Alberta Premier Danielle Smith tabled a series of legislation on Thursday to limit transgender rights in sports, health care and classrooms, which advocates are calling the most restrictive in Canada.

If passed, the amendments to the Education Act will require parental consent and notification when a child aged 15 and under changes their preferred name and pronoun changes in school. Schools are also required to notify parents if their 16 or 17-year-old child requests school staff to refer to them by their preferred name or pronouns at school.

The child’s preferred names and pronouns cannot be used until notification and consent has occurred, and school boards are asked to provide assistance before notifying the parents if emotional or psychological harm is expected. Assistance includes affordable counselling options through Counselling Alberta and school-based supports, Smith said.

“The amendments we’re proposing would bring more transparency, clarity and consistency to Alberta’s classrooms, while also respecting parents indisputable roles as caregivers,” she told reporters at a news conference on Thursday morning before the bills were tabled.

Additionally, parents will be notified at least 30 days before a teacher wants to teach subject matter dealing with human sexuality, gender identity or sexual orientation. School boards must also provide parents with “sufficient information” to opt their child in for all or part of the lesson. Indirect or incidental references would not require opt-in consent.

Learning materials dealing primarily and explicitly with the topics above must also be approved by the Ministry of Education before they can be used.

The changes are part of three bills that Smith said are intended to protect the health and safety of Alberta youth. Smith announced the proposals in a social media video earlier this year, which quickly drew criticism from advocates and medical experts across Canada.

“The simple fact is that we have heard concerns about content, and we have seen some materials that have been shared at schools in our Alberta or other jurisdictions that are not appropriate. We want to ensure the material that is being used to teach Alberta students is age-appropriate,” Smith said.

The legislation comes after a new report published by MacEwan University in Edmonton showed that a majority of transgender youth aged 14 to 25 surveyed felt their school was a safe place, with 92 per cent saying they are out as transgender or non-binary at school. Around 12 per cent of youth never felt safe at school, and some youth only felt unsafe within certain environments.

Senator Kristopher Wells, who is also the Canada Research Chair for the Public Understanding of Sexual and Gender Minority Youth, said that is going to change if the proposed amendments are given royal assent. Wells is also one of the authors of the MacEwan University report.

“Now, those safe spaces like schools are being taken away with this legislation. Think of what other group in Canadian society or in Alberta would be deemed to be so controversial that you couldn’t talk about it in schools without getting parental consent,” Wells told LWC.

“Imagine if they tried to government try to put the same restrictions on talking about Indigenous issues or Black issues or Muslim issues or name the community, but somehow it’s OK to censor and silence discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity … [You are trying] to create this moral panic where none actually exists.”

He also called the legislation discriminatory and violates transgender youths’ Charter rights, which prohibits discrimination based on gender identity or expression.

“Today, she’s made Canadian history for all of the wrong reasons by introducing the most discriminatory anti-2SLGBTQ+ legislation since Confederation. This is unprecedented in its scope, and is clearly based on ideology rather than evidence,” Wells added.

Marni Panas, a transgender parent and inclusion professional, called the proposed legislation an attack on human rights and an attack on Albertans. She said school is often the only safe space for transgender and non-binary youth, and a lot of misinformation is creating a moral panic about children being transitioned without their parents’ knowledge.

“The fact is, there are amazing educators in this province that support your youth. If a youth comes to them and shares anything like this, they work with the youth to ensure that they have the supports around them, that they have the trusted adults around them to help prepare them to have that conversation with their parents. So that’s what’s already happening today, and now with this, they’re taking away that crucial support system away from those students,” Panas told LWC.

Panas also raised concerns about the counselling programs for transgender youth.

“What child is going to come out to the closet anyway to get to the so-called counselling? Who are [the government] going to pick? What kind of counselling?” she said.

“I don’t trust this government to provide the support that these youth need to ensure that they have the opportunity to thrive in their lives, in their school and in their health.”

But supporters of the bill say the premier has struck a balance between the interests of transgender youth and making “adult decisions.”

“I think Danielle and this government is really trying to strike a good balance in the middle, putting in reasonable safeguards. I think that a lot of people are unwilling to hear anything that’s coming from outside their clan, and they don’t want to meaningfully engage with someone who’s trying to strike the right balance,” said Tiffany Gillis, a transgender woman and vice president of engineering of Barrel Oil Corp, at a stakeholder round table before the bills were tabled.

“It really is a very middle-of-the-road policy compared to what some of the extreme voices on both sides might be asking for.”

Blaine Badiuk, a conservative supporter, said she had discussions with conservative policymakers and called the new policies “nuanced.”

“There’s a lot of balance being put in here, and I hope that a lot of people can heed the Premier’s advice to tone down the rhetoric and to actually engage in meaningful conversations and dialogue,” she said at the stakeholder round table.

“I truly believe we will look back at this point and see that Premier Smith and the staff are doing the right thing at this time.”

Court challenge coming: Skipping Stone

Skipping Stone and Egale previously announced that they would file court challenges if the legislation is tabled. Amelia Newbert, managing director at Skipping Stone, said the legal team is looking at the tabled bills before filing a legal challenge.

“There is nothing from an initial review of what we’ve seen today that indicates that there’s anything more. As the premier has said quite often, she’s been very fond of using the term like having struck a balance,” Newbert said.

“There’s nothing in these that reflect that there’s a different approach, strategy, intention or balance than what was proposed in February and that it still fundamentally violates the Charter rights of trans and gender diverse youth as well as their families, and we will be absolutely exploring and pursuing legal avenues to challenge this in court.”

Newbert raised concerns about the consultation, accusing the provincial government of not being transparent about the process.

“There’s been hundreds if not thousands of trans individuals, trans families and stories brought forward. Tens of thousands of Albertans that have engaged in letter writing and petition signing … I was really hoping the Premier and the government would listen to all of those voices. But unfortunately, you know, what we’ve seen is exactly still full steam ahead with what was shared in February and that’s a huge disappointment,” Newbert said.

Smith maintains that she is “confident” that the legislation is balanced and doesn’t violate Charter rights of trans youth and adults. However, she did not completely rule out the possibility of invoking the notwithstanding clause.

“The charter allows for limits on rights that are reasonable in a free and democratic society, we think what we’re putting forward is reasonable,” she said.