Every young person deserves to be respected, supported, and safe, no matter who they are or where they live. We all want youth to be safe in educational spaces where parents are included, learning can thrive, and young people have the information they need to make informed decisions about their bodies and lives.
In December 2024, the Government of Alberta passed three laws targeting transgender, Two-Spirit, non-binary, and gender-diverse youth and adults. These laws restrict access to gender-affirming healthcare for youth under 16, require parental consent before students under 16 can use their chosen names and pronouns at school, restrict classroom learning about sexual orientation, gender identity, and human sexuality, and ban many trans girls and women from participating in girls' and women's sports. In 2025, Alberta repackaged these measures through Bill 9: Protecting Alberta’s Children Statutes Amendment Act and invoked the notwithstanding clause (1) to limit the Charter rights of Albertans and shield the three previously passed laws.
In response, Egale Canada, Skipping Stone, and five individual gender-diverse youth in Alberta have launched legal action challenging Alberta’s restrictions on gender-affirming healthcare and name and pronoun use in schools. Their work is essential. To read more about these laws, consult Egale Canada’s overview of Alberta’s legislation here.
Why these policies matter to the health and safety of youth
The use of the notwithstanding clause in Bill 9 to shield Alberta's anti-trans laws and policies from Charter scrutiny sets a troubling precedent by limiting judicial oversight of laws that affect the rights and wellbeing of young people.(i) These laws do not protect young people. Gender-affirming healthcare is essential and lifesaving, and decisions about care should remain with young people, their families, and qualified healthcare providers who can respond to each young person’s needs. Blanket bans and political restrictions create barriers to care and leave young people and families with fewer supports in moments when safe and trusted healthcare matter most.
These restrictions violate students’ rights to liberty and security of the person, equality rights, and freedom of expression. Bill 9 endangers trans and gender-diverse youth – who are protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedom – by forcing them to navigate healthcare barriers, risk being outed before they are ready, or face misgendering at school which can expose them to ridicule and bullying from their peers. These measures also create an environment of surveillance by enabling schools and sport organizations to collect and scrutinize sensitive personal information related to students' gender identities and bodies. Rather than protecting young people, these practices subject trans girls and young women to increased scrutiny based on their identities and physical characteristics.
This is especially concerning in Alberta, where research found “Alberta faced the highest incidence of verbal harassment in the country, with 90% of trans students in Alberta having been verbally harassed based on their gender and/or sexual identity.”(ii) Schools are meant to be safe spaces for students to have the resources and support to understand who they are. For many trans and gender-diverse students, school may be one of the few places where they feel safe to express themselves authentically.
Students need more support, not less. Rather than creating safer schools and healthier communities, laws and policies like Bill 9 deepen exclusion, further marginalize young people who already face significant barriers, and strip away the protections they need to thrive.
Action Canada’s Response: Comprehensive sex-ed is a human right
As youth increasingly turn to digital platforms as their primary source of information, limiting evidence-based classroom education makes them more vulnerable to misinformation and coordinated anti-rights disinformation campaigns. Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) helps young people understand their bodies, relationships, consent, boundaries, gender, sexuality, and health. Removing or restricting this information does not prevent young people from having questions. It simply makes it harder for them to get accurate, age-appropriate, evidence-based answers.
“Comprehensive Sexuality Education is a curriculum-based process of teaching and learning about the cognitive, emotional, physical and social aspects of sexuality. It aims to equip children and young people with knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that will empower them to: realize their health, well-being and dignity; develop respectful social and sexual relationships; consider how their choices affect their own well-being and that of others; and, understand and ensure the protection of their rights throughout their lives.”
It is crucial to refocus attention on the full scope of CSE and its role in creating safer, healthier futures for all youth. CSE creates safer schools for all youth, including trans, gender-diverse, and queer youth by giving them the knowledge and skills to understand themselves and their bodies, build healthy relationships, communicate boundaries, respect others, and reduce homophobic and transphobic violence, sexual violence and gender-based violence.(iii) Too often, CSE is reduced to debates about sex or gender identity. In reality, it is a holistic, evidence-based approach to education that supports the health and wellbeing of all students and their communities.
CSE is recognized as a basic human right of all children and youth. To fulfill this right, CSE must be evidence-based, age-appropriate, gender-sensitive, sex-positive, and inclusive of 2SLGBTQ+ people so that every student can access the information they need to make informed decisions throughout different stages of their lives. Federal and provincial governments have an obligation to ensure all young people are provided with quality sex-ed and failure to do so is a human rights violation.(iv)
“We are very concerned to see this trend across the country of governments who are introducing new policies, new legislation, that will limit access to key health information to health care for different populations. And that basically infringes on many people's rights. This is something that we're seeing rapidly escalating across Canada”
— Frédérique Chabot, Executive Director of Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights.
Alberta’s recently adopted laws and policies are “unprecedented in Canada”(v) and part of a larger trend across the country targeting how young people access their rights and learn about gender diversity and sexual health. There are attempts in other provinces to limits access to CSE by enforcing opt-in policies, remove the agency of young people, create bureaucratic barriers for approving sex-ed materials, restrict independent sexual health educators, and treat sexuality and gender diversity as a political controversy rather than a normal part of human life.(vi) This trend speaks to the need for national coordination and federal oversight to ensure Canada is meeting its human rights obligations to guarantee access to CSE for all young people.
Access to education and healthcare should not depend on political opinion. When it comes to young people’s wellbeing, we need evidence-based best practices, not fear-based tactics and policies. We recommend that all provinces and territories have policies that promote and support equitable access to CSE. Provinces and territories should align curricula with UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education and SIECCAN’s Benchmarks for Comprehensive Sexual Health Education in Canada in partnership with youth, educators, sexual-health experts, and communities most affected by gaps in access. They should also monitor implementation to ensure every student can receive inclusive, evidence-based CSE.
We also recommend that provincial and territorial governments have dedicated funding to support educators, healthcare providers, and experts in delivering inclusive, evidence-based care and sexuality education. By working together as a community, we can ensure every student, parent, caregiver, educator, and provider has the tools they need to build safer and healthier communities for everyone.
(1) “The notwithstanding clause refers to section 33 of the Charter, which is a part of Canada’s constitution. This clause allows governments to pass laws that are likely to violate fundamental rights and freedoms protected by the Charter and prevents courts from striking them down. Canada is the only constitutional democracy with this kind of clause.” (Egale 2025).
(i) Kanwar, P. (2025, December 18). When the notwithstanding clause becomes a political weapon. Policy Options. Available at: https://policyoptions.irpp.org/2025/12/notwithstanding-alberta/ | Amnesty International Canada. (2025, November 20). Amnesty International Canada condemns Alberta’s use of notwithstanding clause to prop up anti-trans policies. Available at: https://amnesty.ca/human-rights-news/amnesty-international-canada-condemns-albertas-use-of-notwithstanding-clause-to-prop-up-anti-trans-policies/
(ii) Egale Canada. (2025, December). What’s happening in Alberta? Egale explains. Available at: https://egale.ca/awareness/alberta/
(iii) Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights. “The State of Sex-Ed in Canada”. Available at: https://www.actioncanadashr.org/resources/reports-analysis/2020-04-03-state-sex-ed-report
(iv) – (2018, December ). Joint communication to the Government of Canada concerning changes to the sexuality education curriculum of the Province of Ontario (OL CAN 4/2018). Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Available at: https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=24216
(v) Egale Canada. (2025, December).
(vi) Government of Saskatchewan. (2023, August). Education minister announces new parental inclusion and consent policies [News release]. Available at: https://www.saskatchewan.ca/government/news-and-media/2023/august/22/education-minister-announces-new-parental-inclusion-and-consent-policies | Martin, C. (2024). ‘Sex ed’ exemptions in Ontario schools: Investigating how Ontario school boards have (and have not) responded to PPM 162. Inquiry@Queen’s Undergraduate Research Conference Proceedings, 18(2).