Quebec Court of Appeal upholds requirement for minors seeking sex designation change

MONTREAL — Advocates for transgender rights say they're disappointed by a Quebec Court of Appeal decision that upholds a law requiring minors who want to change their official sex designation to first obtain a letter from a health professional or social worker.

The ruling Thursday overturns a 2021 lower court decision that declared the rule invalid because it violates the dignity and equality rights of transgender and non-binary teenagers.

Quebec law says that minors applying for an official sex designation change with the province need to supply a letter from a physician, psychiatrist, sexologist or social worker declaring the change is "appropriate."

Court of Appeal judges Geneviève Marcotte and Marie-Josée Hogue said the requirement is a suitable measure to assess the "seriousness" of a minor's intention to change their sex designation. The resulting limits to minors' rights as enshrined in the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms are therefore justified, they said.

However, the judges said the rule should not empower health professionals to decide what a minor's gender identity should be, but does enable them to evaluate a minor's understanding of the sex designation change process and whether they are undertaking it voluntarily.

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"The burden imposed on minors is reasonable under the circumstances," Marcotte and Hogue wrote in the majority opinion, since "it takes into account their reality, the fact that they have not all reached their full maturity and that some, until they reach full age, may be more vulnerable on account of their age."

The third justice on the panel, Stephen Hamilton, issued a concurring opinion, agreeing with his colleagues' conclusions but through a slightly different legal analysis.

Reacting to the ruling Thursday, Montreal-based advocate Celeste Trianon said the letter provision poses unreasonable hurdles for transgender youth who seek a sex designation change.

The requisite professional evaluation can be prohibitively expensive, especially for transgender or non-binary minors who don't have the support of their parents or who are homeless, Trianon said in an interview. It can also be difficult for transgender and non-binary people to find sympathetic professionals, she explained.

"If you're asking professionals in the first place, you're going to face many of the barriers that exist within the system of obtaining trans health care in Quebec," Trianon said. "It's going to create delays and in many cases create a financial barrier."

Audrey Boctor, a lawyer for the Montreal-based Centre for Gender Advocacy — which argued in court against the letter requirement — said Thursday the organization is disappointed by the decision but couldn't yet say whether it would pursue an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Court of Appeal did hand one victory to the gender advocacy centre, ruling that minors at least 14 years old don't need to notify their parents to apply to change their given names to correspond to their gender identity.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 21, 2024.

Thomas MacDonald, The Canadian Press