Quebec names members of new gender identity advisory committee

The former president of the Council on the Status of Women, Diane Lavallée, has been selected to chair a new advisory committee to address issues surrounding gender identity.

Quebec Family Minister Suzanne Roy made the announcement on Tuesday.

"The committee's work should provide food for thought for the government, which is increasingly called upon to take a position on sensitive issues relating to gender identity, which deserve carefully considered responses," said Roy.

Quebec Premier François Legault had promised to create a committee in the wake of turbulent demonstrations across the country over gender identity in schools.

Lavallée, a nurse and administrator, was previously the head of the Fédération des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec (FIQ) in the 1980s and 1990s.

She ran under the Parti Québécois (PQ) banner in the 2018 election.

She will be joined on the committee by Dr. Jean-Bernard Trudeau, a family doctor who was formerly deputy director general of the Collège des médecins du Québec, and law professor Patrick Taillon, who is currently co-director of the Centre d'études en droit administratif et constitutionnel at Université Laval.

"There is no question about rolling back the rights of trans and non-binary people," Lavallée said.

Instead, the committee is being asked to draw up a portrait of current policies and study what is being done elsewhere.

It is also being asked to identify issues the government may have to address in the future.

The expert panel will "work closely" with the Conseil québécois LGBT by consulting experts and decision-makers, as well as people working in the field.

The report is due in the winter of 2025.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Dec. 5, 2023.