Father of trans B.C. teen continues to give interview despite court ban
Credit to Author: Postmedia News| Date: Sun, 01 Mar 2020 23:10:53 +0000
The father of a transgender B.C. teen appears again to have broken a court ban that ordered him not to speak publicly about the case or identify himself or his child in further media interviews.
This time, the father appears to have given an interview to a freelance writer with the Federalist, an American conservative online outlet.
In January, the B.C. Court of Appeal upheld a ruling that allowed the B.C. teen to receive testosterone treatments to transition to being a boy. The boy’s mother supported the medical treatments while the boy’s father did not and had tried to halt the treatments.
In addition to allowing the treatments to proceed, the court had issued publication bans that restricted public identification of the parents, the child and the medical professionals involved.
However, the father went on to give interviews on various platforms, including speaking with former People’s Party of Canada candidate Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson and political activist Jenn Smith. In the posted interviews – one of which lasted an hour – the father freely identified himself, the medical professionals treating his child, and his son whom he continued to refer to as his daughter, while arguing against his child’s transition.
In February, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Michael Tammen ordered the father’s interviews to be removed from the internet and again told the father he was not to give interviews on the matter, regardless of how they would be broadcast.
“You’re simply not entitled to do that, sir. Do you understand that part of it?” the judge had asked the father during a February court appearance.
Replied the dad: “I completely understand that part of it, yes.”
The judge reminded the dad of the bans on the names of the parties in the case and said he had violated the orders.
“You must not do that, sir, you are in breach of the court order,” said Tammen.
“I mean the reason I do it, or did it, is because I am taking the best interests of my child at heart,” said the dad.
The judge warned the dad that if there are any further breaches of the bans and court orders, the lawyers for the teen might come back to court and seek to have him cited for contempt of court and face serious consequences.
The father had also been ordered to address their child using the proper pronouns and descriptors in private.
However, in an article posted Feb. 21, 2020 to the Federalist, the father again spoke on the case, referring to his son as his “daughter” and continuing to criticize the transition.
Lawyer Sarah Chaster, who represents the teen, has not yet responded to a request for comment.