Latest news with #Edmonton
National Post
4 hours ago
- Health
- National Post
Alberta transgender health-care bill blocked as judge issues temporary injunction
EDMONTON — An Alberta judge has put on hold a provincial law that bans doctors from providing gender-affirming care to youth. Article content Justice Allison Kuntz, in a written judgment Friday, said the law raises serious Charter issues that need to be hashed out in court, and issued a temporary injunction against it before it fully came into effect. Article content Kuntz wrote that a temporary stop is needed while the issue is debated. Article content Article content 'The evidence shows that singling out health care for gender diverse youth and making it subject to government control will cause irreparable harm to gender diverse youth by reinforcing the discrimination and prejudice that they are already subjected to,' Kuntz wrote in the judgment. Article content Article content 'Intentionally or not, the ban will signal that there is something wrong with or suspect about having a gender identity that is different than the sex you were assigned at birth.' Article content The law, passed late last year but not fully in effect, bans doctors from providing treatment such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy to those under 16. Article content LGBTQ+ advocacy groups Egale Canada and the Skipping Stone Foundation — as well as five transgender youth who would be affected by the law — took the province to court the same month it passed. Article content In the Friday decision, Kuntz wrote that denying treatment risks causing youth emotional harm and exposing them to permanent physical changes that don't match their gender identity. Article content The government, according to the decision, argued that claims of harm were speculative considering the law wasn't fully in effect, and that the treatments the law seeks to ban aren't scientifically supported. Article content Kuntz wrote that the advocacy groups also submitted scientific evidence on the treatments that support their perspectives, but the injunction hearings weren't the appropriate stage to determine which side's evidence stood taller. Article content Kuntz, however, largely sided with the advocacy group's evidence in her decision. Article content She wrote that the government's scientific evidence wasn't 'so overwhelming' as to prevent a finding that the youth's human rights are being infringed upon. Article content The province also argued that the law didn't cause the psychological harm facing the youth involved in the case, but it was a result of going through puberty. Article content 'The starting point for an alleged harm might not be caused by government action, but government action may impact an individual's ability to address the harm in a way that infringes their Charter rights and causes further harm,' Kuntz wrote in response to that argument.
CTV News
4 hours ago
- Politics
- CTV News
City votes to extend downtown tax levy, Oilers event-park not guaranteed
Public hearings still underway as Edmontonians give city council their opinions on supporting the Oilers Event Park using a levy. Jeremy Thompson reports.
CTV News
4 hours ago
- CTV News
2 men plead guilty to indignity to a human body in death of Edmonton girl, 8
Two men pleaded guilty in connection to the death of an Edmonton girl two years ago. **WARNING: Some of the details of this story may be disturbing to some readers** Two men have pleaded guilty to indignity to a body in the death of an eight-year-old Edmonton girl two years ago. The girl's remains were found in Maskwacis in April 2023. According to an agreed statement of facts, the girl was living in an Edmonton apartment. The documents say the girl suffered a fatal head injury on April 22, 2023. According to the court documents, the girl's body was put in a hockey bag. The bag was placed in the trunk of a car and transported to Maskwacis. On April 28, 2023, RCMP discovered the hockey bag with the girl's body still inside in the bed of an inoperable truck. The girl was identified using DNA. On Friday, court heard victim impact statements from several people, including the girl's grandmother and father. 'My family [is] broken. I keep thinking of how she would be today,' the girl's grandmother said. 'I think of what she must have went through and it haunts me every time.' 'This horrendous tragedy led me down a dark, cold road,' the girl's father wrote, in a statement read by the grandmother. '[It] brought me to a place where love don't exist and everyone is an enemy.' In a joint submission, the defence and Crown asked for a two to three year sentence. Both men were sentenced to two years and nine months. With credit for time served, they will not serve any more time. Another man who is charged with accessory to murder and indignity to a body, will be back in court on July 18. A woman was charged with first-degree murder and indignity to a body. Her charges are still before the court. A publication ban prevents CTV News Edmonton from naming the victim or any of the people charged in the case. With files from CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson
CTV News
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Jazz Fest closing out the weekend
Edmonton Watch The Edmonton International Jazz Festival is on until Sunday, showcasing local and international talent.
CBC
5 hours ago
- CBC
Two men admit to helping move 8-year-old Edmonton girl's body after 2023 homicide
Two men pleaded guilty Friday for their role in the 2023 disappearance of a child who was later found dead. The pair admitted they were part of a group that participated in moving an eight-year-old girl's body from an Edmonton apartment to Maskwacis, Alta., where police found her in the bed of a truck. The girl can't be identified due to a publication ban. According to court records, separate court-ordered publication bans are also in effect for several of the other people involved in the case, including the two men who entered guilty pleas for indignity to a body. Court of King's Bench Justice Steven Mandziuk gave both men sentences of two years and nine months, agreeing to a joint submission from the Crown and defence for a sentence ranging between two and three years. With enhanced credit for time they've already spent in custody since being arrested in April 2023, each is considered to have already served their sentence. The courtroom was full of the girl's family members on Friday, many wearing shirts with the girl's face. "The victim here was an eight-year-old girl — the very picture of vulnerability. And the word indignity to remains doesn't really capture what happens in these types of crimes," Mandziuk said. "It was barbaric, callous and inhumane, and the product of a very, very poor decision." Two other men were also arrested and charged with accessory to murder and indignity to a dead body in April 2023. A 29-year-old woman is charged with first-degree murder in the case — she has yet to go to trial. Court heard that the woman was looking after the young girl at the time, but she is not a biological relative of hers. 'She had so much joy' Reading a victim impact statement in court on Friday, the girl's grandmother said the loss left the family broken. "I think of what she must have went through and it haunts me every time. I miss my baby girl so much," she said. "She loved her cousins and her family so much. She had so much joy. I'm scared for my other grandchildren." The girl's father said in his victim impact statement that he now struggles with fear that everyone could pose a risk of harming his children. "This horrendous tragedy led me down a dark, cold road — one that stripped me of any trust or faith I ever had in anyone or anything." According to an agreed statement of facts read in court, one of the men who pleaded guilty on Friday is a family member of the woman charged with murder, while the other was a friend of hers. That man, who is 68, came to the woman's apartment on the evening of April 22, 2023, and saw the eight-year-old girl's body, the agreed facts say. The next day, he drove the woman south of the city to Maskwacis, knowing that the girl's body was left behind, and no one had called an ambulance. He then drove three other men from Maskwacis to Edmonton, including the 27-year-old who's now been sentenced alongside him. The younger man told another person in the car after they started driving, "They were going to move a body but not whose body." The court heard that at the apartment, a different man put the girl's body in a hockey bag and loaded it into the trunk of the car. The group then drove back to Maskwacis. The girl's body was discovered during a police search five days later, on April 28, 2023. Mandziuk said the loss of a child, especially in a such traumatic way, has a profound and lasting impact on the people left behind. "On no level is this acceptable — no level. And it's a cold-hearted action."
