VANCOUVER, British Columbia (LifeSiteNews) — A Canadian nurse is facing her fourth disciplinary hearing with the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives (BCCNM) over her comments defending biological women against LGBT ideology.
On October 23, The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announced that B.C. nurse Amy Hamm has begun her fourth set of disciplinary hearings with the BCCNM after she publicly supported U.K. author JK Rowling’s statements that only biological females should have access to women’s bathrooms and change-rooms.
“The colleges of nurses, colleges of doctors, colleges of psychologists, law societies and other regulators need to stop policing speech and stop abusing their authority by forcing woke ideology on good people like Amy Hamm,” stated lawyer John Carpay, President of the Justice Centre.
Hamm found herself targeted by the BCCNM in 2020 when she co-sponsored a billboard reading: “I [heart] JK Rowling,” referring to the famous British author’s public comments defending women’s washrooms and other private spaces from being used by gender-confused men.
Rowling, a life-long liberal, has been labelled as “transphobic” for her views, a description which seems to have been given to Hamm as well. The billboard was only up for 30 hours before it was covered and later taken down by the billboard company, Pattison Outdoor.
Hamm told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) at the time that she put up the billboard because “[w]omen’s rights are important and we need to stand up for them and it’s not transphobic to do so.”
Following this, complaints were made to the College and an Inquiry Committee launched an investigation in November 2020. The committee published a 332-page report, which mostly consisted of Hamm’s social media posts and statements.
The BCCNM accused Hamm of making “discriminatory and derogatory statements regarding transgender people” while identifying herself as a nurse or nurse educator.
According to the College, Hamm’s statements were “made across various online platforms, including but not limited to podcasts, videos, published writings, and social media,” between July 2018 and March 2021.
The BCCNM, the largest health profession regulator in Western Canada, originally accused her of making “medically inaccurate” statements, but later dropped that charge.
The investigation has been going on for three years, having begun in November 2020. So far, Hamm has appeared before the panel multiple times, including in September 2022 and October 2022, as well as in January and October of this year. The upcoming hearings are scheduled to continue in two blocks of sessions, from October 31 to November 3, and from November 6 to 8.
“This is an important case for the freedom of expression of regulated professionals across the country,” said Lisa Bildy, Amy Hamm’s legal counsel. “Ms. Hamm is accused of being discriminatory and derogatory toward transgender people in the course of her off-duty advocacy for women’s sex-based rights.”
“Professional regulators are created by statute and are essentially an arm of the state, to which the Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies,” she revealed. “Nonetheless, many regulators are increasingly attempting to control what professionals are permitted to say or believe on the social and political issues of our time.”
“This will put a chill on debate and discussion outside of only a narrow range of permissible views,” Bidly added. “An enforced consensus, where professionals who disagree keep silent for fear of losing their livelihoods, cannot be in the public interest. This is especially so in matters of science and public policy, where stifling debate prevents both science and democracy from functioning as intended.”