(LifeSiteNews) — In December 2024, Alberta became the first province to pass laws designed to protect students from LGBT indoctrination, sex-change “treatments,” female-only sports, and parental rights. The pushback has taken many forms. The Canadian Medical Association filed a court challenge against the ban on sex changes for minors.
The Canadian press, except for the National Post, unleased a blizzard of propaganda condemning the new laws. Margaret Atwood took aim at Premier Danielle Smith for opposing pornographic books in public schools; a Toronto Star cartoonist published a near-defamatory cartoon deliberately misrepresenting the new rules:
Well, actually it is more like this. But not lying about this would be a big ask for the @TorontoStar so I get it. https://t.co/1qG48sIN5l pic.twitter.com/aUxzI0qY1j
— Jonathon Van Maren (@JVanMaren) September 9, 2025
On September 8, CTV launched another salvo of propaganda in the form of an article titled “‘Purely transphobic’: Teen athlete calls out provincially mandated form requiring confirmation of sex at birth.” The intent of the piece is clear from the opening paragraphs:
Back to school is looking different for girls playing sports this year as they are being given a provincially mandated form requiring them to confirm their sex at birth.
Natalie Elzinga, a 14-year-old volleyball player, is calling the forms transphobic and unnecessary. She said she was pulled aside ahead of volleyball try-outs and told that she wouldn’t be able to get on the court if she didn’t sign the form.
“When I was told I’m going to have to sign that form, I was in disbelief, because, why should I?” Elzinga told CTV News Edmonton. “This is just purely transphobic and there is no need for it.”
This is what is referred to as a “manufactured story.” The media wants to make Danielle Smith’s UCP government look cruel, and they need teenage girls — the very girls that are disadvantaged when trans-identifying males play on their teams — to say it. In this case, the goal is to specifically make Alberta’s Fairness and Safety in Sport Act, which has girls and the parents of minors affirm that players were born female in order to play female-only sports, seem to be a sinister, anti-LGBT purge.
Indeed, Elzinga conveniently said almost precisely that. “I’m not trans, I’m not queer in any way shape or form,” she emphasized to CTV. “But I know that this is terrifying for people who are.” One wonders what questions the journalist asked to prompt this oddly specific response, and why affirming one’s birth sex would be “terrifying” for “queer” people. Elzinga went on to say that the forms cause “harm”: “I know that there are so many people on the court in my class who are not able to talk, and I just want them to feel safe, feel protected, like a child should.” Did you get the message?
If not, Elzinga’s mother Leah chimed in to affirm her daughter’s condemnation of “transphobia,” stating that over the past 10 years, trans-identifying players have never been an issue.
“It is my whole social life right now. I’ve talked to hundreds, if not thousands, of parents. Never, not once, has this issue come up,” Leah said. “Nobody is worried about this. Nobody is worried about their girls playing with trans girls and getting hurt in unfair play. They don’t care about trans athletes in sports. Otherwise, they would care about all trans athletes in sport. They care about girls specifically, and limiting what they can do.”
It is odd that Leah would claim that “nobody” is worried about girls getting hurt, when many people have stated that they are, in fact, worried about that precise thing. Not all parents agree with Leah. I would wager that most do not — Danielle Smith’s laws on these matters have proven to be very popular. But a fair-minded reporter might have noted that in the sport of volleyball specifically, there are plenty of examples of trans-identifying male players hurting their female counterparts on the court.
A fair-minded report might include, for example, a reference to the fact that a female volleyball player suffered a concussion in Santa Rosa, California after having the ball spiked into her face by a trans-identifying male player — one of two players badly harmed by the same player. Or the heartbreaking story of 17-year-old Payton McNabb, who has suffered brain damage and other permanent health issues as a result of having a volleyball spiked into her head by a trans player. McNabb has difficulty walking due to paralysis on her right side and lost her chance at a volleyball scholarship.
But CTV and other press outlets won’t even mention these stories. They won’t even admit that real parents have real concerns about their daughters playing against — much less changing in front of — trans-identifying males. Instead, they pump out transparent, one-sided propaganda that would be laughable if it wasn’t contemptuous.
