

00:12:09.140 to promote jensen's new bill bill c 218 or the right to recover act was tabled on may 25th and aims to

00:12:17.780 prevent the expansion of assisted suicide to the mentally ill it passed through its first reading on

00:12:23.700 june 20th and is set for a second reading in november the bill sponsored by jensen and lawton

00:12:30.500 seeks to restore a quote promise of care recognizing the right of canadians to receive mental health

00:12:36.980 treatment rather than access to an assisted suicide program the opening remarks made by conservative

00:12:43.860 mp andrew lawton himself a suicide survivor underscored the need to rethink the proposed

00:12:50.020 expansion to the maid program lawton who seconded the bill said he nearly ended his life by suicide 15

00:12:56.660 years ago recalling waking from a coma after an overdose those concerns were reiterated by expert

00:13:03.460 opinion contained in a press kit distributed at the langley event on wednesday dr george of rackas

00:13:10.020 a phd psychologist and professor at universite du quebec a trois river similarly decried that quote if

00:13:18.900 made had been available when i was at my lowest i would have applied and i would not be here today

00:13:24.980 on wednesday while promoting the bill jensen noted that vulnerable people with mental health issues

00:13:30.180 seeking help often face long delays and no reasonable access to support which could lead to

00:13:36.740 them seeking assisted suicide out of desperation under the proposed expansion to canada's assisted

00:13:43.060 suicide program she's concerned that those individuals would be offered made instead of 0.61

00:13:48.420 the mental health support they desperately need also present for the wednesday presser were grayden

00:13:54.340 nicholas a former lieutenant governor of new brunswick former provincial court judge and first nations

00:14:00.020 advocate and alicia duncan an advocate and author on the subject of assisted suicide nicholas noted

00:14:06.900 that suicide has become particularly commonplace on indigenous reserves and that he opposed assisted

00:14:12.740 suicide on both humanitarian and faith-based grounds he pledged his support for the bill

00:14:18.900 with the liberals dominating the house of commons uh and potentially getting you know that support from

00:14:25.300 the ndp the bloc etc is this bill likely to pass i would wager it doesn't have much of a chance to

00:14:33.940 pass but it's one of those sending a message type bills um it sends that message that conservatives are not

00:14:41.460 content with simply preventing the liberal uh bill from passing that would allow uh these uh the extension of

00:14:51.060 made to people whose sole criterion for accessing euthanasia is mental illness um they're they're saying

00:14:59.860 no we should prevent it from ever happening and have it in the law to do so um as discussed in the article

00:15:08.180 there's a long list of issues with allowing euthanasia um for for people with just mental illness

00:15:16.100 being the sole reason for dying um you know mental health is not like physical health it's nearly

00:15:22.980 impossible to tell if someone's mental state is going to be remediable um we don't know if someone's

00:15:30.660 going to be depressed their whole life or you know their life turns around and they have there is

00:15:36.740 treatments but it's it's not certain whether or not what treatments are going to work and to what

00:15:41.460 degrees and um they also mental health could be an inhibitor of informed consent like you could not

00:15:49.540 really know uh be able to make a proper conscious decision if you're in a state of of poor mental

00:15:56.180 health um and there's also a interesting thing where people can access these euthanasia um programs with

00:16:06.500 medical assistance and dying they they find it easier to get into a lineup to be euthanized than it

00:16:13.060 is to access potentially life-affirming social services but also experimental treatments um i've

00:16:20.740 spoken to people and this might not be a popular opinion amongst conservatives but i've spoken with

00:16:26.260 people who've accessed things like psilocybin as a treatment um for end-of-life anxiety and and the like and

00:16:35.220 i've been told that people can't even try these um these medicines that are are admittedly experimental

00:16:43.140 um but they could sign up to be killed but they can't they would have to go through

00:16:48.020 electroshock therapy before accessing this medicine

00:16:54.340 that's it for today folks thanks for tuning in you can stay on top of new episodes every weekday by

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Juno News - July 11, 2025

Nova Scotia gov silent on teen transgender surgeries

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