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Children cannot consent to puberty blockers. This should not be a contentious issue in society. Yet here we are.
This post will have been queued up, so here is what I think will happen.
The deck chairs on the good ship Canada might rearrange a bit, but the overall layout will remain the same. We shall emerge from this election with a Liberal minority government.
The Liberal stratagists that suggested that they call an election during the 4th wave of a pandemic will have their asses fired *even though* the polls at the time put the Liberals far into majority. This is a case in which common sense was overlooked for political expediency. The voting during pandemic backlash has taken all the gild off of the hopes for a Liberal Majority government.
The bottom three parties – the Greens, NDP, and PPC, – will continue to toil in obscurity while the separatists in Quebec will make small gains because the stupid spectre of Quebec nationalism still needs to periodically stir and reprove its unworthiness to the rest of Canada.
The Maritimes will stay Liberal, Ontario will split the pie slightly differently, and the west will once again stick mouth over the Conservative tailpipe and inhale deeply – voting conservative blue because fuck thinking about politics seriously – we still have a grudge against the decades ago National Energy Policy – so any progressive thought must GO.
So, in conclusion, roughly more of the same. Oh Canada…
I recommend not playing the pronoun game with people. It is a disservice to your autonomy and really, your allegiance to the material reality we all share. When someone demands your disbelieve your senses for their validation it becomes a problem.
Playing the pronoun game is like a taking a gateway drug as it leads you to endorse even more fantastical claims. Human beings cannot change sex, and yet men will tyrannically try and police one’s correct use of language.
I have no problem identifying that male from his aggressive behaviour. Male violence and dominance displays don’t magically change if men wear their hair long and start wearing pink. Calling him a sir corresponds to reality. What responding to the reality we all share doesn’t do is validate his subjective gender identity – here’s the rub though, no one is obligated to so. And really, we shouldn’t because the bullshit above leads to bullshit like this below:
Men in female prisons. Male sex offenders in female prisons. What could possible go wrong? Of course, here in Canada we’re all aboard the unreality train and have made male sex offender’s dreams cum true.
Yeah, so I won’t be playing the pronoun game anytime soon as I support the rights and boundaries of females in Canadian society.
It is wise to seek council from many voices especially on the topic of children experiencing gender dysphoria. The professionals here seem quite biased toward a medical solution to for this family’s child. They seem unaware of what is going on in the UK and the unwarranted medication of children:
“In December 2020, the High Court ruled that under-16s were unlikely to be able to give informed consent to what it described as “experimental” treatment, which is sometimes used to pause puberty in children experiencing gender dysphoria.
Keira Bell, one of the claimants in the case, started taking puberty blockers at the age of 16 after being referred to the Tavistock and Portman Trust, which runs the UK’s only Gender Identity Development Service (Gids).”
The following account documents the experience of a family who attended a one-hour appointment at SickKids Gender Clinic in Toronto where they were told their daughter was a good candidate for the puberty blocker Lupron and would be able to start receiving the injections at the next appointment.
Yet here in Canada we seem to be all gung ho for medical intervention, as opposed to the more conventional and safer watchful waiting approach.
Sick Kids Gender Clinic Review
Several years ago, our 14 year old daughter advised us that she was transgender and wanted to be a boy. Over the next several months – although often requested – she did little to elaborate on her feelings or any other information on how or why she felt this way. Our family doctor counselled her a few times and she saw one psychologist once and a psychotherapist approximately three times before we sought out a referral to the gender clinic at Sick Kids hospital in Toronto.
Approximately one year after our daughter had suddenly begun to identify as a boy, we attended Sick Kids Hospital. We filled out a survey as did our daughter asking questions about our daughter’s childhood. We had an interview session with a physician and a male student observer as a family for about 30 minutes. The context that we gave to the counsellors during our portion of the session was that we felt that at least one of our daughter’s peers had greatly influenced this transgender epiphany. Further, she had recently been seeing a psychotherapist that was coaching her on what to say to Sick Kids to get hormone treatment right away. Our daughter had disclosed this to us after the third visit with this therapist. Lastly, her gender dysphoria had come about suddenly with the onset of puberty at age 14 with no previous indication of gender identity issues. Our daughter denied all of this during this interview.
We were asked to leave and our daughter then spoke with them without us for another 15 minutes. After that, we were invited back into the room and advised that they could not disclose what was discussed citing confidentiality but that our daughter did in fact have gender dysphoria. Further, they considered her to be a good candidate for Lupron but they could not give her a prescription until we had blood work done and the mandatory 3 month waiting period was complete. They handed us a lab requisition form for the blood work further stating that on our next visit they could administer the hormone blockers if the blood work was done.
We asked to speak to the counsellors in the absence of our child so we could express more detail about our concerns without upsetting, alienating or damaging our relationship with our daughter. They refused, stating that the confidentiality was with her, not with us and whatever we said to them without our daughter present they would just tell her anyway so we might as well say it in front of her. We questioned the safety and hastiness of the drug administration. We were advised “the sooner the better” and that Lupron simply puts puberty on hold and is fully reversible, which we knew is not entirely true. They commended us on our knowledge of the hormone blocker Lupron but totally ignored our concerns and minimized the risks.
We left the hospital shocked at the outcome. Not feeling that a one-hour long interview with a child and ignoring all parental input and concerns was sufficient to start on a course of hormones. We never returned to Sick Kids hospital.
Our daughter is now 17 and continues to identify as transgender, but has not expressed any desire to take any sort of medical intervention since our visit to Sick Kids. She continues to function well emotionally, socially and academically. She has close friends with which she socializes outside of school, works part-time and is on the honour role.
The recent surge of gender activism has not given Canadian society enough time to properly examine many issues surrounding the transing of children, or even the efficacy of taking cross sex hormones and the medical commitments and downfalls that come part in parcel with trying to change your sex.
I heard this story on the radio while driving into work this morning. I had hoped I had misheard the announcer when they said that health care workers had been verbally assaulted and in some cases physically assaulted while doing their jobs.
But sadly, no.
“Crowds of people opposed to COVID-19 vaccinations clogged the streets of Vancouver and demonstrated outside hospitals across B.C. on Wednesday afternoon, earning the indignation of some political leaders.
According to police estimates, thousands of demonstrators gathered outside hospitals in Vancouver, Kelowna, Kamloops, Victoria, Prince George, Nanaimo and in other Canadian cities.
The protests were organized by Canadian Frontline Nurses, a group founded by two Ontario nurses who have promoted conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and attended rallies in the U.S. for those who think the pandemic is a “fraud.” In posters for the event, dubbed “worldwide walkout,” the group urged supporters to “stand up for freedom” and “reject the tyranny of mandatory vaccines.”
Unbelievable.
“Protesters carried signs with slogans criticizing vaccine passports as a form of discrimination and chanted “freedom” and “crimes against humanity.”
By the early evening, one health authority was reporting a physical assault against a health-care worker. Island Health’s president and CEO Kathy MacNeil said some of the protests on Vancouver Island had disrupted people’s safe access to health care.”
You can’t go to school without the mandated vaccinations. This is just like that, public health mandates are good for society. These people are protesting for the freedom to spread Covid-19 to others, because of their monumental ignorance and gullibility.
“What happened to our health-care teams today is not acceptable to me nor to the people and communities they serve. Our health-care teams deserve respect and support, no matter what personal beliefs we hold.”
Health Minister Adrian Dix described the protests as “despicable.”
“The nature of the protest to disrupt people when they go to hospital, people who are going there for surgery or for other circumstances, or to visit loved ones or to be with loved ones when they pass away, to have a protest there is really not acceptable behaviour,” he said.”
It is not the people at the hospitals that are ‘ruining your freedom’ and ‘imposing tyranny’ on you. Look at your political class. They are making the call here and if you have issues with them, go protest at the legislature or city hall. But stay the heck away from hospitals and health care workers who are doing their best (and have been doing their best for a very long time) to keep people alive during this pandemic.
The stupid people are now the deadly dynamos of this pandemic.
“We have a window of opportunity to rapidly accelerate vaccine uptake and close the protection gap in younger age groups.”
The number of cases in Canada each day grew from about 700 in early August, to almost 3,500 now. The vast majority of cases are among unvaccinated individuals, with Tam saying unvaccinated people are 12 times more likely to be infected and 36 times more likely to be hospitalized if they get infected.
New modelling released Friday showed if the current rate of transmission of COVID-19 remains the same, Canada could see more than 15,000 new cases a day by the beginning of October.
So, the ignorant are weeding themselves out of society, but at too great a cost for the rest of us. It’s sad a I have to compile stories like this, I thought Canadians as a whole had a better grip on reality.
Canada is experiencing a fair amount of Covid fatigue. The reception of news of the fourth wave seems like only a small ripple in the news. Unsurprisingly the news isn’t particularly good. The light at the end of the pandemic tunnel has gotten farther and dimmer as the delta variant of Covid 19 makes its rounds through the population.
“The country’s seven-day average for new daily cases is now close to 1,300 — an increase of nearly 60 per cent over the previous week, with cases ticking back up mainly in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec.
“We’re absolutely in the fourth wave,” said Dr. Peter Juni, who is the scientific director of Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. “There’s no doubt about that.”
But unlike previous waves, which overwhelmed various hospital systems and led to catastrophic death in long-term care facilities, there is hope this spike won’t be quite so dire.”
Do we have the pandemic under control? I think much of that answer to that will depend on how willing Canadians are to get fully vaccinated.
“High vaccination uptake across the country has changed the game: Roughly 60 per cent of Canadians are now fully vaccinated, and research continues to show leading vaccines offer high levels of protection from serious illness, even against the fast-spreading delta variant.”
“The point is we can’t go back to normal,” said Juni. “Because we continue to have a challenge with the large proportion of people who remain unvaccinated.”
As usual, we have the crowd that arduously shout about how their personal freedom is being impinged upon by pubic health measures. This is the segment of the population that will knowingly or unknowingly cause the pandemic to drag on for much longer than necessary.
“Unprotected individuals around the world have proven vulnerable to the highly contagious delta variant in recent weeks, with surges of cases — including serious infections and deaths — in areas of low vaccine coverage, ranging from entire regions in Africa to certain U.S. states.
“This is going to overwhelmingly be a disease of unvaccinated Canadians and under-vaccinated populations,” said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases physician and member of Ontario’s COVID-19 vaccine task force.”
The Delta variant is kicking the ass of un-vaccinated populations, not only in Canada, but world wide. It is very much a personal responsibility/consequences issue. It’s just that in this case the vaccine hesitant are, in my opinion, are acting irresponsibly and unfortunately the consequences can be quite dire. No one should have to suffer intubation or the Long Covid when we have the means of preventing the majority of such outcomes.
“With early signs of a delta-driven wave beginning and the fall approaching, efforts to increase the proportion of fully vaccinated Canadians and reinforce individual precautions per local public health advice are crucial to reducing virus spread and lowering the risk of a resurgence that could lead to health-care capacity being exceeded this coming fall and winter,” said Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, in a statement on Tuesday.”
Let’s make this pandemic as short as possible and continue to follow the best evidenced based public health practices.
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