The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - Activist doctor misleads Albertans on Smith’s gender policies

00:00:00.000 Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is still coming under fire for her recent transgender policies.

00:00:05.620 Most recently, an Alberta doctor says the policies contributed to his trans nephew's suicide.

00:00:11.380 How did this happen? The nephew, in this case, was an adult in his late 30s. The premier said

00:00:16.380 that she will ban sex reassignment surgery as well as hormone therapy for most minors in the

00:00:21.360 province. But she did promise to increase trans care for adults so they don't have to travel to

00:00:27.080 Quebec. The doctor, in this case, has long been critical of the United Conservative Party government

00:00:32.060 and is now requesting a meeting with the premier. Maybe Danielle Smith and the Conservatives aren't

00:00:38.400 the ones politicizing the trans issue after all. I'm Rachel Emanuel and this is the Alberta Roundup.

00:00:43.380 Taking a look at our first story here. An Alberta doctor who has long been critical of the United

00:00:58.560 Conservative Party government is requesting a meeting with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith,

00:01:03.720 saying that her recent transgender policies pushed his trans nephew over the edge. David Keegan's

00:01:09.640 nephew was 37 years old when he committed suicide. Keegan is a family physician and a doctor of family

00:01:16.500 medicine at the Cummings School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. Take a listen to what he

00:01:21.560 had to say to City News following his nephew's suicide.

00:01:24.620 This shouldn't have happened. It was chosen. This is not the kind of way our province should be.

00:01:32.560 You know, I think people get really up in arms about compassion and stuff, but compassion's real.

00:01:37.580 Every single person in Alberta deserves to live. Every single person in Alberta deserves to be

00:01:43.760 here. Every single person deserves their medical conversations to be with their physicians and to

00:01:50.020 be private and to be without the intrusion of politics. While the premier announced that sex

00:01:54.980 reassignment surgeries would be banned for minors and that hormone therapy would be banned for those 15

00:01:59.640 and under, she actually announced that there would be more aftercare for trans adults,

00:02:03.860 so they no longer have to travel out of province for care. The activist doctor has lamented the

00:02:08.920 state of healthcare in the province for a few years now. In September 2022, Keegan filed a complaint

00:02:14.060 with the Canadian Human Rights Commission over the federal government's decision to lift mask

00:02:18.500 requirements on airplanes. The following June, he created a crowdfunding campaign to file a court

00:02:24.240 injunction against Alberta Health Service's plan to lift its facility mask mandate. A few months later,

00:02:29.940 in December, Keegan wrote a column for the Calgary Herald titled, Why I Chose Alberta and What Went

00:02:35.700 Wrong. At the time, he wrote, quote, I've been here almost 16 years. Something has gone wrong with

00:02:41.620 Alberta in this time. The wisdom that seemed to anchor Alberta's decision-making has been thrown out,

00:02:46.960 replaced by refusals to address the opioid crisis, advance truth and reconciliation, and ensure we have

00:02:52.580 strong health and education systems for all. And for what? To save a bit of money in the very short term

00:02:58.200 and enable some companies to extract as much as they can while downloading costs to families in

00:03:03.820 the future. A month later, a January article from the Red Deer Advocate covered how Keegan wears a

00:03:08.880 ribbon he made from duct tape to, quote, represent how Alberta's healthcare system is barely being held

00:03:15.240 together. Smith didn't comment on whether she would meet with Keegan, but directed City News to the

00:03:20.300 Mental Health Helpline. We also found that a David Keegan of Calgary donated to the Alberta NDP in 2021,

00:03:26.540 giving him $350. The activist doctor in question in this case did not respond to a request from True

00:03:33.240 North confirming whether the donation was his. Moving into our next story here, following a

00:03:37.860 measles outbreak across Canada, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is encouraging parents to get their

00:03:43.360 child the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps, and rubella. The Premier said that uptake

00:03:49.340 for the MMR vaccine has dropped by about seven points to 72 percent, and she called that drop

00:03:54.760 concerning. Take a listen. And so we want to make sure that people understand that this is available

00:04:00.920 and that we hope that they look at the risk because the risk of consequences for measles can

00:04:07.260 be very, very high. So I'm glad to see that the rates are still high and we haven't seen a problem,

00:04:13.180 but it is an active discussion with our health minister about how we can make sure we get the word

00:04:17.020 out so people know how to be able to get the vaccination for their kids. Earlier this week,

00:04:21.160 17 cases of the measles were confirmed across Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia.

00:04:26.860 Moving into our controversy of the week, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said that recall legislation

00:04:31.560 currently being used in an attempt to unseat Calgary Mayor Jody Gondik is a little unfair to voters

00:04:37.020 because the bar is so high. Here's what else she had to say.

00:04:40.780 We have made the bar 40 percent of total population. So if you think about that, in a city like Calgary,

00:04:49.200 that means that for a successful campaign to proceed, it would need 500,000 signatures,

00:04:55.940 and I believe the mayor got 177,000 signatures in the general election.

00:05:01.220 The premier said it seems a little unfair that the recall legislation includes everyone,

00:05:05.380 including those under the age of 18, as well as those who are not eligible to vote because they

00:05:09.920 are not citizens. Smith said the legislation is currently under review, but that there won't

00:05:14.700 be any changes while there is a live recall campaign ongoing. Petitioner Landon Johnson agrees

00:05:20.240 the criterion is ridiculous. In an interview with me on this show a few weeks ago, you guys might have

00:05:24.880 seen it. He said that it is statistically impossible to get enough signatures. Take a listen.

00:05:29.620 It's impossible. It's just statistically impossible. Even if you had unlimited resources, unlimited helpers,

00:05:38.460 the pool of signatures is like 630,000 potential Calgarians that can sign this, but that doesn't

00:05:47.740 take into account, like there's like 30, 40, 50,000 Calgarians who do not speak English. So like you

00:05:57.540 have to find people that can communicate with those people. Moving into what we're watching in the weeks

00:06:02.900 to come. Last week, we discussed how Ottawa kiboshed the Alberta government's request to track safe supply

00:06:09.580 drugs through a chemical tracer. Alberta mental health and addictions minister had requested the

00:06:14.380 federal government add a chemical tracer to safe supply drugs so that the government could see

00:06:19.060 where they're ending up on the streets. Ottawa said that wouldn't be possible. This week, the RCMP

00:06:24.000 revealed that thousands of opioid pills obtained by prescription through so-called safe supply harm

00:06:29.320 reduction programs were seized by police in Prince George, BC after they were found to have been

00:06:34.380 diverted to organized crime groups reselling them across Canada. Corporal Jennifer Cooper of the RCMP's

00:06:39.740 Prince George detachment said, quote, organized crime groups are actively involved in the

00:06:43.880 redistribution of safe supply and prescription drugs. Many of the pills that were seized had

00:06:47.900 been prescribed to specific individuals, but were found all collected together, no longer belonging to

00:06:53.020 those individuals. It might mean how we regulate our safe supply might need a sober second glance.

00:06:58.380 The corporal also said the issue has emerged in recent months, adding, quote, what we have seen in

00:07:03.020 Prince George is people taking prescribed medication, some of which is dedicated as safe supply prescription

00:07:07.900 drugs and selling them to organized crime groups in exchange for more potent illicit drugs. The

00:07:13.300 organized crime groups are then taking the prescription drugs and selling them interprovincially across

00:07:17.700 Canada. Alberta Premier Daniel Smith responded to the recent news on X, reminding the province that

00:07:22.760 she had asked Ottawa to place those chemical tracers in the drugs so that so-called safe supply drugs could

00:07:27.960 be more easily traced by the province. She added, quote, we can't have high potency opioids distributed as

00:07:34.800 safe supply flooding over the border and into Alberta communities. This needs to stop now. No level of

00:07:40.240 government should be helping criminals peddle deadly drugs on our streets. And moving into our weekly 0.99

00:07:44.500 comment roundup and taking a look at some of the comments left under last week's Saturday's episode.

00:07:49.080 Our first one is from user Napoleon Hosweg, writing, quote, might be an unpopular opinion, but I love how

00:07:54.860 much more cynical and condescending you have become, Rachel. Our government is full of people who don't

00:07:59.540 compromise and believe they should control the fate of everyone. They refuse to find a middle ground,

00:08:04.180 no matter how one may try. We saw this with Smith. Since the day she got in, she has been trying to work

00:08:09.400 constructively with the feds and to no avail. The time for pleasantries has passed. Too many of our

00:08:14.240 people's lives are on the line. I chuckled at this comment and it's definitely very true. I remember 1.00

00:08:18.580 when I graduated university and I was just starting out work in mainstream media. I wasn't nearly as

00:08:23.320 conservative then as I am now, but I remember thinking that Justin Trudeau was sort of a misguided

00:08:28.460 ideologue and I've come a long way since then. I actually do believe he is trying to actively destroy

00:08:34.020 our country with the policies that he's putting in place, whether it's because he wants a job for the UN

00:08:38.400 afterwards, or maybe he wants to be Klaus Schwab's butler, or maybe he just thinks by destroying our

00:08:44.060 country, he and the liberals can stay in power longer. I'm not sure, but I certainly no longer

00:08:48.160 believe that he is just misguided as I once did. Taking a look at the next comment here, Andrew

00:08:52.860 Brown says, quote, Canmore charges its homeless rent to sleep outside. I feel like you would fit right 1.00

00:08:58.560 in. Alberta throws its homeless under the bus and it's only gotten worse since UCP came in. It's very

00:09:05.000 telling that my concern for the rising homelessness and addiction is being perceived by you as not

00:09:09.820 supporting homelessness. I actually don't support homelessness because I believe we can offer these

00:09:13.840 people a better life. They don't need to stay addicted to drugs. There are treatment options

00:09:17.600 available. I believe we should continue to build on those treatment options and encourage these people

00:09:22.460 to get into a treatment facility so that they can have a good life. Living on the streets is not a good

00:09:26.960 life. These people are able to get treatment to hold down a job and to have their own apartment or their

00:09:31.200 own house and to have a beautiful future where they have relationships with people. For some

00:09:35.420 reason, you think the best we can offer these people is a nice cold spot on the ground and I

00:09:39.160 think that says more about you than it does about me. Okay everyone, that's all I have time for today.

00:09:43.160 As always, please like this video and subscribe to True North if you haven't already. You can also head

00:09:47.920 over to donate.tnc.news if you want to support our work. Thanks so much for tuning in. I'll see you guys

00:09:53.000 on Wednesday. God bless.

The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - March 09, 2024

Activist doctor misleads Albertans on Smith’s gender policies

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