Local doc joins fight against Bill 26
By Lethbridge Herald on June 3, 2025.
Alexandra Noad
Lethbridge Herald
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
A Lethbridge physician has joined forces with the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) to file a constitutional challenge to Alberta’s Bill 26, which directs physicians on how to deliver gender-affirming care to people under 18 in the province.
Dr. Jillian Demontigny says she was relieved when the CMA approached her and asked if she wanted to take action against the bill. She says she’s been distressed over what the legislation would mean for her practice since its introduction in January 2024.
“I work with transgender diverse people of all ages,” said Demontigny, “and so having someone come in and impose legal restrictions on medical practice without any grasp of the situation, any description of an actual problem that needed a solution, but drafting policy that impacts healthcare access for (an) already equity deserving and potentially vulnerable population was really difficult to navigate as a provider.”
She adds that while it was stressful for her as a provider, she also saw how it impacted her patients and their families in their everyday lives.
Demontigny also sees the potential effects Bill 26 could have on future legislation, including reproductive and sexual healthcare, opioid dependence treatment and other addiction treatment, something she sees as a “slippery slope.”
“We’re all at risk if we allow laws to be drafted that have no medical basis, have no sociological benefit, but do cause harm.”
She points out that gender-affirming care spans more than just trans people using Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT).
“Gender-affirming care is very important for everybody, and to be clear, Bill 26 is really only targeting gender-affirming care for transgender diverse people under age 18, but every time I have a patient who requests contraception, or a vasectomy, or a hysterectomy, or acne treatment, that can be (considered) affirming of them in their gender identity.”
In the last census, southern Alberta had one of the highest densities of people who self-declared as transgender diverse.
Demontigny works with her physician colleagues to assist with their patients gender-affirming care and has also helped develop the Primary Care Alberta Gender Affirming Care Pathway, a resource accessible to any primary provider who needs guidance to help gender diverse patients.
She says it felt like her duty to contribute to the CMA lawsuit for the rights of her patients.
“If you see a patient population that you serve being targeted by misguided laws, I think part of my duty as a physician in the community is to speak about that.”
When Demontigny began her residency in 2003, she never would have imagined in 2025 the possibility of the government imposing restrictions to make abortions and hormone birth control less accessible and criminalizing opioid dependence treatment. But despite the difficulties, she says she loves working in the South Zone.
“I love getting to practice this kind of medicine and I love this community that I get to live and practice in.”
Demontigny says her worst fear is having the government impose laws that would put her in an intolerable situation with her morals. while she knows she could easily find work somewhere else, she would be leaving behind not only her transgender diverse patients but all of the patients under her care.
17-16
“impose legal restrictions on medical practice without any grasp of the situation, any description of an actual problem”
Seems how the UCP approaches every situation , it’s not about what’s best for anybody, it’s really about pandering to a base who has no tolerance for anyone not like them politically or religiously.