OP-ED: Basic biology has become blasphemy – a call for true Canadian physicians
"What has Canadian health care come to? We could be talking about how an estimated 28,000 Canadians died on waitlists last year for surgeries and diagnostic scans."
By Dr. Arney Lange
“I would beg the wise and learned fathers [of the church] to consider with all diligence the difference which exists between matters of mere opinion and matters of demonstration.”
Galileo Galilei.
What has Canadian health care come to? We could be talking about how an estimated 28,000 Canadians died on waitlists last year for surgeries and diagnostic scans. Canada is the only developed country that imposes a government run monopoly on citizens to get health care.
We could talk about how Canadian medical school admissions to train doctors have become about woke bigotry instead of merit. Canadians just want the best doctors – whatever their background.
No. The latest debacle of health care amounts to radicals toppling the leadership of Canadian evidence-based medicine at McMaster University.
As a result, I will describe three main aspects to this story. First, it has become apparent that our institutions have been hi-jacked by the equivalent of a woke church that cannot be questioned. Second, I will describe how other countries have dealt with this affront to common sense – in particular gender ideology. Finally, I will describe a call to action for true Canadian physicians – to bring back empirical scientific method and to end compelled speech.
First, then, it is obvious that our institutions have been taken over by a totalitarian ideology. From our universities to hospitals to schools to the military – intellectual freedom must be re-discovered before it is lost forever. In fact, freedom of enquiry was foundational to the advances of the Enlightenment. In the times of Galileo, he got in trouble with his church – saying that the Earth goes around the Sun and not the other way around.
In terms of medical science, we are witness to radical trans activists capturing another institution by what has become a secular religion. This is not about treating patients as unique individuals within the constraints of biological reality. It is about pitting one sacred oppressed group against another so-called oppressor.
In fact, speaking the truth about biological reality as a physician or scientist has become blasphemy. It is increasingly difficult for doctors, nurses, scientists or journalists to have freedom of speech and enquiry – instead of compelled speech. Examples abound. Research scientists must write “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” (DEI) statements to get their research funding. Journalists must write stories uncritical of government tyranny to keep their subsidies and pay cheques.
Second, I will describe how other countries have dealt with the tyranny of gender ideology. In Canada, myself and over twenty other physicians made a statement through the Macdonald Laurier Institute to let Canadians know that many – perhaps most – physicians believe that there must be restrictions on gender therapies for our children.
Why? Well, this issue came to a head in Britain in August 2024 when nearly 900 British doctors signed a letter urging the British Medical Association (BMA) to abandon opposition to Dr. Cass’s report on gender identity services for children. She stated that there was a “remarkably weak” evidence base for gender-affirming care for young people. In fact, it has proven risks and harms – but unproven benefits. It is not “life-saving”—but it is permanently life-altering.
Then, in June 2025, Australian clinicians released a letter with over 100 signatures expressing serious professional concerns about the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender-affirming surgeries for minors. They called for psychosocial support to be the first line intervention for young people experiencing gender-related distress.
But what has the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) done? It decries any questioning of “gender-affirming care” for minors. And the CMA gives the public the impression that it speaks for all physicians. It does not. But unfortunately, the CMA is another institution captured and directed by a radical “progressive” fringe.
Let us bring back actual evidence-based medicine and end compelled speech. One way is for more Canadian physicians to sign on to the Macdonald Laurier statement against permanent gender treatments for minors. The CMA ought to be a leader for the best of our patients – not blinded by ideology. At this point, it might as well be called the Cultural Marxist Association.
And let us commit some blasphemy. Namely, the human species has two biological sexes. That it is not a gender spectrum – it is a binary that is at the basis of human flourishing. Basic biology and ethics mean that children cannot consent to permanent life altering or sterilizing procedures.
Canadian institutions have abandoned merit for diversity, equality of opportunity for equality of outcome, and standards for inclusion. But there is a better way than the rot setting into our Canadian spirit. Freedom. Citizens have had enough of the tyranny. And for the medical profession, to abandon evidence-based medicine is not good for my patients.
Dr. Arney Lange is a Canadian physician, health researcher and author.