VANCOUVER, BC: The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announces that nurse Amy Hamm is appealing the decision of the Disciplinary Panel of the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives to convict her of unprofessional conduct for statements she made about sex and gender. Her appeal will be heard before the Supreme Court of British Columbia.
Ms. Hamm and her legal team are concerned that her conviction was not only incorrect but that it will have a corrosive effect on the ability of regulated professionals to share their views on matters of public significance.
Ms. Hamm has worked as a registered nurse with Vancouver Coastal Health for the past 13 years. She had no prior record of disciplinary issues of any kind, even while working with transgender patients.
With a background in journalism, Ms. Hamm became a prolific advocate for the right of women to access female-only spaces and to be safe from male violence.
In September 2020, she co-sponsored a billboard that read, “I ♥ JK Rowling,” referring to the British author’s public defence of women’s right to female-only spaces, such as prisons and crisis centres, restrooms and changerooms, and sporting events.
A Vancouver city councilor publicly condemned the billboard on social media, prompting the advertising company to quickly remove it. The sign was up for just 30 hours, but it had already been defaced with paint balls by the time it was taken down.
A self-proclaimed “social justice activist” complained to the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives (College) that Ms. Hamm was transphobic and, therefore, unfit to be a nurse. The complaint called for Ms. Hamm to be barred from her current and all future nursing positions.
A second, anonymous complaint against Ms. Hamm accused her of “promoting and stoking hate speech towards trans and gender-diverse communities.”
The College’s Inquiry Committee launched an investigation, peering into not only her involvement with the billboard but also all of her social media activity, articles, and podcast appearances. The Inquiry Committee compiled a report of over 300 pages on her public commentary.
On March 13, 2025, after more than 20 days of disciplinary hearings stretching from 2022 to 2024, the Disciplinary Panel of the College ruled that Amy Hamm was guilty of unprofessional conduct for her off-duty statements.
The decision zeroed in on three articles and one podcast episode in which Ms. Hamm, while identifying herself as a nurse or nurse educator, stated that there are only two sexes, that humans cannot change their sex, and that these facts ought to inform public policies affecting the safety and privacy of females.
The Disciplinary Panel preferred the evidence of the College’s expert that “sex is multidimensional” and found that it was “discriminatory and derogatory [for Ms. Hamm] to suggest that transgender women should not be in the same spaces as cisgender women.”
The Disciplinary Panel even stated that Ms. Hamm’s comments were a form of “discriminatory erasure” denying the very existence of transgender people.
Her legal team disagrees.
In her appeal, Ms. Hamm will argue that belief systems about sex, gender, and gender identity should never be beyond review or criticism in a liberal society. It is not the job of a College to determine which belief systems are “off limits.”
Ms. Hamm, speaking to her reasons for appealing, remarked, “The Panel’s erroneous decision, which has no bearing on biological reality, cannot stand. Eventually, we will be left with only the truth, which always wins.”
Her lawyer, Lisa Bildy, noted, “In our view, the Panel made a number of legal and factual errors that make the decision unsound, and we look forward to arguing these points before the BC Supreme Court.”
“Regulated professionals, speaking in their off-duty time (whether their occupation is known or not), should not be prohibited from gender critical advocacy or otherwise speaking about hot topics of the day in the public square,” Ms. Bildy continued. “We should be able to hear and consider all opinions, as we grapple with difficult issues in society, but decisions like this cast a chill on the speech of professionals and deter their involvement.”
For media inquiries, please contact media@jccf.ca.
