Legal "Protection" of Gender Identity and Expression More Harmful than Helpful?
Landmark charter challenge launched as Bill C-389 raises debate
by Jesse Grass, Natalie Gray
http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/3801MONTREAL—"Remember Stonewall?" read a banner dropped by two young people before they were arrested at this year's Trans-* Day of Remembrance in Ottawa. They were asking the community to remember a landmark riot against state repression and police brutality, led by Sylvia Rivera, a trans- woman of colour. The event is commonly known as "the hairpin drop heard around the world," and remembered as having catalyzed North American trans- organizing.
In 1969, the year of the Stonewall Uprising in New York, it was hard to believe that a politician would ever seek to better the lives of trans- people; however, NDP MP Bill Siksay of Burnaby-Douglas hopes to do just that. Bill C-389, introduced by Siksay, would add gender identity and gender expression to the list of protected classes in the hate crimes section of the Criminal Code of Canada, and also to the Canada Human Rights Act, which protects against discrimination in housing and employment. On December 8, 2010, the bill passed a Report Stage standing vote, which qualifies it for two further hours of debate and a final vote in its third reading in February or March 2011.
