Montreal-based National Post columnist, author, and co-author of Unsporting with Dr. Linda Blade. Barbara holds an MA in English Literature from McGill University and has written for the National Post since 2003. In April 2026, she faced human rights complaints — filed by Jonathan Yaniv — for using male pronouns and a prior name in her public commentary.
Unsporting: How Trans Activism and Science Denial Are Destroying Sport (2021, co-author with Linda Blade)
Unsporting, co-authored with Dr. Linda Blade, provides a thorough, evidence-based examination of the physiological advantages conferred by male puberty — advantages that are not meaningfully reversed by hormone therapy — and documents how those advantages have been systematically discounted in the development of gender identity policies in sport at every level. Drawing on Dr. Blade's expertise as a former national champion and sport performance coach with a PhD in Kinesiology, and Kay's long career as a journalist and cultural commentator, the book traces the specific harms to female athletes in terms of competition outcomes, scholarships, and physical safety, and documents the professional consequences faced by athletes and coaches who have spoken out.
The book traces the adoption of gender identity eligibility policies from provincial school athletic associations through national sport bodies to the International Olympic Committee, and concludes with a concrete proposal for restoring sex-based categories in competitive sport. It became an Amazon bestseller on publication and remains the most comprehensive Canadian treatment of the issue. It is also, notably, co-authored by two women with no institutional protection — a National Post columnist and a track coach — who wrote it because they believed the case needed to be made and no one else was making it in Canada.
Biography
Barbara Kay is a Canadian columnist who has written for the National Post since 2003, and also contributes to The Post Millennial and the Epoch Times. She holds a BA (Honours) in English Language and Literature from the University of Toronto and an MA in English Literature from McGill University, and taught literature and composition at Concordia University and Montreal CEGEPs for many years.
She is the author or co-author of four books:
Barbara sits on the advisory or executive boards of the Canadian Association for Equality, the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, and the Montreal Press Club. She received the National Coalition of Men's 2009 award for gender fairness in journalism. In April 2026, she became the subject of multiple human rights complaints filed with the BC Human Rights Tribunal by Jessica Simpson (formerly Jonathan Yaniv), challenging her public commentary and use of male pronouns and a prior name. The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms is representing her in the matter.
Throughout her career, Barbara has written consistently on topics others avoided — including the risks of gender identity legislation for women and children, the capture of professional institutions by activist ideology, and the free expression consequences for those who name biological reality plainly. Her willingness to state unfashionable positions clearly, in a national publication, for over two decades has made her one of the most consistently courageous voices in Canadian journalism.
