Trudeau Quotes Fae Johnstone
Trudeau Quotes Fae Johnstone
“trans kids are 5x more likely … to attempt suicide,” PM Justin Trudeau, 7.2.2024
[Male Journalist]: The Prime Minister on Pharmacare legislation, [incomprehensible name]--
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: [interrupts journalist in dramatic fashion] Trans kids are five times more likely in this country to attempt suicide. What Mr. Poilievre and Ms. Smith are proposing is to take away the rights of parents and their kids to make the right choices for them with their doctors. We don't think government should be doing that. Our government will always stand up for the most vulnerable, including our trans youth. — CPAC/TNC, media scrum
We analyzed a subsample of adolescents aged 15–17 years from the 2019 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth, a nationally representative, cross-sectional survey. We defined participants’ transgender identity (self-reported gender different from sex assigned at birth) and sexual minority status (self-reported attraction to people of the same gender) as exposures, and their self-reported previous-year suicidal ideation and lifetime suicide attempt as outcomes. —Kingsbury, Hammond, Johnstone, and Colman, 2022
We used modified Poisson regression with sandwich error variance estimation to estimate risk of suicidal ideation and suicide attempt for sexual minority and transgender adolescents compared with their cisgender and heterosexual peers, adjusting for sociodemographic factors.—Kingsbury, Hammond, Johnstone, and Colman, 2022
The study applied a statistical process meant to determine how much exposure renders an outcome and used it to assess the level of suicidal behaviour in sexual minorities, a category the team created based on the cross sectional data provided by the survey. So, the researchers sought to determine the likelihood that the characteristic of being trans aka sexual minority increases the chances of suicidal behaviour. They treated the characteristic of being trans aka sexual minority as an exposure variable and suicidality as the outcome.
Research methods scholars use Poisson regression to analyse count data: this distribution expresses the probability that a given number of events will occur in a fixed interval, assuming that these events occur at a known constant rate on average and that each event is independent of the others. (Ryan et al, Collabra: Psychology (2021) 7 (1): 27242.) The key criterion for using a Poisson model is [that,] after accounting for the effect of predictors, the mean must equal the variance, writes statistical consultant Jeff Meyer. When variance exceeds mean data overdispersion has occured — Poisson regression analysis can only be used for data sets in which mean equals variance.
So, let’s recap. To apply Poisson regression analysis we need discrete variables, ie count data, we need the mean to equal the variance of the variable we analyse, we need a variable that denotes an event occurring at a known constant rate over time. Does the risk of suicidal ideation amongst a rising incidence of transgenderism or sexual minority status in Canadian youth fit a Poisson distribution? I don’t think it does. The Cass Review mentioned weak quality of Gender Medicine studies, due to many factors, among them poor study design and improper application of analytic techniques.
What does this “five times the risk of suicide attempts” statistic mean, then?
Presumably we study data to ascertain risk ratios enable us to craft solutions to reduce said risk? So, how does this analytic process inform the research question, and the social conundrum that drives it? Put simply, how does studying the link between transgenderism and suicidality help us find relief for this cohort of kids? How does continually fixating on linking a socially constructed trait we call transgenderism with increased risk of suicide and then using that questionable link to force policy decisions which limit the range of options we can offer kids, help these kids?
One one hand queer activists and lobbyists spend time and effort to promote this identity called trans, which describes a feeling of disconnect from one’s own body. Lobbyists stress that affirming such a feeling of disconnect helps relieves the person’s distress. On the other hand queer activists and lobbyists spend time and effort to promote the narrative that the trans identity increases the risk of suicidal ideation. Lobbyists stress that failing to affirm the disconnect of trans is criminal abuse, despite the fact that being trans seems associated with higher levels of suicidal behaviour. Do you see the contradiction?
This violates human behaviour — humans do not work this way. The more we emphasise to a child a disconnect between their psychological state and their physical state, the more we craft an elaborate narrative about how we must affirm that disconnect as a positive identity — the more we embed the disconnect in the young person. Then when we impose a law that forbids primary caregivers from investigating the disconnect between psychological state and physical reality, we block young people from accessing solutions that provides them with relief because we have made an identity out of the source of the discomfort — an existential rift artificially created by culture.
Do we want to help this cohort of children, Canada?
We seem to be quite happy using them or denying their suffering, splitting hairs over nomenclature, and taking every opportunity to exploit their suffering for political points. Whether we call this phenomenon— gender incongruence, a dissociative disorder, diminished interoception — it seems irrelevant to me. Crafting valid + reliable clinically sound solutions that provide maximal relief with minimally invasive procedures + treatments — this seems like the objective IMO.
Relief of suffering may not come from affirming a socially constructed identity based on Tumblr Pop Psychology! If the socially constructed identity increases the risk of suicidal behaviour, then how can we view this social construction as positive for young people and why would we think affirmation the goal of care? Why would we want to affirm a thing that increases a kid’s risk of suicide? Surely the occam’s razor solution involves affirming the child’s physical body? Surely it involves helping the child develop skills to feel comfortable in his/her own body?
Getting back to the headline and the story. Recall that, via the two organisations the for-profit Wisdom2Action and the not-for-profit Society for Queer Momentum, Fae Johnstone has received federal WAGE grant funding as well as procurement contracts.
For-profit consultant-lobbyist Fae Johnstone, co-owner and operator of Wisdom2Action, received 1.3 million dollars in grant and contract funding for development of materials for Bill C-6, as well as for capacity building of 2SLGBTQ+ organizations, and occupies a position of elite activist lobbyists who play a considerable role in creating the wall of gender ideology which has descended upon Canada like a very stubborn and menacing weather system.
In fact, Johnstone also operates a non profit organisation called Society of Queer Momentum which has, in 2024 Q1, received just under half a million dollars from WAGE for capacity building. Johnstone has positioned the federally funded Queer Momentum to launch an aggressive and targeted social media smear campaign against the Conservative Party of Canada and its federal leader Pierre Poilievre, accusing them of transphobia.
So, it does seem significant that Fae Johnstone would happen to be a co-author of the study that PMJT cites in his histrionic smearing of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre during a media scrum. It seems worth reminding my readers that puberty suppression has to date been shown to have no or negative effect on suicidality and psychiatric episodes in young people.
Remember puberty suppression is another name for chemical castration, the punishment given to gay WW2 hero Alan Turing, who killed himself.
This is a genuinely interesting article. A few comments:
1) Fae Johnstone is a real character, and I would say quite a successful social entrepreneur in Ottawa. Fae has managed to become the darling of Ottawa city progressive activists, and as you say, Fae has managed to work the systems for large amounts of government largesse. I have heard Fae speak on one or two occasions and quite apart from being an aggressive promoter of gender ideology, Fae is a genuine social radical in the broadest sense, holding radical ways in a whole variety of (predictable) areas. Most non-activist people would consider Fae's views batshit crazy, but Fae works overtime to push Fae's agenda.
2) That CMAJ article, wow. I seriously doubt that Fae has any skills in quantification AT ALL (although I don't actually know Fae's education and professional experience - I could be wrong) and is probably listed as a co-author for an effort of 'inclusiveness', not to mention self-promotion. That article title sure does sound 'Sciency', geez if I didn't know anything about math I would impressed and/or hoodwinked. I do know something about Poisson Distributions (I have used them in studying radioactive decay), the way you describe their application is correct. They have unique and specific uses, and I would have to study the paper to see if I agree its use was appropriate there. It may or may not have been. In any case, though, all the incoherence and contradictions of the trans ideology are on full display anyway.
Keep up the great work. Your critical thinking on this file is valuable to the cause of reason.