Liberal and Conservative MPs sparred in a House of Commons committee meeting after a Conservative MP asked Canada’s chief science advisor to define what a woman is.
During Chief Science Advisor Mona Nemer’s appearance before the parliamentary science and research committee on June 8, Tory MP Vincent Ho confirmed with Nemer that she had previously been a molecular geneticist.
“You know a thing or two about X and Y chromosomes, so I wanted to ask you, what is the definition of a woman?” Ho asked.
Liberal MP John-Paul Danko interjected on a point of order, saying that it was Pride month, and that under House of Commons Standing order 18, MPs are not allowed to use “personal attacks, insults, and offensive language.”
“Where this question is going is highly offensive. I'd ask the member to withdraw his comments,” Danko said.
In response, Ho noted that the recent Canadian census asks specific questions about gender and biological sex, and he wanted to understand Nemer’s view on the issue. Liberal MP Taleeb Noormohamed then commented, saying that Nemer was appearing before the committee as the chief science advisor.
“Her opinion on any matter as an individual is actually not relevant to her mandate,” Noormohamed said, requesting that Ho reframe his question ”within the context of her mandate.”
Committee Chair Salma Zahid then allowed for Ho’s question to go forth, to which Nemer responded, “Genetically speaking, we define female as in the animal kingdom as someone with two X chromosomes.”
Ho said he sought Nemer’s view after previously asking National Research Council President Mitch Davies at the committee for a definition of a woman, and characterized Davies’s answer of the definition as “just a checkbox.”
“It’s important that we know what the definition of a woman would be because we’re celebrating the achievements of women in STEM,” Ho said.
Ho had asked Davies on June 5 how the organization would define a woman for the purposes of hiring and funding. Davies said that people self-identify when they apply for jobs.
“This all relates to their lived experience and how they’re deciding to fill out a questionnaire, and we accept that,” he said.
Following the release of conservative commentator Matt Walsh’s 2022 documentary “What Is a Woman?”, many conservative politicians have similarly asked left-leaning politicians to define what a woman is.
In the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in 2022, Ketanji Brown Jackson was asked during her confirmation hearing by Senator Marsha Blackburn if she could provide “a definition for the word ‘woman.’” Jackson replied that she could not do this because “I’m not a biologist.”
In Australia, Liberal Senator Claire Chandler repeatedly asked Sex Discrimination Commissioner Anna Cody in 2025 about the biological definitions of a man and a woman. Cody did not provide a biological definition, instead discussing the Australia’s Sex Discrimination Act. The act does not contain an explicit statutory definition of “woman” as “adult human female” or of “man” as “adult human male.”
