Canada’s federal public servants were shifted to a new extended health plan on July first. You probably don’t care, but bear with me on this one.

The transition has not been smooth. These may be expected hiccups of moving hundreds of thousands of people to a new plan, or it may be a disaster in the making like the legendary Phoenix pay system.

There have been lots of complaints. People can’t get through to the help line. Inputted information is not being registered.

Given that the public service is Ottawa’s biggest employer, and the number of people impacted, (about 90,000 not ocunting retirees also covered by the plan) it makes sense that this would be a news story. But it wasn’t; until Wednesday.

What suddenly made it newsworthy? Someone who identifies as a trans woman said they can’t get service. That makes it a page one story in our biggest newspaper.

I’ve been aware of the issues for three weeks. I suspect the newspaper has received many complaints about the changeover. But it now becoming a trans issue is what makes it newsworthy. Because being trans is ‘in” and automatically justifies coverage.

I’m sure the editor would dispute that interpretation. I’m not sure they could back it up though.

The trans population, by its own admission, is a small one. Yet it seems to receive out-of-proportion news coverage.

There are thousands of people having issues with the new health care provider. Have been for weeks. Why was that not a news story earlier?

If a tree falls in the forest, does anybody hear?