Sudbury-based transgender rights advocate Rita OLink said she had to keep her excitement in check after the federal government introduced a bill Tuesday that would add gender identity as a prohibited ground for discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act.
“This is the third go around,” OLink said. “With the way we've been bitten with this both federally and provincially, I have to temper my elation and hold it back until the day it passes through the Senate and receives royal assent.”
Two previous attempts to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to recognize gender identity made it through the House of Commons but died in the Senate.
“The big thing we heard from those senators is that they didn't want me in the bathroom with their granddaughters,” said OLink.
In addition to amendments to the Canadian Human Rights Act, Bill C-16 would also update hate speech provisions in the Criminal code to protect transgender persons.
The federal government introduced the bill on the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.
“Today is about ensuring that all people — regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity — feel safe and secure, and empowered to freely express themselves," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement before the bill was introduced.
“As a society, we have taken many important steps toward recognizing and protecting the legal rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning or two-spirited community," he said adding, "There remains much to be done, though.
“Far too many people still face harassment, discrimination and violence for being who they are. This is unacceptable.”
Ontario became the first province in Canada to recognize gender identity in its human rights legislation on June 12, 2012, and several other provinces have followed suite since then.
But OLink said that while provincial laws have take major steps forward, they have created a national “patchwork” where gender identity is not recognized equally in every jurisdiction.
“Now it's going to be from coast to coast,” she said, referring to the federal government's announcement Tuesday.
OLink said she plans to lobby Parliament to pass the bill, and would like to testify to the Senate about the impact it would have on her and other transgender persons in northeastern Ontario and smaller communities across Ontario.
She added Northern Ontario, and Sudbury in particular, can be held up as examples in furthering the rights of transgender persons and welcoming them as equal members of the community.
“Canada is taking the lead,” she said.
