[Blog/Commentary] [USA] Canadian Conservative Senate leadership refuses to allow a vote on transgender equality

[Stephanie Stevens]

Daily Kos, USA


Thu Jul 04, 2013 at 04:00 PM PDT

Canadian Conservative Senate leadership refuses to allow a vote on
transgender equality

by rserven <http://www.dailykos.com/user/rserven> for TransAction
<http://www.dailykos.com/blog/TransAction>


At a June 10 Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights hearing on Bill
C-279 testimony was overwhelmingly supportive
<http://imagesonconcretewordsonpaper.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/witness-testimony-overwhelmingly-in-favour-of-c-279/>
of the passage of the bill, which would add protections on the basis
of gender identity to the Canadian Human Rights Act and the hate
crimes section of the Criminal Code.

There was only one dissenting voice, Diane Watts of REAL Women of
Canada. As usual Watts argued that transgender Canadians were already
covered, that the definitions used in C-279 are vague, and that the
bill would harm transgender Canadians rather than help them.

Trans individuals should be given “compassionate counseling rather
than be encouraged in their dissatisfaction with a gender engrained in
their DNA,” she concluded, urging the Senate not to give trans
Canadians “special rights.”

--Xtra!, Canada

This bill is about equality for everybody.

The washroom issue is a very minor fear that has been raised by
some. There has been and continues to be possibilities and options
for reasonable accommodation. I think we can comfortably put those
fears to rest.

--Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, Canadian Civil Liberties Association

[If the bill fails because of the bathroom fear] we are in fact
holding a whole community of people hostage because of what somebody
else might do that is wrong. We simply don’t do that in our legal
system and we don’t do that in our society.

--Grant Mitchell, Senate sponsor

Seventeen US states and 143 US cities have similar legislation in place.

In none of these jurisdictions has there been an increase in
unlawful or inappropriate activity after this legislation has been
passed. The perception is that there’s a line-up of people,
transgender people, waiting until the bill passes and then suddenly
they’re going to be breaking the law. I think that’s unrealistic to
have that expectation. There are no more criminally minded people
within that community then there would be in any other community,
would that not be correct?

--Jane Cordy, Liberal senator

Watts responded by citing incidents where prisoners who transitioned
are now at risk from fellow inmates.

I’m not sure I understand the connection between your answer and
the question that was asked.

--Mendelsohn

The first place we have to start with is invisibility.
Invisibility, in our view, goes together with the earliest and worst
part of discrimination against any marginalized people.

--Mendelsohn

Bill C-279 assures protection for people like myself with gender
identity needs. Our needs are not willful, they are not of passing
choice and they are not things that we can simply ignore. For
transgendered folks identity issues are matters of life and death. Of
living openly, honestly and freely without fear of extra prejudice,
malice or worse, violence. We do not ask or deserve extra rights. We
need the same rights as our Canadian brothers and sisters of all
races, creeds, denominations and identities.

--Sara Davis Buechner
<http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/05/1184787/-How-transition-costs-us-our-talents>
, pianist

Discrimination protection is one thing but just recognizing the
trans community as an entity under the law gives validity to us and
that will have impact within the community to people who maybe don’t
believe in themselves or have very poor self-esteem. If you can point
to a law that has our name right in it, then there’s some credibility
and that helps an awful lot.

--Amanda Ryan, Gender Mosaic

For an example of why the the bill is necessary, the senators need
look no further than a recent hearing before Quebec's rental board
<http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Rental+board+hearing+discriminatory+woman/8589034/story.html>
. Tomee Sojourner is a black and lesbian management consultant who
has filed a complaint against the administrative judge who handled her
case involving a former landlord who had failed to address a mold
problem in her apartment.

When I first went into the hearing room, my expectation was that I
would get a fair hearing from the presiding judge and that both sides
would have their cases heard.

--Sojourner

Judge Luce De Palma referred to Sojourner as a male 12 times during
the 15-minute hearing, even though Sojourner told her she was a woman.

I can’t explain her reasoning. All I can say is part of her
comment was, ‘It’s your hair,’ and I in fact have no hair.

--Sojourner

De Palma also conducted the hearing in French even though Sojourner
requested it be held in English.

The judge was unable to see who I was, and left me without an
opportunity to talk about my case because every time I attempted to
speak, she would either cut me off or be very dismissive. She didn’t
want to hear from me, basically.

--Sojourner

Asked why she filed a complaint about the judge, when so very few
people do, Sojourner responded:

I want folks like myself, who move in marginalized spaces, to at
least know that if they go in front of a hearing in Quebec, that
they’re able to get an impartial judgment based on facts from the
case, and not how they’re perceived as an individual.

So anyway, to get back to tracking the bill
<http://www.dailyxtra.com/canada/news/c-279-vote-stalled-conservative-senators-mitchell-claims?market=209>
, C-279 passed out of the committee favorably. That placed it one
vote short of going to the Governor General for Royal Assent. Well,
except on June 13, lesbian Senator Nancy Ruth added an amendment which
adds "ethnic origin, sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation" to
the bill. The category of "sex" had not previously been included in
the hate crimes portion of the Criminal Code.

If passed and the bill is also passed, the bill would be required to
go back to the House of Commons. If the amendment fails and the bill
is passed, it would go to royal assent.

Mitchell does not expect any Conservative senators to support Ruth's
amendment, but he does not believe the amendment will be the reason
that C-279 doesn't pass. He claims that the unamended bill has enough
Conservative support that it would pass…if it could only get a vote.

And that's the problem. Conservative leader Marjory LeBreton refuses
to allow a vote on the bill.

The real disappointment that has become clear in the last few days
is they are not going to allow it to come to a vote. The bill will
not be voted on, amended or un-amended.

They are not calling a vote because the leadership in the Senate
doesn’t want to have a vote. Because the prime minister voted against
it, probably.

--Mitchell

If no vote takes place, C-279 would return to the Senate in the
fall…unless the Parliament is prorogued (dissolved), in which case we
have to start over from square one.

I deeply care about this. My caucus deeply cares about this. It
is a betrayal of democracy that elected MPs representing 65 percent of
the popular vote supported this bill and the Conservative leadership
in the Senate won’t even allow a vote.

We don’t have to depend on the House of Commons to do it again,
and we have time to work [and] continue to lobby. The community has
been wonderful, just wonderful, in the way they have been lobbying,
writing, phoning and meeting. We have a number of possibilities where
we can change minds, possibly, get a vote and get this thing passed.
Short of that, we need to change the government.

--Mitchell

There was a ray of hope this afternoon when LeBreton announced she is
stepping down <http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Marjory+LeBreton+says+shes+stepping+down+Conservative/8615854/story.html>
as Conservative leader.


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http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/04/1221231/-Canadian-Conservative-Senate-leadership-refuses-to-allow-a-vote-on-transgender-equality