Conservative Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman says she and the rest of the caucus stand behind her leader’s comments about trans people made last week, as other Conservative MPs steer clear of the issue entirely, with one even running away from questions. 

“I think the leader has made his common sense Conservative position very clear, and our caucus stands by it, alongside most Canadians,” Lantsman (Thornhill, Ont.) told The Hill Times.

After being asked specifically about Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s (Carleton, Ont.) assertion that trans women should not be permitted access to women’s bathrooms, she said that is the party’s position. 

“He’s been very clear about the position, and that is the position of the Conservative Party, and the common sense Conservative position,” Lantsman said. 

“Female spaces should be exclusively for females, not for biological males,” Poilievre said during a Feb. 21 press conference in Kitchener, Ont., before adding that it was “unclear” what reach federal legislation could have over regulating spaces which are governed by the provinces and municipalities. “But obviously female sports, female change rooms, female bathrooms should be for females, not for biological males,” he said. 

Not everyone in the Conservative caucus was as confident speaking on the matter. 

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner (Calgary Nose Hill, Alta.) ran away from questions about her leader’s comments on trans people. 

The Hill Times approached Rempel Garner as she was leaving West Block on Feb. 27 after Question Period, but she started running without answering any questions. 

The Hill Times caught up with the Alberta MP, running alongside her to O’Connor Street. She slowed down long enough to say: “I believe in human rights for all Canadians,” before sprinting forward once more, ducking around the corner and into Valour Building, which houses her office. 

Conservative MP Michael Chong (Wellington–Halton Hills, Ont.) said he had nothing to say unless it was about foreign interference, and directed The Hill Times to speak to his party’s critic on the matter. 

But Conservative MP Scott Aitchison (Parry Sound-Muskoka, Ont.), his party’s critic for diversity and inclusion, said simply: “I don’t really have a comment on that.” 

Aitchison, who was unhappy about being characterized as having been one of the more centrist candidates in the 2022 Conservative leadership race, said he considers himself to be “a small-c conservative who believes in smaller government, getting out of people’s way, and a government that actually provides the basic services that it’s meant to provide, and do it efficiently and do it effectively.” 

Asked if that meant he also believes trans people should be able to live without government interference, he paused briefly, and then replied, “absolutely. I think they do. That’s the whole idea.” 

But, he declined to comment on whether that meant he disagreed with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s new policy which places restrictions on the health care trans youth can access in that province. 

Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu (Sarnia-Lambton, Ont.) shed some light on why her colleagues might be so reluctant to speak on this issue. 

Gladu said trans women should not be allowed in women’s bathrooms or change rooms because “there have been incidents that have harmed women and young girls. And so we need to make sure that, you know, that’s not going to happen.”

Gladu also acknowledged that there has been messaging from the Opposition Leader’s Office advising MPs not to speak about questions of trans rights, and said that messaging had come after Poilievre’s remarks in Kitchener. 

It has been reported that Poilievre’s office has previously sent memos to Conservative MPs instructing them not to speak with media on this issue. In September 2023, when so-called “parental rights” groups were protesting in Ottawa, The Canadian Press reported that such a memo had instructed MPs not to talk to media about “gender ideology.” 

“I think what people are missing is that always, on every issue that comes out, you’ll always get from the leader, ‘we want to read the bill,’ or ‘we want to get more information about the issue.’ So it’s normal for them to send something out and say, like, ‘wait till we have a look at it.’” 

Gladu said in the week since Poilievre made his comments in Kitchener, the messaging was the “same as always: ‘When we’re considering our position, you know, say nothing until we figure out what our position is.’”

On Feb. 28, the day after The Hill Times spoke with Gladu, Lantsman confirmed that Poilievre’s remarks represented the party’s position. 

At the party’s September 2023 policy convention, the membership passed a resolution to ban gender-affirming care for trans youth, with one delegate describing transness as “a mental health disorder,” as reported by the CBC. A large majority of the membership also passed a motion to keep women’s spaces for the use of biological females only, and adopted a definition of “woman” to mean “female person.” 

These policies, reflected in Poilievre’s comments, have been condemned by feminist and LGBTQ+ organizations as being anti-trans. 

Rempel Garner, Lantsman have previously advocated for LGBTQ+ community 

In 2019, Lantsman—who had yet to be elected, but was a former party staffer—penned an op-ed for The Globe and Mail in which she criticized then-leader Andrew Scheer (Regina—Qu’Appelle, Sask.) for “his visible discomfort in answering questions relating to LGBTQ people and their place in society.”

“The fundamental problem is the Conservative Party’s lack of clarity on LGBTQ rights,” Lantsman, who co-authored the op-ed with Conservative strategist Jamie Ellerton, wrote. “Canadians expect their political leaders to share their values. Full stop. Yet the Conservative Party appears incapable of even offering table-stakes pleasantries to LGBTQ Canadians.” 

The pair accused Conservatives of not seeing the LGBTQ community “as marginalized people who continue to face discrimination.” 

Less than one month later, Scheer resigned, eventually (after Erin O’Toole’s leadership) clearing the way for Poilievre’s leadership era, which would see Lantsman—elected in 2021—and Scheer working closely together as deputy leader and House leader, respectively. 

Rempel Garner has been a Conservative MP since 2011. In 2016, she spoke in the House in favour of the Liberal government’s bill to protect transgender rights. It was a free vote for the Conservatives, who were being led at the time by interim leader Rona Ambrose: 40 of them voted against it; 18 did not vote (including Poilievre); and 38 voted in favour, including Rempel Garner. No MP from any other party voted against this bill. 

In her speech, Rempel Garner became emotional as she reflected on how “only a few decades ago,” she, as a “cisgendered woman … as a divorced woman, as a woman without children,” would not have had the right to stand in the House and advocate for her community. 

“Our rights are so precious and they’re so fragile. And for us legislators, if we cannot acknowledge when inequality exists, and if we cannot rectify that, then we are doing something wrong,” she said. 

Rempel Garner’s MP website states she is “proud to support equality of opportunity for the trans community.” But the video of her speaking in the House in support of the Liberals’ transgender rights bill has been “unlisted,” meaning it can only be viewed by people who have the link. 

Back in 2016, Rempel Garner spoke about how her own thinking on trans rights had evolved when she voted against a very similar trans rights bill put forward by NDP MP Randall Garrison (Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke, B.C.) in 2013. 

Her speech addressed trans peoples’ access to bathrooms, noting that trans people actually experience a higher risk of being victims of violence when using public bathrooms than they inflict. 

In her speech and in the media, Rempel Garner credited her friendship with Garrison—a gay man—with educating her “in a very quiet and patient way.” 

‘It is indeed hypocrisy’

In a Feb. 28 interview with The Hill Times, Garrison said Poilievre, through his comments about trans people, is attempting to “harvest hate for political advantage.”

“Unfortunately, those policies result in real-world harms in terms of hostility and violence directed towards trans and non-binary people,” Garrison said. 

Pride Toronto has noted a “huge increase in hate speech directed towards the trans community” coinciding with Poilievre’s remarks, stating he “directed hate towards the community,” the organization’s executive director Kojo Modeste said in a video released on Feb. 28. 

Garrison said he is always engaged in dialogue with people in other parties, and doesn’t want to blast anyone in particular because he “can’t conduct those kinds of negotiations or relationships in public. They have to be done in private.”

“I’m disappointed in anybody who doesn’t speak up for the human rights of marginalized people. But I’m not going to single out anybody for that. I’m disappointed in the Conservative Party, and, in particular, in their leader,” he said. 

Trans activist Fae Johnstone said she considers the silence of Conservative MPs, like Rempel Garner, and the doubling down on Poilievre’s remarks by Lantsman to be “hypocrisy.”  

“You can’t say that you’re an ally to the LGBTQ community for years on end, and then when your leader is leaning in with the most explicitly anti-trans comments that we’ve seen in a Conservative leader in ages, you can’t just choose to stay silent. It is indeed hypocrisy,” she said. 

Johnstone said she has had a working relationship and “good conversations” with members of the Conservative caucus in the past—including Rempel Garner, Eric Duncan (Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry, Ont.), Mike Lake (Edmonton-Wetaskiwin, Alta.), and Karen Vecchio (Elgin-Middlesex-London, Ont.). 

She also said she reached out to Lantsman’s office a few months ago because “I was sensing the atmosphere was changing for queer and trans people,” but she never received a response. 

“I am appalled at politicians who will say the right thing when it’s politically convenient, and then muzzle themselves when it’s not so convenient,” and when there might be a political cost to them, she said. 

“It hurts,” she said.

In 2022, the Toronto Star reported some of Rempel Garner’s Conservative caucus colleagues “have repeatedly threatened to kick her out of caucus in recent months” in part due to her advocacy of LGBTQ+ rights.

cnash@hilltimes.com

The Hill Times

 

See all stories BY CHELSEA NASH