Latest news with #AmyHamm
Toronto Sun
a day ago
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
AGAR: The lunacy of being penalized for defending rights of women
Nobody expects the Canadian Inquisition. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account A British Columbia nurse has been suspended and fined nearly $94,000 for what a disciplinary panel said were 'discriminatory and derogatory statements' about transgender people. Postmedia reported, citing a Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms release, that Amy Hamm, who is also a columnist for the National Post , was penalized for 'her statements defending the right of women to access female-only spaces.' What did she say that was so terrible that her life needed to be destroyed? I will get to that, but what difference does it make? It should not be — cannot be — the law in Canada that we can only say what some totalitarian, narrow-minded official approves of. I couldn't care less if anyone was offended by what she said. Be offended. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. I am often offended by what people say, but you might recall that I stood up for the free speech and employment rights of an emergency worker for uneducated comments about the Middle East. What she said was not only offensive, but it also wasn't true. But she didn't call for violence and didn't slander or libel an individual. If Israel wants to sue her for saying they lure children in Gaza with food and then shoot them, we'll see how that goes. Hamm had worked in health care for more than 13 years and had been promoted to be a nurse educator. She said she is fighting against what she described as a 'fringe' movement of activists influencing official positions on transgender rights and access to gender-affirming care. 'It's a movement that is infringing on the rights of women and pushing institutions to adopt what are false and delusional beliefs,' she said. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The CBC reported on the horror of Hamm by saying she frequently refers to transgender women as 'men' in social media posts, videos and podcasts, implying they pose a danger to cisgender women and children. Well, they are men. They are only women to people who cannot define a woman. It may be impolite to hector a trans individual who never did anything to harm us and to refuse to use pronouns preferred by the individual, but impolite is not illegal. Or it didn't used to be. Let me help them out. A woman is an adult female human being. Remember Mama Bear and Papa Bear? They had Baby Bear. They knew what was what. As for whether trans women are a danger to what are referred to as cis women — and children — that should be open for debate. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. I think trans women competing in women's and girls' sports is not only unfair, but it can also be dangerous. RECOMMENDED VIDEO In a basketball game between the Collegiate Charter School of Lowell in Massachusetts and KIPP Academy in Lynn, Mass., a trans-identified 6-foot male player with facial hair, playing for the KIPP Academy girls basketball team, injured multiple players and eventually forced the Lowell school to forfeit. In a now-widely circulated video, the player in question is seen wrestling the ball away from one of the girls, causing her to hit the ground, where she clutches her back in pain. North Carolina volleyball player Payton McNabb suffered a serious injury after a trans-identified male player spiked a ball at her head and rendered her unconscious. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The record speed of the ball for male volleyball players is 82 m.p.h., whereas the corresponding record for females is only 64 m.p.h.; thus, males can hit the volleyball at the opponent almost 30% faster. Males are larger, can jump higher and do so in the women's game over a net that is 7 1/2 inches lower than in the male game. But since the amount of kinetic energy possessed by a moving ball is proportional to the square of its velocity, a ball hit by a top male player can have more than 60% more knockdown and injury-inflicting energy than one hit by a top female player. A female athlete was injured by a trans-identified male opponent during a field hockey game in Massachusetts when a ball he threw at her and knocked her teeth out. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Sports Law Expert reports that in some cases, young girls are being forced to undress and shower with males whose sex organs are fully exposed. Yes, trans women can be — not necessarily in all cases, of course — a danger to women and girls. Hamm testified Friday that she became aware of the college's investigation in 2021 after she co-sponsored the posting of a billboard on Hastings St. in Vancouver saying: 'I (heart) J.K. Rowling.' The billboard was in support of the Harry Potter author, who has made public comments that, the CBC writes, have been criticized as anti-trans by LGBTQ groups and other advocates. Rowling's comments, I would point out to the CBC, have also been lauded as accurate and in defence of women's safety and rights. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Hamm has referred to the disciplinary proceedings as a 'witch trial' and suggested the college 'would love for me to suicide myself.' She told the panel she is particularly concerned about transgender women having access to women-only spaces, including prisons and change rooms. She pointed to examples like Madilyn Harks, a transgender woman with a history of sexually assaulting young girls who has been housed in women's correctional facilities. Harks, 36, was convicted three times for sexual assaults against girls under the age of eight, Peel Regional Police said, adding the young victims have included neighbours and a fellow member of a church congregation. 'It makes me extremely, extremely angry and it feels as though people don't seem to care what happens to these women,' Hamm said of female inmates. She said she completely rejects the concept of gender identity, calling it 'anti-scientific, metaphysical nonsense.' You may completely disagree with Hamm. You have a right to say so and to voice your opinion. Does it not then follow that she has the same rights? Hamm faces a $94,000 fine and her career as a nurse is in jeopardy. I never expected the Canadian Inquisition. But here we are. Read More Canada Columnists Sunshine Girls Columnists Toronto & GTA
National Post
a day ago
- Politics
- National Post
Michael Higgins: Fining nurse Amy Hamm $93,000 a grotesque attack on free speech
Article content These are worrying times for free speech in this country and it is not helped with the persecution of British Columbia nurse Amy Hamm by the province's College of Nurses and Midwives. Article content Hamm is the nurse who said sex is binary and also helped pay to put up a sign in Vancouver that declared, 'I (heart) J K Rowling.' Article content Article content For these and similar crimes, Hamm has now been suspended from nursing for a month and ordered to pay the shocking and unjustified sum of $93,639.80 in legal costs. Article content With its punitive disciplinary decision, the college appears to be saying that you can either shut up or suffer what amounts to a $93,000 fine for exercising your right to free speech. Article content It is a chilling ruling but one that is not surprising given the increasing number of self-important, bloated, authoritarian organizations and professional bodies in Canada that think the Charter right to free speech and free expression is a mere whimsy. Article content What really irked the college — and the very expensive witnesses they called — was that Hamm sometimes identified as a nurse when she used social media to expand on her mainstream views about sex, gender and women's safe spaces. Article content Hamm first got into trouble with the 2020 billboard supporting the Harry Potter author whose gender critical views have also come under fire. Article content A complaint about the billboard started an investigation by the college's inquiry committee which resulted in a ridiculous 332-page report about Hamm's off-duty tweets, articles and other online musings. Article content Hamm found herself being prosecuted for such things as writing, 'trans activists determined to infiltrate or destroy women-only spaces' which is discriminatory, according to the disciplinary panel, because it has 'a negative connotation of improper, illegal, aggressive, and destructive conduct.' Article content Another problematic post read, 'Is there anything more embarrassing than straight people going by they/them, getting a dumb haircut, and calling themselves trans and queer?' which is apparently offensive because it 'indirectly disparages transgender people.' Article content The 332-pages morphed into a 20-day disciplinary hearing spread over 19 months. Hamm was eventually found guilty of professional misconduct because of four instances where she identified herself as a nurse while apparently making 'discriminatory and derogatory' comments. Article content However, as Hamm pointed out: there was no 'direct victim'; complainants were 'ideological opponents'; no patients were involved and no trans-identified people came forward to provide evidence of harm. Article content But none of that mattered. What mattered was only the 'likelihood that trans-identified people would find her statements to be discriminatory and derogatory.' Article content Thus Hamm was punished, not for any harm, but the risk of harm. Article content It was similar reasoning that saw Christian singer Sean Feucht banned from so many Canadian venues — for safety reasons which were never detailed. Article content Again, the same rationale — security issues — saw the Toronto International Film Festival pull the documentary The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue about one family's experience in Israel on October 7, 2023. (TIFF has now reversed course.) Article content These things are happening, not because we have turned into a nation of 'wee timorous beasties,' but because too many organizations have aggregated to themselves the power to decide what is acceptable or not for Canadians to watch, read and hear. Article content The Hamm case is even more disconcerting when you consider the lengths a professional body will go to in terms of energy, resources, money and punishment dished out, to enforce its own particular censorious ideology. Article content Hamm, a nurse for 13 years with an unblemished record, was terminated by Vancouver Coastal Health without severance after the guilty decision. She has not found another nursing job, writes some opinion columns (including for National Post) and is a single mother who receives no child support. Article content As noted by Hamm during the hearing, 'a significant penalty would convey to professionals that they should not speak up on controversial matters based on conscience.' Article content Part of the costs included $38,197.80 to pay for one of the College's experts, Dr. Greta Bauer, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Western University, and the Sex and Gender Science Chair for the Canadian Institute of Health Information. Article content It was this very expensive witnesses (whose fee was cut from $63,663 to $38k) who enlightened the college with profound insights that included: it was proper to call mothers 'birthing people' because inclusivity was so important; who disagreed 'that there are only two sexes' and that 'humans cannot change their sex,' and who thought that Hamm was frivolous for saying, 'I don't think it's possible for women to defend their legal rights, or even the definition of womanhood if anybody can say they're a woman and it will be so.' Article content Yet Hamm was only saying years ago what others, including the United Nations, are saying now. Article content In a stunning report last month, Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, wrote a full-throated defence of biological sex. Article content The 'erosion of women and sex specific language, the conflation of sex, gender and gender identity' was weakening protection for mothers, women and girls, she wrote. The legal definition of a women was in danger of being erased, she said. Article content 'The Panel accepts that the Respondent's statements were motivated by her genuine belief that recognition of the rights of transgender women harms the sex-based rights of cisgender women and children.' Article content Article content Article content Article content
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
B.C. nurse gets suspension, fines for comments about transgender people
VANCOUVER — A British Columbia nurse has been suspended and fined nearly $94,000 in costs for making 'discriminatory and derogatory statements' about transgender people. The B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives says a disciplinary panel has issued a decision against Amy Hamm, suspending her for one month, while also ordering her to pay the college costs and disbursements within two years. The panel said in its verdict in March that Hamm committed professional misconduct for making statements across 'various online platforms' between July 2018 and March 2021 that were partly designed 'to elicit fear, contempt and outrage against members of the transgender community.' The college says Hamm has filed an appeal of the discipline order in B.C. Supreme Court, and the decision on penalty and costs is stayed until that appeal has been resolved. The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms says in a release that Hamm was penalized for "her statements defending the right of women to access female-only spaces." The release says Hamm had worked in health care for more than 13 years and had been promoted to be a nurse educator. Lisa Bildy, Hamm's lawyer, says in a statement that they believe the panel made "legal and factual errors" in reaching its decision, which penalizes the nurse for expressing "mainstream views aligned with science and common sense." Hamm says in the statement that her comments are not hateful. "I'm appealing because biological reality matters, and so does freedom of expression," she says. The college says in its notice of the penalty decision that the verdict is an "important statement against discrimination." "Nurses and midwives occupy a position of trust and influence in our society," the notice says. "The college will continue to stand up against discrimination and believes it is a core aspect of our public protection mandate to ensure nurses uphold the important principle that the health care system is non-discriminatory." The announcement comes nearly a month after the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announced it had filed two complaints with the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 15, 2025. The Canadian Press
CBC
3 days ago
- Health
- CBC
B.C. nurse suspended by college, fined $94K for comments about transgender people
Social Sharing A B.C. nurse has been suspended and fined nearly $94,000 in costs for making "discriminatory and derogatory statements" about transgender people. The B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives says a disciplinary panel has issued a decision against Amy Hamm, suspending her for one month, while also ordering her to pay the college costs and disbursements within two years. The panel said in its verdict in March that Hamm committed professional misconduct for making statements across "various online platforms" between July 2018 and March 2021 that were partly designed "to elicit fear, contempt and outrage against members of the transgender community." The college says Hamm has filed an appeal of the discipline order in B.C. Supreme Court, and the decision on penalty and costs is stayed until that appeal has been resolved. Trans people are protected from discrimination by laws in both B.C. and Canada, providing them with the right to be treated according to their deeply felt gender identity. B.C.'s human rights code was amended in 2016 to include protections against discrimination based on gender identity or expression, while the federal human rights and criminal codes were updated the following year. The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms says in a release that Hamm was penalized for "her statements defending the right of women to access female-only spaces." The release says Hamm had worked in health care for more than 13 years and had been promoted to be a nurse educator. Lisa Bildy, Hamm's lawyer, says in a statement that they believe the panel made "legal and factual errors" in reaching its decision, which penalizes the nurse for expressing "mainstream views aligned with science and common sense." "I'm appealing because biological reality matters, and so does freedom of expression," she says. Non-discriminatory care The college says in its notice of the penalty decision that the verdict is an "important statement against discrimination." "Nurses and midwives occupy a position of trust and influence in our society," the notice says. "The college will continue to stand up against discrimination and believes it is a core aspect of our public protection mandate to ensure nurses uphold the important principle that the health care system is non-discriminatory." Human rights complaint filed The announcement comes nearly a month after the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announced it had filed two complaints with the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal. Hamm has maintained that she is not transphobic, and that she takes issue with an "infringement on women and children's rights," and was particularly concerned with transgender women having access to women-only spaces including prisons and change rooms. She previously said she completely rejects the concept of gender identity, calling it "anti-scientific, metaphysical nonsense," and on social media posts has referred to transgender women as men. Hamm has received supportive statements from a wave of online followers, including author J.K. Rowling, and has written several columns for a variety of media outlets on multiple issues, including politics and crime, as well as sex and gender..
Toronto Sun
4 days ago
- Health
- Toronto Sun
B.C. nurse gets suspension, fines for comments about transgender people
The panel suspended Amy Hamm for one month, while also ordering her to pay the college costs and disbursements within two years Published Aug 15, 2025 • 2 minute read Amy Hamm in 2023 Photo by Gilmour, Kier A B.C. nurse has been suspended and fined nearly $94,000 for making 'discriminatory and derogatory statements' about transgender people. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account The B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives says a disciplinary panel has issued a decision against Amy Hamm, suspending her for one month, while also ordering her to pay the college costs and disbursements within two years. The panel said in its verdict in March that Hamm committed professional misconduct for making statements across 'various online platforms' between July 2018 and March 2021 that were partly designed 'to elicit fear, contempt and outrage against members of the transgender community.' The college says Hamm has filed an appeal of the discipline order in B.C. Supreme Court, and the penalty and costs are stayed until that appeal has been resolved. The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms says in a news release that Hamm was penalized for 'her statements defending the right of women to access female-only spaces.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The release says Hamm had worked in health care for more than 13 years and had been promoted to be a nurse educator. Lisa Bildy, Hamm's lawyer, says in a statement that they believe the panel made 'legal and factual errors' in reaching its decision, which penalizes the nurse for expressing 'mainstream views aligned with science and common sense.' Hamm says in the statement that her comments are not hateful. 'I'm appealing because biological reality matters, and so does freedom of expression,' she says. The college says in its notice of the penalty decision that the verdict is an 'important statement against discrimination.' 'Nurses and midwives occupy a position of trust and influence in our society,' the notice says. 'The college will continue to stand up against discrimination and believes it is a core aspect of our public protection mandate to ensure nurses uphold the important principle that the health care system is non-discriminatory.' The announcement comes nearly a month after the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announced it had filed two complaints with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal. Read More Other Sports Toronto & GTA Ontario Celebrity Columnists
