Canadian Government Halts Funding of GRS For Trans Inmates
Filed by dentedbluemercedes
November 23, 2010
http://dentedbluemercedes.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/canadian-government-halts-funding-of-grs-for-trans-inmates/The Conservative government has ordered Correctional Services Canada to halt all medical coverage for gender reassignment surgery. The change took effect immediately, on Friday November 19th.
"The courts have ruled that CSC must provide essential medical services to inmates. However, we do not believe that sex change surgery is an essential medical service or that Canadian taxpayers should pay for sex change surgery for criminals," Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told QMI Agency.
Even so, regardless of what they may have been convicted of, inmates are entitled to essential medical treatment. A 2001 Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision, backed up by a 2003 federal court ruling, required that GRS be considered essential medical treatment. So the Conservative government is in direct violation of what it has already been ordered to fund.
