Indigenous Sentencing Reports

"[Dennis] inflicted the worst form of violence on an Indigenous woman and young man and tore apart an Indigenous family."

"Mr. Dennis's wife and son should have been safe in their home and protected by Mr. Dennis as a husband and father."

"Instead, he put them to a violent death. The devastation from his actions goes far beyond that. He deprived his children of a mother and a brother."

"He deprived Dorian's partner of a husband and their son of a father." 

Justice Simon Coval, British Columbia Supreme Court

File photo of Tsay Keh Dene First Nation courtesy of Wikipedia

 

A member of the Tsay Keh Dene First Nation, comprised of around 235 members, Orlan Marcel Dennis in 2024 shot his wife and teenage son to death. His sentencing hearing took place recently, after the man's personal history had been studied through a mandatory Indigenous Sentencing report. Dennis's wife and daughters had suffered years of violent assaults from the husband and father who was doubly addicted -- both to alcohol and to drugs. When the reviews were complete and presented to the court, they influenced the sitting justice to the extent that he was convinced the double murderer's sentence could be adjusted in his favour.

 

The sentence was for a ten-year incarceration, and it was adjusted to enable Orlan Marcel Dennis to apply for early parole prior to completion of his already-lenient-for-the-crime prison sentence. Judge Coval had made use of an Indigenous sentencing report in arriving at his sentencing decision. He read in the report that Dennis claimed to have been sexually assaulted by a member of his Indigenous reserve as a youngster. At age seven he was placed in foster care. One of his brothers had died violently; his sister and cousin from drug overdoses.

 

In its decision-making over the gruesome details of the double murder, the court relied on "the connection between Mr. Dennis's crimes and the Indigenous sentencing factors present in his upbringing", while looking to spare the family of the afflicted the additional emotional strain of a trial, making note of a submission by both the Crown and defence that one of Dennis's sons "need not testify about the horrific events which he witnessed" in the family home during his father's psychotic act of double murder.

 

The courthouse in Prince George, B.C. where an Indigenous man was only sentenced to the minimum for second-degree murder despite the 'horrific' murder of his wife and son. (Photo credit: Government of B.C.)

 

"[Both Denis's parents were residential school survivors and he] grew up poor in a remote environment of violence and drug and alcohol abuse."

Justice Simon Coval 

Initially admitting that he killed his wife and son, pleading guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in 2024, he attempted to withdraw that plea, arguing the defence of intoxication in an effort to disown intent required for a murder conviction. That attempt was lost before the B.C. Supreme Court. The original plea carries a minimum 10 years' sentence before parole application can be entertained. The judge and Crown attorney noted at the sentencing that it "is materially below the normal range for cases with such extreme circumstances as this". 

 

Several family members had assembled at the Dennis home for dinner on April 9, 2024 when Orlan and his brother Tony began arguing. Orlan left the house, later to return, when he and Darlene began arguing, and he accused her of having relations with another man. He retrieved a .22-calibre rifle from their bedroom gun safe, returned to the living room and shot his wife directly in her face. Dorian, downstairs, heard the gunshot, and Orlan shot his son as he came up the stairs.

 

Burnaby House.com

 

Marshall, another son, exited his bedroom and saw Dorian covered in blood at the bottom of the stairs. Helping Dorian to the stairs leading to the basement back door, and finding it wouldn't open, he left his brother, escaped through his bedroom window and ran to his grandmother's house across the street to call police. Orlan, meanwhile left his house and approached his mother's house with the gun and when police arrived they found him on the steps and informed him he was under arrest, drop the gun, but he refused.   

"He was waving the rifle frantically, trying to get inside [his mother's home]. He was swearing and clearly intoxicated, slurring his words and staggering."

"He told the crisis negotiator that he had killed his wife and son. He said they were planning to kill him, and that his wife was cheating on him."

"He said he did not mean to do that to his son, but Dorian came up on him too fast and by the time he realized it was him, it was too late." 

Sentencing decision facts  

When Orlan was permitted to enter his mother's home, one police officer on guard, others went to the Dennis home where Darlene and Dorian's bodies lay. A standoff ensued between Orlan and police for several hours until an RCMP crisis negotiator called the house and Orlan responded. Eventually police forced Orlan out with tear gas, and as he emerged with the loaded rifle, police shot him in the hip and arm, and arrested the man.

 

Although Judge Coval made note of the fact that Dennis had a lengthy criminal record that included convictions for multiple assaults against his wife and daughters, he took into account the sentencing report that made mention of depression, anxiety and possible fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Also noted were family deaths and a support group closing during OVID-19. "As a result of all, [Dennis] stopped working and turned to drugs". And that was good enough for the judge, as he 'adjusted' the severity of the sentence. 

 

In a sentencing decision made public this week, a B.C. Supreme Court sentenced a Tsay Keh Dene man to 'life in prison' after he pleaded guilty to killing his wife and son in April 2024. (Peter Scobie/CBC)

 

Criminally Enterprising Middle Easterners in Canada

"This operation involved non-Indigenous criminal networks exploiting Indigenous lands, with profits that did not benefit our community."

"Criminal activity of this nature does not reflect our values, and we will continue to work alongside our partners to take action against criminal activity that undermines the integrity of our territory."

Six Nations Police chief Darren Montour 

Illegal tobacco manufacturing facility in Six Nations of the Grand River territory. OPP

 

 A bootleg cigarette plant, staffed by thirteen people identified as foreign nationals was raided and shut down on a First Nation reserve where the enterprise was operated by non-Indigenous criminal networks who exploited the Indigenous setting as a means to shield their activities from police scrutiny. Ironically, the criminal enterprise was operated by several Middle Eastern men, resident in Hamilton, Ontario, close by the Six Nations of the Grand River territory in southern Ontario.

 

Infamously, there was chaotic tumult in Canada that arose over reaction among Canadians originating from the Middle East, particularly Palestinians when they took to the streets of Canadian cities condemning Israel for 'genocide' as it reacted to a Palestinian terrorist invasion of southern Israel when thousands of Palestinians went on a large-scale huntdown of Israeli civilians in farming towns and villages close to the Gaza border in a planned exercise of sadistic savagery that included mass rape, mutilation, murder and hostage-taking.

 

The Israeli response to the mass atrocity -- which took over 1,200 Israeli lives and the kidnapping of over 250 Jewish infants, children, elderly, women and men, was to invade Gaza, ruled by Hamas which had led the orchestration of bloodletting, joyously recording their atrocities to be posted on social media --  led to an immediate internationl Palestinian-orchestrated public relations push to portray Palestinians as victims of Israeli aggression and 'occupation'. 

 

To ingratiate themselves with 'progressive' left-wing Canadians, Palestinians and their supporters took to portraying themselves as people indigenous to 'Palestine', as opposed to Jews reclaiming their authentic indigenous ancestral land. Making comparison to aggrieved First Nations whom European colonialism had victimized in settling themselves on already-occupied land that became Canada, the anti-Israel, antisemitic link to Indigenous Canadians forged a partnership in opposing the very existence of the Jewish state. 

 

A handgun seized from a contraband tobacco manufacturing facility in Six Nations on June 11, 2026. (Source: OPP)

 

Working in tandem, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Six Nations Police Service seized five commercial-sized cigarette manufacturing machinery, a handgun and tobacco products holding an estimated street value of over $10 million. Over 40,000 kilograms of contraband tobacco and 300 kilograms of shisha tobacco -- typically made use of with a hookah or water pipe -- were seized altogether.

 

An operation named Project TRACK, that led to the raid was initiated when the Six Nations police requested support from the OPP when their own investigation revealed suspicious activity on the reserve. Police soon discovered that profits which the illegal tobacco production generated were channelled toward a criminal enterprise having nothing to do with the reserve itself, other than its illegal encroachment on reserve property. 

 

Following the enforced search warrants at a manufacturing facility of some considerable size at the Six Nations reserve, a heavy police presence was manifested. A home in Hamilton was also raided. Three stolen vehicles, a truck, $25,000 in Canadian currency, cellphones, assorted electronics and packaging material were seized as well. 

 

Boxes of contraband tobacco found inside a Six Nations facility on June 11, 2026. (Source: OPP)

 

Two men resident in Hamilton were arrested and charged with trafficking contraband tobacco, possession of tobacco manufacturing equipment, manufacturing tobacco products without a licence, and unlawful possession or sale of tobacco products. The men were identified by police as Andrew Besam Hadaddin, 34, and Mustafa Jaber, 45. 

 

As for the foreign nationals discovered when the facility was raided by police -- the thirteen individuals who were working at the factory -- Canada Border Services Agency officers were called in to deal with their presence. The operation has not been concluded with this raid, but remains an ongoing concern.  It would certainly be interesting to learn through that ongoing investigation whether the profits gained in this illegal operation ended up in the hands of terrorist groups in Gaza and Lebanon.

"This investigation highlights the significant role criminal networks play in the manufacturing and distribution of contraband tobacco in Ontario."

"These illegal operations not only undermine public safety but also exploit communities for profit."

"Through strong collaboration with our partners, we remain committed to disrupting these networks and holding those responsible accountable."

OPP Chief Superintendent Mike Stoddart of the Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau 

 

The Increasingly Vulnerable Place of Jewish-Canadians Within Canada

"The findings suggest that condemnation alone has not been enough."

"While many leaders have denounced antisemitism since October 7, the survey shows that a significant minority of Canadians still believe that events in the Middle East justify negative attitudes toward Jewish Canadians."

"It [new poll results] suggests that public education should not only focus on people who hold openly antisemitic views, but also on the much larger group that may not recognize when criticism about Israel becomes rhetoric that targets Jews and that presents a threat to Jewish Canadians' sense of safety and belonging." 

Jack Jedwab, president, Association for Canadian Studies  

 According to a newly-released Leger survey, almost a third of Canadians believe that anti-Jewish attitudes have become more acceptable. The highest level of agreement to that observation was among university students (37 percent), though altogether 31 percent of those questioned held that view. Among men (38 percent agreed) and (35 percent) held that view, ages 18  to 34. The survey found that among English speakers 35 percent agreed that antisemitism is now more socially acceptable, while among francophones that number was 16 percent.

 

"Israel's military actions in Gaza justify negative attitudes toward Jewish people in Canada", struck a chord with just over a fifth of respondents (22 percent), as opposed to the almost half (49 percent) who disagreed. Once again those aged 18 to 34 (26 percent) and men (29 percent) led the way in agreement with the statement. Of those Canadians surveyed, some one-sixth (17 percent) agreed they now have more negative emotions toward Jews since the October 7 terrorist attacks in southern Israel, though a majority (62 percent) disagreed.

 

Women's opinion at (68 percent), college students (66 percent) and Canadians past age 55 (69 percent), were likelier to disagree even as those who were part of the survey and born outside Canada were likelier to agree (24 percent), than those respondents who were Canadian-born (16 percent). 

 

For the statement whether "Jews in Canada are responsible for the actions of the Israeli government", nine percent of all respondents, plus eight percent of those born in Canada were in agreement, even as twice the number of those born outside the country (15 percent) agreed. 73 percent of respondents born in Canada and 62 percent of those born elsewhere, were in disagreement with the statement.  

 

Over a third of respondents (39 percent) found agreement that calls for Israel to cease to exist are antisemitic, though slightly over a quarter (28 percent) disagreed -- with younger Canadians aged 18 to 34 being less likely (34 percent) than those over 55 years of age (47 percent) to agree over the antisemitic nature of such sentiments.

 

As for the question posed to English speakers and francophones -- 39 percent versus 40 percent revealed little difference between the groups. The variance between those born in Canada at (39 percent) and those born abroad (41 percent), also revealed minimal differences. 

 

Interestingly, slightly over a third of respondents (39 percent) were of the opinion that Prime Minister Mark Carney "should publicly condemn calls for Israel to cease to exist as a state", as opposed to just under a quarter (24 percent) disagreeing. The survey was conducted between June 5 and 7, questioning a total of 1,518 respondents.  

"The importance of the minority who don't think it is antisemitic to say that Israel should cease to exist as a state is very worrisome and I think speaks to some nefarious motivation on the one hand and a fair degree of confusion on the other and in either there is an important degree of unlearning that is needed."

"That, along with the share of the group that is uncertain about the issue, points to a glaring misunderstanding about where antisemitism begins."

"It reveals that many Canadians are unclear about the distinction between criticism of Israeli government policy and rhetoric that denies Jewish self-determination altogether."

Jack Jedwab, Association for Canadian Studies 

 

 

Toronto's Emergent Criminal Youth Element

"The driver attempted to flee and contact was made between the stolen car and an officer."

"In the course of the interaction, the officer shot his firearm multiple times at the driver."

"The driver took off and abandoned the car a short distance away and then was apprehended on foot a short time later."

Special Investigations Unit 

 

"There was contact made with a police officer and that vehicle, and then there were multiple shots fired at the vehicle."

"The injury could be from a bullet, could be a graze, could be glass from the vehicle, we don’t yet know that. But what we do know is it’s non-life-threatening injuries at this point."

"So, it’s not yet confirmed the nature of the boy’s injuries. Now the injury could be from a bullet, could be a graze, could be glass from the vehicle. We don’t yet know that, but what we do know is it’s non-life-threatening injuries at this point."

Special Investigations Unit (SIU) spokesperson Kristy Denette 

Toronto police cruisers are seen on the Leaside Bridge after an interaction with officers and a 12-year-old driver on the Leaside Bridge. (Beatrice Vaisman/CP24)

 

Charged with attempted murder after the stolen vehicle he was driving hit a Toronto police officer on Monday, the 12-year-old driver is in hospital, the result of police trying to stop the vehicle. There was another 12- and a 13-year-old boy in the vehicle along with the driver. Charges against the 12-year-old driver of the vehicle include theft of a motor vehicle, dangerous operation, failing to stop for police, assaulting a peace officer, and leaving the scene of an accident.

 

Under Canada's Youth Criminal Justice act the charged boy cannot be named. The incident began when police responded to a report of a vehicle theft near Donlands Avenue and O'Connor Drive just after 1:00 a.m. When two cruisers attempted to box in and apprehend the stolen vehicle on the Leaside Bridge, the driver as he sped off struck one of the officers standing outside his cruiser.

 

Multiple shots were fired by one of the officers in an attempt to stop the car. It is as yet unclear whether the shots were fired before or following the vehicle striking the police officer. One of the other occupants of the vehicle was caught and arrested, leaving police in search of the third boy. The driver had managed to elude the police but the vehicle was located soon afterward abandoned, while the driver who continued fleeing on foot, was arrested.

 

Both the wounded police officer and the young malefactor were taken to hospital with serious injuries -- albeit not life-threatening. The officer was released soon afterward, and the boy remains hospitalized for the time being. Speculating on the source of the boy's injuries, SIU spokeswoman Kristy Denette described multiple projectiles having hit the car, as well as bullets. 

 

"We don't want to use force on a child, clearly. But if your life is in danger, unfortunately you have no choice but to protect yourself and your colleagues", Clayton Campbell, president of the Toronto Police Service union explained. This, in the wake a week earlier of an 19-year-old suspect on an arrest warrant shooting 18-year-veteran Toronto Police Service officer Constable Marc Pinizzotto to death in the line of his duties.

 

Toronto police cruisers and an SIU vehicle are parked on the Leaside Bridge on Monday, June 15, 2026. (Beatrice Vaisman/CP24)

 

 

"Secure Your Fertility Future With Confidence and Peace of Mind!"

"The advertising is coming across so strongly, and not providing any kind of real data about what success means and what the risks are."

"I think the industry is very effective at creating this perceived sense of control, and marketing of the technology is such that ... to be a good woman, this is something that you should do." 

"The entirety of egg freezing was generated as a business -- it is intended to bring in revenue."

"You have to be inherently skeptical of a medical technology that has that foundation." 

Kathleen Hammond, associate professor, Lincoln Alexander School of Law, Toronto Metropolitan University 

 

"There is a distinct difference between promotion and education."

"[Oversight of clinics' marketing by federal and provincial regulators could]  play a role in supporting accurate and responsible communication [and help ensure information is] evidence-based and not misleading."

Emily McIntosh, executive director, Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society (CFAS)  

Of the 4.1 million babies born in Canada between 2013 and 2023, just 70 are known to have come from frozen eggs, according to data from the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society (CFAS). PHOTO BY PEXELS.

In Canada, the egg-freezing industry more than doubled from 2020 to 2024, according to data from the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society. Of course there is also the sobering reality that this business is not the sure-fire answer to the dilemma faced by women as they exit their prime child-bearing years and still hope that they will at some time in the near future bear a child through a successful pregnancy, at the same time that they're aware that healthy baby outcomes are more assured when the mother is still young and pregnancy is more biologically approachable.

 

So that, despite the 4.1 million babies that entered life in Canada during that time frame a mere 70 were the result of frozen eggs is telling. The reason that is so, according to industry insiders, is lower survival rates for eggs through freezing, thawing, fertilization and implantation stages (this is not nature's design but one devised by human ingenuity). An additional fact; women who have committed to this elective procedure have not yet reached the point of drawing upon it, and many likely never will. 

 

The Investigative Journalism Bureau out of the University of Toronto has much to say about the absence of adequate government oversight leaving many private fertility clinics free to make use of aggressive marketing techniques whose actual purpose is the exploitation of women's feelings of insecurity and yearning for motherhood at some 'appropriate' time in their lives. The IJB identified a number of concerns over the industry related to misleading advertising, emotional manipulation, withheld opaque results, and accompanying financial cupidity. 

 

Catherine J. Lalonde, shown after her egg retrieval procedure in 2022. Of the seven eggs collected, only three survived the freezing process and none developed into viable embryos. SUPPLIED.

 

While there is no government record of the total number of fertility clinics operating throughout Canada, the IJB reporters analyzed the social media accounts and websites of 42 clinics with 110 storefront locations in seven provinces; three affiliated with public hospitals, 19 physician-owned, 17 with ties to private equity firms' ownership or through investments. Of the total, 35 were judged to produce misleading or overstated claims, leaving the impression that women opting into their programs could plan ahead with a certainty of success; while in reality only 25 percent of embryos from frozen eggs, transferred to wombs between 2013 and 2023 in Canada led to a live birth. Consistent with international data. 

• OriginElle Fertility, Montreal ... "Thanks to #eggfreezing, you can preserve your eggs for later use and have more control over your #fertility";
• NewLife Fertility, Ontario ... Women can look forward to "No pressure. No rush, Just options. Your body, your choice, your future";
• Evolve, Toronto ... Through egg freezing women can delay or hit the snooze button" on parenthood;
• Pacific Centre for Reproductive Medicine Vancouver/Edmonton ... "One day you'll be staring at the miracle you used to dream about";
• Anova Fertility... "Egg freezing is helping more Canadians take charge of their future family plans". 



An independent government body is needed to regulate the fertility industry and ensure women get accurate information.  Getty Images

The process leading to egg freezing includes daily hormone doses to stimulate the ovaries in the production of multiple eggs, then harvested and frozen for hoped-for fertilization and implantation in the uterus at some future date, for the potential of a successful pregnancy. A single cycle can cost  up to $20,000. Patients must undergo weeks of self-administering medications. Going through this onerous process will not guarantee frozen eggs will at some point lead to a live, breathing baby. 

 

According to CFAS, an estimated $120 million was spent by Canadians in the decade 2013 to 2023 on 6,242 egg-freezing retrievals whereby 65,517 eggs were preserved. Most of which owners have not yet begun the process of having them fertilized and implanted. A 2025 study from University of California, Los Angeles, found between 2014 and 2016 a mere 5.7 percent of women in the U.S. made use of their eggs within five to seven years; low uptake seems universal.

 

Frozen eggs must be processed through steps that by their very nature many frozen eggs will not survive; some 80 to 90 percent thaw successfully; roughly 70 to 80 succeed in sperm fertilization, then the trial of embryo development and potential live birth leads to further survival rate declines, according to the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada practise guidelines.  Fewer than four percent of eggs frozen in Canada from 2013 to 2023 went through thawing for fertilization. 

 

Sarah Attia and her husband spent more than $100,000 on fertility treatments. Toronto Life

 

 

In Canada, Youth Hired to Carry Out Violent Criminal Acts

"This is ridiculous now. This is a new phenomenon in Canada."

"The Hells would hire adults. They wouldn't hire juveniles. They were a different breed, the older ones. they respected authority to a certain point."

"We have to start concentrating on the street gangs. They're going to be a bigger threat for society. It's out of control. You have to go at them, jabbing them constantly."

"We spent 40 years on Vito Rizzuto and he never got arrested on Canadian law. We extradited him. We spent millions and millions."

"It's going to be a hot summer in Canada. It's going to be crazy." 

Piero Poletti, newly retired, veteran organized crime investigator, Montreal Police Service

 

"Mistakes are huge and there's no room for them when you're talking murder. You're sending guys with no loyalty to you. They get  caught, they're telling."

"We never hired anyone. Ever. Never. Anything we did, we did ourselves."

"None of us were paid a single dollar for anything or any work we ever did."

"Our circle was tight. And our shooter circle was small." 

Dean Michael Wiwchar, Stouffville, Wolfpack Alliance 

Yannick Desmarais, a commander with the Montreal Police Service (SPVM), speaks to members of the House Committee on Public Safety and National Security about the growing problem of car thefts on Thursday, April 18, 2024. (Source: House of Commons)

 

Criminal youth for hire. First publicly revealed by police investigators several years ago, when the issue of stolen vehicles first became a feature story in Canadian newspapers. Where criminal gangs would hire willing youth to steal cars and a flood of stolen vehicles became front page news. As did the accompanying aftermath; shipping those vehicles abroad for sale in foreign countries. Profit from that enterprise was made use of for the purpose of acquiring and smuggling guns from the United States into Canada.

 

This kind of operation and the use of underage thieves to carry out the thefts -- some as young as 14 and up -- was based on the understanding that Canadian law and courts go easy on young offenders. They're tried as juvenile, not adults, and when convicted of the crimes they're charged with, the punishment they're faced with fails to compete with the earnings they score as hired and armed thugs; threats to society. The youth involved feel fairly nonchalant over being caught and charged, given the virtual wrist-slip that ensues through the courts. It doesn't take long before they're back in business, hiring out once again to criminal gangs. 

"The ones that have contacts with people on the ground. They're the ones pulling the strings. They're the ones that are hiring and recruiting the recruits."

"I think if we really want to have an impact and really want to dismantle and lower this crisis, we really have to go to the people pulling the strings and concentrate on the networks that are exporting and transporting and have the contacts with people overseas."

Michel Patenaude, chief inspector, SQ (Sûreté du Québec)

Between mid-December and the end of March, police inspected about 400 shipping containers at the Port of Montreal and found nearly 600 stolen vehicles, most of them from the Toronto area. A shipping container is loaded onto a container ship in the Port of Montreal on Tuesday, Sept.19, 2023. (Christinne Muschi, The Canadian Press)

 

Youth appear to have graduated from stealing vehicles to carrying firearms and hiring out as hitmen, or just to shoot up businesses as part of the process of intimidation favoured by gangs to impress their targets that they mean business. That business is extortion. From within the South Asia and South-East Asia demographic in Canada. Now, it appears that foreign entities have joined the fray, to anonymously hire young thugs for their own purposes. And recently in Canada that might mean an operative representing the Islamic Republic of Iran hiring young men to shoot at synagogues and in Toronto, the U.S. Consulate.

 

When Toronto's Police Emergency Task Force moved in at a highrise apartment complex on Martha Eaton Way in northwest Toronto last week with a warrant to arrest several suspects in the Consulate shoot-up, a firefight ensued. Constable Marc Pinizzotto, age 43 and an 18-year veteran of the Toronto Police Service was shot to death. The shooter identified as19-yearold Nicholas Bennett, was shot and wounded. He was also charged with first-degree murder. A companion also connected with the police probe who managed to get away, 19-year-old Zara Jabbi is now being actively sought.  

 

A procession to a Thornhill funeral home for fallen Toronto police officer Const. Marc Pinizzotto got underway around 3:30 p.m. on June 14   CP24

According to police, Nicholas Bennett was inside a fourth-floor unit of the apartment complex at the time of the raid, when he fired a single shot at Constable Pinizzotto who was rushed to Sunnybrook Hospital, and there pronounced dead. The 19-year-old Bennett was shot himself multiple times remains unconscious in hospital. A former professional hockey player in Europe, Constable Pinizzotto's wife and two teen-age children are in deep mourning, as family, friends, colleagues and the public-at-large support them in their dreadful loss.

 

Toronto Police Constable Marc Pinizzotto is shown with his wife and children in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - X, @TorontoPolice

 

Women's Charter Rights Expendable in Favouring Transwomen's 'Rights'

"Perhaps not all men who claim a female gender identity are sexually motivated, but saying any man who claims a female gender identity can come in to women's changing rooms, the City has invited in sexually motivated men like him."

"It is a direct threat to women and girls for the city to say I have to see his penis and his fetish gear, let him look at me and my girl child if we change, and if we feel frightened our only alternative is to just stop using the facility."

"This denies us a public service on the basis of our female sex." 

Kathleen Lowrey, women's rights advocate

University of Alberta associate professor Kathleen Lowrey was dismissed as associate chair of undergraduate studies in the department of anthropology in March. Lowrey says she believes she was dismissed over her critical views of gender. jpg

 

In February 2025, Kathleen Lowrey, her 14-year-old daughter with her, entered the female changing room facility at the Bonnie Doon Leisure centre. There, they were confronted with the presence of a man deressed in sexual fetish gear, "a bald man wearing only a black thong outlining his penis, and a pair of artificial rubber breasts slung around his neck". On reporting the scene to the leisure centre staff, she was informed that the individual in the thong was entitled to his presence in the women's area, however he was accoutered.

 

That's when she called police. Who would, of course, do nothing, since it was the policy of the centre and others like it to allow the entry of men claiming to be women, into women-only areas. No questions asked, no 'proof' of gender required. Professor Lowrey then filed a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights commission (AHRC) a month later, claiming discrimination on the basis of sex. In turn the AHRC rejected her complaint in July 2025, as well as her request for an appeal of the rejection, in November of 2025.

 

They responded that Professor Lowrey had failed to demonstrate she had been discriminated against. That led to her filing for a judicial review in the hope that the AHRC would be forced to hear her case. The City of Edmonton had other plans. Lowrey's application for a judicial review was tossed by the city on the basis that the city was not named as a respondent, arguing that the city is "the entity directly affected by and implicated in the underlying human rights complaint"; moreover, that the six-month filing period for a judicial review had lapsed.  

"In 2020, the University of Alberta removed Kathleen Lowrey, a tenured professor, from her role as associate chair of the department of anthropology after she expressed “controversial academic views regarding transgendered people and the LGTBQ2S+ community” the court said."
"[The professor explained her views on feminism], a few key ideas: men cannot get pregnant, lesbians don’t have penises and that biological sex is real."
"The Association of Academic Staff of the University of Alberta, an academic staff union representing about 4,000 members, filed a grievance over Lowrey’s removal. Alleging that the university dismissed Lowrey for her “gender-critical” perspective, the union argued that the university breached their collective bargaining agreement by failing to “uphold and protect academic freedom and exercise its management rights in a fair, reasonable, equitable and non-arbitrary manner,” according to the court’s decision." 

Jessica Mach, Canadian Lawyer 

Professor Lowrey, in filing her application against the AHRC, stated she had wanted her original complaint only to be heard. She stated that the relief [she is] seeking in [her] originating application is not from Bonnie Doon Leisure Centre and/or the city of Edmonton, but rather for the AHRC to hear [her] arguments. The AHRC appeared to conflate 'sex' and 'gender' in dismissing Professor Lowrey's complaint, despite that sex is a biological reality; gender on the other hand reflects a social ideology of fluid gender self-assignment.

 

In Canada, theoretically, women are entitled through the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, to respect and equality and security of the person. Yet when Professor Lowrey called on her Charter rights, a legal technicality threw her case into contemptuous contention in favour of the fiction of transwomen's rights trampling all over those of genuine  women. Despite the fact that any woman who registers a complaint over her loss of privacy in favour of a man's whims is labelled a bigot and transphobic. A social curse.

 

The Edmonton Law Courts building. Photo By David Bloom

 

"It keeps going against women in legal case after legal case."

"It is an accumulating record of smug institutional disregard for women and girls in Canada, and everywhere we attempt to contest policies put in place by gender activists."

"People should be able to express their gender in whatever manner they wish (but) I don’t agree with biological sex being irrelevant. I think treating biological sex as irrelevant has some really serious policy implications. As an example, housing trans-identified men in women’s prisons is not fair to women prisoners and I think it puts women at risk." 

"Contemporary gender ideology requires active affirmation of the proposition that men can become women and that women can become men. It further asserts that to refuse to assent to this proposition is to do active ‘harm’ to trans-identified individuals. The doctrine requires uncritical reverence for retrograde gender constructs, such as the idea that a little boy who likes tea parties and pretty dresses can be deemed to have been ‘born in the wrong body’ [and so is actually, in fact, a little girl]." 

"But we are learning from each kick in the teeth, and we are not giving up."

Kathleen Lowrey  

The University of Alberta's north campus sign in Edmonton. Photo by Ed Kaiser/Postmedia