An amendment to Bill C-279 exempts federal protection for transgender individuals entering “sex-specific” washrooms.
The senate passed the private member’s bill, introduced two years ago, on Feb. 25 to bolster human rights for transgender people. It aspires to incorporate gender identity into the Canadian Human Rights Act and protect trans individuals from instances of hatred under the Criminal Code.
“The bill passed at the House of Commons two years ago would have extended protection under the Human Rights Act to include gender identity, which would have given blanket protection to anyone from harassment, discrimination on the basis of gender identity in any context, in any setting anywhere,” says Jane Moloney, a health services and policy consultant for all six community health centres in Ottawa.
However, Conservative Sen. Donald Plett successfully proposed an amendment that would exempt the legislation from protecting transgender people when accessing facilities corresponding to their biological sex such as restrooms, women’s shelters, prisons, or change rooms. Certain public spaces, according to Plett, should remain sex exclusive.
“The argument that was brought forward was that if you granted people these rights then predatory men, particularly pedophiles, would be able to dress up as women and go and hang out in women’s washrooms to prey upon children,” says Moloney.
“So, of course, that pushes every button and every trigger that is going to work with someone who isn’t educated with transgender issues, trans women in particular.”
There is a perception among some people that trans women are men in dresses without acknowledging that trans women are women, says Moloney.
Transgender persons are not “barred” from accessing these spaces – they are just not protected by federal law.
“It doesn’t ban people from accessing washrooms,” says Moloney. “What it (the bill) does is restricts the application of the proposed change to the human rights legislation.”
Transgender rights and protections will continue at a provincial level. Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland are provinces that already have human rights legislation protecting transgender people.
“We firmly stand on the side of expanded human rights protections and strongly oppose wrongheaded amendments that the senate made to build Bill C-279,” says Ottawa Centre MPP Yasir Naqvi. “We in Ontario worked very hard in changing our human rights code in 2012. We have prohibited discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression period. No exceptions whatsoever.”
Naqvi, Ontario’s minister of community safety and correctional services, consulted a number of stakeholders, including trans communities and the Ontario Human Rights Commission, to create a policy hailed as being hugely progressive in North America.
“We place people based on their own gender identity or expression,” says Naqvi. “So if an individual says they’re female, we will place them in a female institution and vice-versa. We respect the name they prefer to be called and the pronoun. It’s their decision. We also work with them in terms of ensuring that their accommodation is safe.”
To Moloney, recognition of the transgender plight and the importance of ensuring security in certain public areas is paramount.
“For someone who’s an advocate for trans rights, I am concerned about creating safe spaces where trans people can live without fear and go to the washroom in a public place,” says Moloney. “This is about fear of violence.”