WT ACTUAL F IS GOING ON IN CANADA.

Hoo boy, this one’s a doozy.

There’s a lot to unpack here, but let me start with the facts.

Lois Cardinal is an indigenous Canadian. She is a self-described “sterilized First Nations post-op transsexual.” She regrets her decision to transition (back in 2009) and suffers pain and discomfort from the surgery every day. She applied for medical assistance in dying (MAID) and was denied.

Here we find the culmination of Canada’s concerning attitudes toward transgenderism, assisted suicide, and indigenous rights, all centered in the lived experience of one individual. And it’s ugly. (The situation, not the person.)

She has also expressed concerns about the inflammatory rhetoric of the trans community and feels that she has “contributed to the genocide of [her] people” by undergoing a surgery that resulted in her sterilization.

Yet, despite the constant pain and discomfort Cardinal continues to experience, she failed to qualify for MAiD– in the same country that offered it, unsolicited, to a disabled veteran. I wonder why that is?

“I’m not getting any better and nor am I experiencing better medical care, or any medical care,” Cardinal said. “It’s so captured by gender ideologies, that they care more about my pronouns.”

Ah. That’s why.

Cardinal is more valuable to the power structures in Canada as the ultimate intersectional champion: a transgender First Nations individual. She checks all the boxes. They couldn’t POSSIBLY let her get away with MAiD, not as long as she names her “gender affirming” surgery as the cause. But if she were to die by suicide without medical assistance, they would have the chance to blame evil conservatives for driving her to it rather than accepting the uncomfortable truth that their “affirm first, ask questions never” model caused the decrease in Lois Cardinal’s quality of life.

In other words, Canada doesn’t care about Lois. They didn’t before, they don’t now. And it’s not personal– they care as much about her as any other regretful trans individual or sterilized Native Canadian. Which, again, is not at all.

For what it’s worth, I care about Lois. I think I speak for all of us, writers and readers alike, in saying we do. I’m glad she’s alive. I’m deeply saddened to know she’s suffering. I believe her story is important and I admire her courage in sharing it. The loss of her voice in the world– medically assisted or otherwise– would be a tragedy indeed.