In a first-of-its-kind lawsuit for Canada, an Indigenous transwoman is suing the Province of Alberta, a Montreal hospital, two physicians and one unnamed nurse for damages after undergoing vaginoplasty surgery in 2009. This is likely the first of many such lawsuits in Canada.

In a statement of claim filed in the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta last month, Lois Cardinal, 36, alleges that she underwent penile-inverting gender-reassignment surgery without proper consent, without having met surgical criteria, without adequate counselling or knowledge about the procedure, under “financial coercion and fraudulent misrepresentation” and after having verbally withdrawn consent, to a staff nurse, on the day of the surgery. She was 21 at the time.