B.C. father who broke ban on publication of his transgender son's identity has sentence reduced

A B.C. father who was handed a six-month jail sentence for breaking a publication ban that forbade him from publicly identifying his transgender son has had his sentence shortened.

The man, identified in court documents only as C.D., successfully argued that his sentence should be reduced to 45 days so that with time served he will no longer have to go to jail.

C.D. will also no longer have to make a $30,000 donation to charity, after the B.C. Court of Appeal questioned his ability to pay the amount.

It's the latest instalment in a contentious case that dates back several years and garnered significant media attention in that time.

In 2019, C.D.'s 14-year-old son, identified as A.B., took his father to court after a family dispute arising from his decision to undergo medical treatment for gender dysphoria recommended by the Gender Clinic at B.C. Children's Hospital. 

The teen's mother approved of the treatment, but his father objected.

A separate court order in 2019 had affirmed A.B.'s right to seek that treatment and said, "attempting to persuade A.B. to abandon his treatment or referring to A.B. as a girl or with female pronouns would be considered to be family violence.'"

C.D. gave multiple media interviews in the months afterwards, referring to his son as a girl and using the female name he had been given at birth. The teen sought an order from the Supreme Court for his father to stop publicly identifying him. 

"Even when A.B.'s family law file was eventually transferred to the criminal registry, C.D. continued to grant interviews, provide photos, and post information that enabled users of the Internet in Canada and elsewhere to identify A.B. and his medical caregivers," the appeal court said in a decision posted Wednesday.

"Indeed, C.D. appears to have gone out of his way to publicize his own and A.B.'s identity on several platforms in Canada and the U.S., thus ensuring that C.D. would not be able to purge his contempt completely."

C.D. provided some online platforms with A.B.'s medical records, which remained accessible on the internet at the time of his arrest. He also deliberately gave interviews to American outlets, which would not be bound by Canadian publication bans.

C.D. pleaded guilty to criminal contempt of the court in 2020 and was handed a six-month sentence the following year. With time served, C.D. was to spend 134 days in custody.

He was also ordered to donate $30,000 that he had raised through crowdfunding to Ronald McDonald House Charities.

C.D. told the appeal court panel that his lawyer in the criminal contempt case did not properly advise him on his options when he was charged.

While C.D. had agreed to a plea deal presented by the Crown that would have netted him a 45-day sentence, his lawyer pursued a conditional discharge instead — in spite of "strong hints" from the sentencing judge that the true sentence would be greater than 45 days.

"I am persuaded that C.D. suffered substantial prejudice as a result of Mr. Linde's failure to realize that the Crown's offer was an extremely good one and indeed such as to ensure that on pleading guilty, C.D. would be immediately released, without a criminal record," Justice Mary Newbury wrote in the appeal court panel's decision.