Canada’s immigration minister says U.S. ‘safe’ amid Trump transgender policy concerns

President Donald Trump signs an executive order regarding the southern border in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Evan Vucci

Amid a reported increase in the number of people saying they hope to leave the U.S. for Canada out of concern around President Donald Trump’s new gender identity policy, Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller says the U.S. is “a safe country” for LGBTQ2S+ people.

“To suggest that the U.S. is not a safe space for trans people, for the LGBT community, I think is a bit of a bridge too far,” Miller said in an interview on CTV Power Play with Vassy Kapelos on Tuesday. “Whether they would be then entitled to a successful asylum claim in Canada would be highly speculative.”

Miller said he would not “venture any speculation” on how the new U.S. policy could impact the Safe Third Country Agreement or whether Canada would carve out exceptions in that pact for LGBTQ2S+ people seeking asylum as a consequence.

“But again, Canada is a safe country. The U.S. is a safe country,” Miller said, adding Canada monitors what goes on in the U.S. “almost on an obsessive basis.”

“We’re not going to sacrifice our principles in Canada simply because the administration changes, but the smooth administration of the border and how we behave under the Safe Third Country Agreement, I don’t think, is in question as part of this discussion,” he said.

The Safe Third Country Agreement was first signed more than 20 years ago, and there have been talks of modernizing it since 2018, with some changes made in 2019. Under the agreement, people seeking refugee status in either Canada or the U.S. must make their claim in the first country they enter.

The agreement applies only to official land border crossings, which means asylum seekers who manage to enter a country via an unofficial crossing — such as Roxham Road in Quebec — are not returned.

As one of dozens of executive orders on the first day of his second term, Trump signed one titled “defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government.”

The executive order states the U.S. will only recognize two sexes, male and female, which “is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of ‘gender identity.’”

It lays out the policies, places and documents in which those should be applied, including government-issued identification, in certain public spaces such as bathrooms, and by mandating federal employees and agencies to use the term “sex” and not “gender.”

“As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female,” Trump said during his inauguration speech on Monday.

The executive order defines female and male as “a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell,” and “a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell,” respectively. All embryos are female until six weeks into a pregnancy.

‘Sharp increase’ in calls from concerned Americans: Immigration lawyer

In an interview with CTV News on Tuesday, immigration and refugee lawyer Joycna Kang said she’s seen a “sharp increase” in the number of American citizens, specifically LGBTQ2S+ people, calling to ask about refugee or asylum claims, both leading up to U.S. election day, and in the aftermath of Trump’s inauguration.

“People are scared,” said Kang, a partner at Battista Migration Law Group, which specializes in serving the LGBTQ2S+ community. “A lot of people are worried that protections that were, you know, hard-won recently, are being ripped away.”

• Popular e-petition calling for Canada to allow trans people to claim asylum, but that right is ‘already established’

Kang said there are hopes Canada’s refugee policy will catch up to recent U.S. policy changes when it comes to gender identity.

She said while Canada does technically accept refugee protection claims from American citizens, it’s historically been “very difficult to convince decisionmakers that a country like the U.S., which is seemingly democratic, geographically large and seemingly tolerant, is an unsafe place.”

“So historically, these kinds of claims have not been successful,” she said.

Poilievre ‘not aware of any other genders’

Canadians who do not identify exclusively as female or male have been able to identify as gender “X” on official documents — including passports, travel documents, citizenship certificates and permanent resident cards — since 2019.

Americans have likewise been able to put “X” as their gender since 2022, until Trump’s executive order on Monday ended the policy.

Asked about his stance on the issue during an interview on Wednesday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he’s “only aware of two” genders.

“I’m not aware of any other genders than men and women,” Poilievre said in an interview with CP24.

“And as far as I’m concerned, we should have a government that just minds its own damn business and leaves people alone to make their own personal decisions,” Poilievre also said. “That’s the kind of government I’m going to run.”

• As Poilievre sides with Smith on trans restrictions, former Conservative candidate says he’s ‘playing with fire’

The Conservative leader said his focus is on other priority issues, such as affordability, housing, and crime.

“I just find it to be a strange priority to spend time talking about this,” Poilievre said, when asked whether he’d push for Canadian passports with “X” in the place of male or female to be recognized at U.S. border control, if his party forms government after the next election.

“If Liberals want to talk about different labels for gender that they want to put on passports in the United States, they can do that,” he also said. “I’m going to talk about the things that will bring home Canada’s promise.”

Safe Third Country Agreement ‘something we’ll look at’: Singh

During a press conference on Wednesday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said the Safe Third Country Agreement is something his party would “look at,” if it forms government after the next election.

“I think it’s really sad for the folks in the States right now that have heard the president basically say that they don’t exist, or that their reality or their identity is no longer recognized,” Singh told reporters. “It’s really scary for a lot of folks.”

Singh said the NDP has “raised concerns about the (Safe Third Country) agreement for a while.”

Advocates also concerned about travel

Author and advocate Gemma Hickey — the first person in Canada to have a gender-neutral “X” on their birth certificate and passport — said in an interview on CTV News they’d been anticipating significant policy changes from Trump, and “preparing emotionally for quite some time.”

“I’ve been an advocate for almost 30 years now, and been a part of some massive societal change,” they said. “And it’s unfortunate that we’re going backwards, and I’m seeing that trend seeping into Canadian politics as well, and it’s worrisome.”

The issue is a storm Hickey is flying right into. They’re travelling to the U.S. today, and it’s unclear how American officials will treat them when they land.

They said their mother is particularly worried, crying and begging them not to travel to the U.S. for work.

“The executive order came down really quick,” Hickey said. “They’re not actually acknowledging or recognizing IDs in the U.S., and I don’t know if that will affect Canadian travellers with gender-neutral markers, but we don’t know until someone tries, and I’ll find out today.”

Hickey said they don’t think the U.S. can still be considered a safe country for a number of people, including women and other marginalized groups.

They added Poilievre’s comments about only knowing of two genders is “an outright lie,” considering it’s been a number of years that Canada has had gender-neutral identification documents.

“That’s a sad thing about it … there are so many issues out there that we could be working on together: poverty growing, homelessness, the fact that our environment is in in turmoil,” Hickey said. “We could be focusing on these things instead of focusing on people who just want to live their life in peace.”

“So, it’s really sad that a Canadian politician is really throwing people like me under the bus,” they said.

With files from CTV News’ Rachel Aiello and Judy Trinh