A British Columbia family doctor has been ordered to pay C$28,100, about £15,018 ($20,117) after the province's Human Rights Tribunal found he discriminated against a transgender teenager by refusing a prescribed puberty blocker.

Dr Henry Ajaero, who has practised in Delta since 2014, declined to inject Lupron at a 5 March 2021 appointment. Vice-chair Devyn Cousineau issued the decision on 1 September 2026 in Child Q v Ajaero (No. 2), 2026 BCHRT 189.

Tribunal Finds Refusal Discriminatory

Child Q, then 14 and anonymised by a publication ban, had been Ajaero's patient for about four years. In late 2020 the teenager came out as transgender and was struggling with puberty.

At the mother's request Ajaero referred the patient to the BC Gender Clinic, where an endocrinologist prescribed Lupron, a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist given every three to four weeks to pause endogenous puberty.

Child Q had the option of administering the injection herself, but she and her family preferred to have it given by a healthcare professional. On the appointment day Ajaero learned the purpose of the syringe while the pair waited and told the mother privately that he would not administer it for religious and cultural reasons.

His chart recorded that he understood the injection to be for gender reassignment. Mother and child left without the shot. The teenager received Lupron that afternoon at a walk-in clinic and later obtained a new family doctor.

Cousineau found a breach of section 8 of the Human Rights Code. She accepted that the refusal was not malicious and arose in a busy pandemic practice, but wrote that 'the Code is concerned with impacts and not intent'.

Child Q was denied medical services because of gender identity.

Religious Belief and Scope of Practice Rejected

Ajaero argued that giving the injection would go against his religious belief that God created man and woman, and that Lupron for gender-related treatment lay outside his expertise.

Cousineau rejected both defences. Cousineau found that Lupron was intended to pause puberty and was not, in itself, medication for 'gender reassignment'.

She also held that a family doctor qualified to give injections had not shown the service fell outside his practice.

An application to admit expert evidence from medical ethicist Gary Goldsand was refused as unnecessary.

A request to anonymise the doctor in the final decision was denied after the tribunal found insufficient evidence to justify restricting publication.

Campaigner Billboard Chris wrote on X that doctors are now being fined for refusing to violate their conscience and that the decision must be appealed.

Tribunal Award After Puberty Blocker Refusal

Key facts from the ruling are straightforward. The hearing ran from 4 to 7 May 2026, with closing submissions in July.

The tribunal awarded compensation for injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect plus the complainant's expert-evidence bill, a combined £15,018 ($20,117).

A claim for the mother's lost wages was refused, as was an order that the decision be posted in the clinic. Ajaero was told to cease the same or similar contraventions.

The case has drawn comment on conscientious objection in family medicine. The decision concerned a Lupron prescription made by a paediatric endocrinologist at the B.C. Gender Clinic in 2021. No appeal or judicial review was identified in searches conducted as of 17 September 2026.

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