Canadian powerlifter April Hutchinson banned after calling transgender competitor a 'biological male' on the Piers Morgan Show

Powerlifter April Hutchinson has been suspended for two years by the Canadian Powerlifting Union after her controversial statements regarding trans women competing in women's sports.

Hutchinson originally reached out to the CPU asking them to ban trans athletes from women's powerlifting when fellow competitor and trans woman Anne Andres set a new Canadian women's national record.

Forty-year-old Andres lifted a combined weight of 597.5 kilograms in the deadlift, squat and benchpress in August at the Canadian Powerlifting Union’s Western Canadian Championship.

This placed her combined lifts at over 200 kilograms more than SuJan Gill, who finished second in the competition. With this not only did Anne set a national record but she also set an unofficial world record in the women's powerlifting category.

April Hutchinson appeared on the Piers Morgan Uncensored show, where she expressed her displeasure with the CPU allowing trans women to compete in the women's category.

"Powerlifting is a pure strength sport. Males have an advantage of around 60 to 70% over females," she told Morgan.

She went on to add that the Canadian Powerlifting Union's lack of action was 'disheartening and disgusting'.

"The whole thing is disgusting. It's disgraceful. It's disheartening. I've been threatened with suspension. Two weeks ago, I received a letter from my Federation, stating that I cannot call Anne a biological male. It's disheartening that the Federation allows this to happen. I am the one being punished for speaking the truth," said Hutchinson.

April Hutchinson was suspended from competing for two years by the CPU on November 7, due to multiple violations of the Code of Conduct and the Social Media Policy.

Reacting to the news, Hutchinson wrote on X (formerly Twitter):

''I now face a 2-year ban by the CPU for speaking publicly about the unfairness of biological males being allowed to taunt female competitors & loot their winnings. Apparently, I have failed in my gender-role duties as “supporting actress” in the horror show that is my #sport right now. Naturally, the CPU deemed MY written (private) complaint of the male bullying to be “frivolous and vexatious."

April Hutchinson and Anne Andres' history

According to an article April Hutchinson wrote for the Daily Mail, she and Anne Andres originally met online where they became friends over their shared interest in powerlifting.

Hutchinson claims that Andres described herself as a she-boy at the time but the former wasn't aware of the implications of the word. In her words, Hutchinson only found out that Anne was a trans woman after the duo argued about trans athlete Laurel Hubbard participating in the women's category at the Tokyo Olympics.

Since then, there has been a significant hostility between the two, as Anne Andres continues to compete while April Hutchinson looks to have trans women banned from women's powerlifting.