Source: Canadian Press

Northwest Territories first in Canada to pass law
prohibiting gender identity discrimination

YELLOWKNIFE, Northwest Territories - November 5, 2002 -
The Northwest Territories has become the first region
in Canada to prohibit discrimination on the grounds of gender identity.

As part of the territory's new Human Rights Act, a person cannot be
discriminated against because of their gender identity.

Brendan Bell, the member of the legislative assembly who headed the
committee that drafted the bill, said it seemed only logical to include
gender identity in the new law.

"We can't keep our heads in the sand and we felt it was the right thing
to do," he said.

"The courts certainly are deciding that it falls under the
discrimination bounds and if the courts are saying it then it was our
inkling to put it in."

The legislation defines gender identity as anyone born one gender, but
feels they are of the other gender. This includes people who have had a
sex-change operation and those who live their lives as the opposite sex
without surgical changes.

Bell said to his knowledge, the community [of] transgendered people is
small in the N.W.T. and there was no outcry during public consultation.

Still the law needed to be written, he added.

Zoe Raemer, a spokeswoman for OutNorth, the Territories' gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgendered rights group, said she is happy with the new
legislation.

"I think it's a very positive step, and the government of the Northwest
Territories is showing real leadership in this area," Raemer said.

"We didn't have to argue to get sexual orientation or transgendered
included in the list of prohibited grounds."

John Fisher, executive director of EGALE, Canada's national rights group
for gender identity, hopes the N.W.T. law passed last week will lead
other provinces to take action.

"The inclusion of this ground sends a message loud and clear:
discrimination against transgendered people is just plain wrong, and
must end," Fisher said.

"Hopefully, this initiative by the Northwest Territories will encourage
other jurisdictions to follow suit."

While most members of the legislature were in favour of the change,
North Slave member Leon Lafferty wondered if the law would give a
transgendered women the right to use a men's washroom.

"I sort of have a problem," Lafferty said. "How we can protect people
and their privacy."

But Katherine Peterson, the legislature's legal counsel, dismissed
Lafferty's question.

"I would think that it's appropriate for the employer to require that
you use the facilities appropriate to your biology," Peterson said. "And
until that biology changes through the miracles of science that's a
reasonable requirement."

The Canadian Human Rights Commission and the British Columbia Human
Rights Commission have both recommended that discrimination on the
grounds of gender identity be prohibited.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission has implemented a policy to accept
complaints based on gender identity, although it has not been
incorporated into law.

In addition to extending rights to transgendered people, the new bill
bans publication of hate materials and extends protection from
discrimination to grounds of social condition, political belief,
political association and family affiliation.

The next step in the N.W.T., Bell said, is to set up a human rights
commission - a task he expects to take at least a year to complete.

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