The Canadian Civil Liberties Association calls proposed gender identity and sexual orientation policy announced in Alberta this week a “blatant attack on freedom.”

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says the policy changes will prohibit children aged 15 and younger from accessing gender affirming procedures like surgery or hormonal treatment.

The policy also requires parental permission before a child 15 and younger can change their name or pronoun in Alberta schools.

The policy also bars transgender women from competing in women’s sport and instead Smith says, co-ed or gender neutral sport divisions will be set up.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association says the proposed policy will rob 2SLGBTQIA+ people of their rights and freedoms, and they are closely monitoring the developments in Alberta.

Local trans advocate, Rhea Rollman, says the policies proposed in Alberta are disturbing and the “tip of the iceberg.”

She calls those kinds of policies an attack on bodily autonomy. “We’ve seen this in the US,” says Rollman, “the first attacks are on trans and gender diverse bodily autonomy, and then attacks targeting reproductive rights.”

Rollman says the decisions the Alberta government is trying to control are best left to the medical community “and for a government to throw the experts aside and inject right wing ideologies into health care….I think that is extremely dangerous.”