How much does it cost a doctor to say no?
In British Columbia, the answer is $28,100.
That is how much family physician Dr. Henry Ajaero has been ordered to pay after refusing to inject a 14-year-old biological boy with Lupron, a drug prescribed to suppress the child’s natural puberty as part of a gender-transition pathway.
Five years later, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal declared that decision discriminatory and ordered him to pay $20,000 for injury to the teenager’s “dignity, feelings, and self-respect.” He must also pay $8,100 for the expert evidence presented against him, plus interest until the judgment is satisfied.
This is what medical conscience now looks like in Canada: obey, inject or pay.
The Doctor Who Said No
Ajaero is not some fringe activist masquerading as a physician. He has operated a family practice in Delta since 2014. He cares for nearly 2,900 patients, works five days a week, sees approximately 50 patients a day and also works Saturdays at a walk-in clinic.
His schedule is relentless. Ten-minute appointments. Hundreds of laboratory reports, specialist recommendations, prescription requests and medical forms arriving every day. At the time of the incident, he was working through the extraordinary pressures of the COVID pandemic.
Then came the appointment that would follow him for years.
In March 2021, a 14-year-old patient arrived at his clinic for a Lupron injection prescribed through a gender clinic. When Ajaero discovered why the drug was being administered, he said he could not participate. He cited his religious beliefs, cultural background and lack of experience with that area of medicine.
The tribunal acknowledged that his decision was not malicious. It accepted that he acted in good faith and that he felt unprepared and uncomfortable.
Then it punished him anyway.
Good faith was not enough. Lack of experience was not enough. His clinical concerns were not enough. His Christian conscience was not enough.
The injection came first.
var images = [],
index = 0;
images[0] = ““;
images[1] = ““;
images[2] = ““;
images[3] = ““;
index = Math.floor(Math.random() * images.length);
document.write(images[index]);
//done
A Government Tribunal Interprets Christianity
The most dangerous part of the ruling is not the money. It is the breathtaking claim of authority behind it.
The tribunal accepted that Ajaero is a sincere Christian who believes that “God created man and woman.” Yet it ruled that requiring him to participate in this treatment would create only a “trivial or insubstantial” interference with his religious freedom.
A government tribunal had placed itself inside the doctor’s conscience.
It did not simply determine whether he had refused the injection. That fact was never in doubt. It decided whether administering a puberty blocker as part of a gender-transition pathway should genuinely violate his Christian beliefs.
