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“I have informed the college that I do not accept the way this matter has been handled. I do not feel that I am guilty of any charge, and I have told them also that I am going to take the matter up in New Zealand when I go back, which is very soon,” she said.

Anderson denied making the statements, saying instead that she was only trying to warn her patient about the “rocky road” the patient was embarking on by changing gender.

“Major surgery is offered to these people. This major surgery to me seems absolutely shocking. And I wanted to just warn her (that) there’s more to changing your gender then changing your name. And this particular person was so distinctly feminine, I couldn’t see how she would ever make this transgender.

“I just thought, ‘This is not going to work for you.’ I almost felt, ‘You’ve had a little aberration of the mind.’ She was so young, she was only 18. And I wanted her to come back and see me. I wanted to work out, ‘Why have you gone on this route?’ ”

The “little boys” remark was in reference to a Maclean’s magazine article on gender variance, she said.

“I have felt that I could not, sadly, communicate with the college. I could not speak with someone who could understand that I was a physician and I was only concerned for this person,” Anderson said.

Anderson, 75, said she earned her medical licence in 1969. She has worked on and off in Saskatchewan and other countries since 1995, according to the penalty presentation. She has retired and will soon return to New Zealand, she said.

“This incident has certainly made this last year not the pleasant, happy time it could have been.”

jcharlton@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/J_Charlton