U.S. ‘snitch line’ reports Canadians to HHS
The U.S. government is collecting data on health-care workers providing gender-affirming care in Canada.
In mid-April the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched a “snitch line” website where anyone could report health-care workers in Canada or the United States performing “chemical and surgical mutilations of children,” which is how the current administration describes gender-affirming care. (We’ll get to why that description is inaccurate in a minute.)
Originally the website allowed people to select a Canadian province or territory when reporting a healthcare professional. Later, the website was updated to remove provinces. But as of Tuesday the website still asks for the “zip/postal code” of the worker and lets people enter “None” for what state they work in.
When The Tyee asked Health and Human Services, or HHS, why it had included and then removed Canadian provinces and still included an option to report a postal code, a spokesperson said the update reflects “our intended focus on conduct in the U.S.” They did not say if they made the changes based on pushback.
Focusing on the United States is not the same as limiting data collection to the United States.
When The Tyee asked Health Canada if it knew the snitch line still let people report postal codes, Health Canada told The Tyee it would “follow up” with HHS to “flag the remaining typographical error.”
Health Canada said it had previously flagged the “design issue,” which led to the removal of the option to select provinces and territories. HHS did not mention Health Canada in its response to The Tyee.
B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne called the HHS initiative targeting clinicians supporting gender-affirming services “reprehensible.”
“Our government believes no one should ever be the target of violence or oppression because of who they are,” Osborne said in an email to The Tyee. “We stand proudly to support trans people and the clinicians ensuring they receive the health-care services they need.”
Trans Care BC has removed clinician names from its website and notified staff about the U.S. initiative as a precaution, a spokesperson for B.C.’s Health Ministry said. The service is provided by the Provincial Health Services Authority.
The Tyee asked if similar precautions should be taken for all healthcare workers offering trans health care or gender-affirming care, and the ministry said Trans Care BC has made sure “health professionals are aware of the issue.”
Cross-border reach is new, but the tactics aren’t
“I can’t say it’s anything other than appalling,” said Adrienne Smith, a lawyer and litigation director at the Catherine White Holman Wellness Centre, which operates a legal clinic in B.C. for Two-Spirit, transgender and gender non-conforming people.
“I’m also sad to say I’m not remotely surprised. This regime’s attack on trans people has been relentless and it has always been a tactic of the anti-trans lobby to target care providers and make it difficult for them to provide services,” Smith said.
The snitch line is also a diplomatic issue that impacts Canadian sovereignty, they said. It boils down to a foreign country trying to control what care a doctor decides to offer their patient.
The United States seems to be focused on using fear as a tactic, Smith said.
“Even if the executive order is later found to be illegal, the damage has really been done by frightening people,” they said.
The U.S. government is trying to say providing “peer-reviewed, legitimate and life-saving health care is somehow wrong and dangerous,” and to increase the reach of “absolutely illegal harassment” to an international level, Smith said.