Information on the mass filing of Human Rights Complaints

Here is the information on the mass filing of Human Rights Complaints on Wednesday April 15th for people interested in participating.
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Firstly, there is some advice for completing the Human Rights complaint action. You can download the form if you haven't already at:

http://www.albertahumanrights.ab.ca/complaintform-guide.pdf

Be sure to select all of Gender, Physical Disabilities, and Mental Disabilities as the grounds for complaint, so that it can be waged from many different angles.

IMPORTANT: It will be helpful to RSVP so that we have an idea how many will be attending. Michelle is the person to contact for Edmonton (cutecandace14@hotmail.com), and Jordenne at jordenne.prescott@gmail.com for Calgary.

Jordenne observes, with regards to the Ontario precedent:
"Three of the four complainants started their treatment process with the "legitimate expectation" of surgery being funded. And while that legitimate expectation does not translate into a right to funding, the Government has a responsibility to ensure the execution of it's various responsibilities does not compromise the dignity and integrity of it's citizens. ... Those of us who have started the process to be treated under the schema provided by the Alberta Government have to be considered if the Government de-lists the procedure."

It is advisable to emphasize this point in your complaint.

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Kris Wells also added the following advice:

I've spoken to the Alberta Human Rights Commission and here is some important information for you to consider if you are making a complaint. The process is not designed to be onerous, so please call the Commission if you need any help or guidance in filing your complaint.

(1) Alberta does not accept multiple class action complaints. Only one complaint is actually needed to address systemic concerns. However, you are still invited to submit individual applications. Some complaints may be grouped together and assigned to one human rights officer.

(2) All those individuals who are on the 'wait list' for treatment or surgery are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to submit a complaint and seek a personal remedy.

(3) Individuals who are not directly impacted by the de-listing may still file a complaint. They would have to demonstrate that there is a reasonable basis for filing a complaint and a contravention of the human rights legislation has taken place. Indicate that you believe this government action is discriminatory. The remedies are different for a policy complaint, rather than a personal complaint.

(4) When filing your complaint, check off 'Gender' and then 'Transgender' and claim mental and physical disability.

*It is easier to remove grounds than to add them later on in the complaint process. So leave all your options open.

(5) Please note: A complaint must be made to the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission within one year after the alleged incident.

(6) All complainants will receive notice from the Commission indicating if their complaint is within jurisdiction of the Commission. This assessment will be made by the Commission’s intake officer. For example, is this a ground protected by the legislation? Does the complaint form outline a reasonable basis for believing that the human rights legislation has been contravened?

Normally, a letter of response from the Commission will be sent to the complainant within 10 days.

(7) There is no fee for filing a complaint. It is not necessary to hire a lawyer to file a complaint. However, you have the choice to appoint someone to assist or represent you in filing a complaint.

You can find information about filing a complaint by visiting:
http://www.albertahumanrights.ab.ca/complaints/information_complainants.asp

(8) There has been some discussion about filing these complaints en masse and inviting the media to attend as a further way to highlight the government’s discriminatory actions. If you would like to participate in this collective action, please hold onto your complaint until the date and time is set. The Commission will not release to the public or media any information on complaints, so when you file your confidentiality will be protected.

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Regarding the mass-filing action, this is to take place on Wednesday April 15th at 9:30 AM. You are not required to disclose anything about yourself to the media, if you're stealth, just tell them that you prefer not to be on record. There will be people present for the media to talk to. But by being present, your numbers give our action strength.

This is not a protest action, we don't want signs or chanting or anything -- our protest IS our filing, so we focus on that, and again, want to be civil and orderly. We also want to put our best face forward, and show people that we are far different from the stereotypical "rabble" assumptions that are often made about us. The HRC people are not our enemy, and in fact they are the people we need to appeal to for support.

In Edmonton, we meet at Beaver Hills Park (Amiskwaskahegan Park) on the north side of Jasper Avenue, at 105 Street at 9:30. We will be proceeding together to the offices at 800 Standard Life Centre, 10405 Jasper Avenue for 10:00.

In Calgary, we meet at the Cenotaph (the monument where they lay the wreaths on Remembrance Day) on the 4th street side of Memorial Park (between 11th and 12th Avenue), also at 9:30. We will be proceeding together to the offices at Suite 310, 525 – 11 Avenue SW for 10:00.

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Take care,
Alberta Transgender Resources: http://www.albertatrans.org/

Jessica Cooper: As a transsexual person, I have no rights

Georgia Straight, BC, Canada
April 6, 2009

Jessica Cooper: As a transsexual person, I have no rights
By Jessica Cooper

I have no rights. I have no right to freedom from discrimination. I
have no right to secure employment. I have no right to a safe place to
live. I don€ ’²t even have the right to go to the washroom in peace. It€ ’²s
amazing that I can sit here in the 21st century, in Canada, and be
able to say that.

Let me say that again slightly differently: Because I€ ’²m a transsexual
person, I have no right to legal protection in case I get
discriminated against for being trans. None at all. How does this
happen? It happens because transsexuals are one of the last
populations not covered under Canada€ ’²s (not to say anything about
British Columbia€ ’²s) human-rights legislation.

Because of this lack, Vancouver Rape Relief and Women€ ’²s Shelter was
able to exclude Kimberly Nixon simply because she was assigned male at
birth. This case was taken all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada,
where on February 1, 2007, the cisgendered (the opposite of
transgendered) judges decided to leave transpeople in legal limbo.
They decided that Kimberly is not enough of a woman to be allowed to
work at a women€ ’²s shelter. Because of this decision, my brothers,
sisters, and I can be kicked out of any public space, we can be fired
simply for the crime of being ourselves, we can be evicted without
recourse, and we can be reviled, harassed, and even physically
attacked merely for daring to use a public washroom.

Granted, few of these things have happened to me because I€ ’²m one of
the lucky ones. I€ ’²m just another middle-aged woman. I blend in well
enough that on most days the very worst that will happen to me is
someone will get a puzzled look on their face as they try and fit me
into one of two mental boxes in their head marked € ’³male€ ’´ or € ’³female€ ’´.
Some of my brothers and especially sisters are not so lucky. They
don€ ’²t € ’³pass€ ’´. They visibly bend the boundaries of gendered expression,
which threatens the identities of cisgendered people. Threatened
people tend to react violently. They may attack, verbally or
physically. They may withhold essential services.

Tyra Hunter was a transwoman in Washington, D.C., who in 1995 was
allowed to bleed to death by emergency workers, who stopped treating
her after discovering she was trans and stood back cracking jokes
while she bled and suffered in front of them. Later after finally
being transported to a hospital, she was left to die, having received
almost no care. None of the emergency workers and hospital staff who
stood back and let her die were ever disciplined.

Threatened employers may choose to fire a transperson rather than be
forced to work with them. Threatened landlords may decide to evict a
transperson. Even the most fundamental portion of my identity is not
mine to control; anyone at any time may choose to deny my identity and
impose their own perceptions upon me. It happens every time I get
called € ’³sir€ ’´.

This has implications that go far beyond the boundaries of the trans
community. How many butch lesbians have been asked to leave a
washroom? How many gay males were bullied in school for being € ’³a
sissy€ ’´? How many times has a homophobic act really been motivated by
the transgression of gender norms? Transgressing gender norms is one
of the severest social € ’³crimes€ ’´, and the punishment is swift and
brutal. Right now, all of what I have listed above is legal. Anyone
can do any of these horrible things and get away with it.

Transpeople are treated equally brutally by the media. It€ ’²s still
socially acceptable to laugh at us, label us deceivers,
hyper-sexualize us, and make our struggles with our bodies the sole
factor of our existence. Look at the characters of Dil in The Crying
Game, Lois Einhorn in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Roberta Muldoon in
The World According to Garp. Look at the controversy surrounding Isis
on America€ ’²s Next Top Model, and the sordid mess that was There€ ’²s
Something About Miriam. The media teaches that treating transsexuals
badly is okay, that we€ ’²re not € ’³real€ ’´ enough to warrant compassion and
decent treatment.

This situation is intolerable, and it must not be allowed to continue.
All is not bleak, however; a solution is being worked toward. Last
summer, B.C.€ ’²s Trans Alliance Society began circulating a petition
asking the legislature to amend the B.C. Human Rights Code € ’³so as to
include and to specify € ’±gender identity and gender expression€ ’² as a
prohibited ground of discrimination for all purposes of that
legislation in British Columbia€ ’´.

I have no rights. So, how about it, Gordon Campbell, may I have my rights?

Jessica Cooper is just another middle-aged woman with a colourful
past. She works for a national retail chain designing department
stores, and when she€ ’²s not doing that she€ ’²s fighting for the right of
transpeople to be themselves with dignity. She encourages anyone
(trans or cisgendered) who wishes to fight beside her to contact the
Trans Alliance Society

€ © 2009 Vancouver Free Press .
http://www.straight.com/article-213065/jessica-cooper-transsexual-person-i-have-no-rights

Inclusion of Sexual Orientation in Human Rights Legislation

From: Mercedes Allen
Sent: Sunday, April 05, 2009 9:34 AM
Subject: Inclusion of Sexual Orientation in Human Rights Legislation

Sorry for the bulk email, but I had to send a note out on this, because when discussions happen behind closed doors, it's easy for people to have the impression that they're not taking place at all. I can't say much more than this (particularily because I'm not in the know, myself), but I thought it important that people know that some dialogue is in fact taking place. Silence is all too often discouraging in our community.

By now, some of you have heard that the Alberta Government is assessing some changes to the Human Rights Act and has a first draft proposal that includes adding sexual orientation to the list of protected entities, but not including gender identity or gender expression. The latter are said to be protected under the category of "gender" already, but this can be subject to interpretation, as happened in a U.S. court with a similar implicit protection recently, where a company dress code based on birth sex was given more weight than a person's gender identity.

This has been largely the result of the respective ministers in the Conservative Party and an unwillingness to discuss gender identity and gender expression, so far. Some of the people who have been pushing for inclusion of sexual orientation have also been pressing them on this point, and plan to continue to do so as the draft proposal goes through debate and changes. It's important that people be aware of that much. These people know that some of us can be called upon to assist in dispelling the myths and representing the community.

I do want people to know, though, some of what they're up against, because if we aren't included in the end, some may find it easy to blame our allies -- which is not fair to them.

Over the past few years, Canada's Human Rights Commissions have been becoming increasingly under fire for a number of things, particularly the enforcement of hate speech laws -- in the case of the federal HRC, the Conservative government has signalled that it intends to remove hate speech provisions as a result of this outcry, which comes mostly from conservative pundits and journalists, but also from the Roman Catholic Church, Albertan protestants (in response to the case between Dr. Darren Lund and Rev. Stephen Boissin about two years or so ago) and white supremacists, some of whom have been able to scrub their backgrounds to portray themselves to the public as innocent victims. Ezra Levant, Mark Steyn, The National Post (all of whom have not surprisingly lost hate-speech cases heard by HRCs), Jonathan Kay and (of course) Margaret Wente have been some of the most visible voices in this, and have repeatedly and loudly used four HRC cases across the country involving transsexuals (Nixon vs. Rape Relief in B.C., a case against a surgeon who refused to perform vaginaplasty touch-ups in Ontario, the reinstatement of GRS coverage in Ontario, and a case that hasn't yet begun against a women-only gym owner who refused entry to a pre-operative transsexual) to assert that HRCs have "lost touch with reality and common sense" (paraphrase). Of course, these cases aren't about hate speech, and when examined are straw arguments, but that hasn't stopped them from winning points with politically-active Canadians. This use of us as the boogeyman likely hasn't encouraged the government to want to consider full inclusion.

And they have to be aware of these criticisms: among the proposed changes to Alberta's HRC are provisions that would allow parents to opt their children out of sex and diversity tolerance education, and a proposal to remove hate speech provisions -- exactly the things that these lobbies are calling for. The inclusion of sexual orientation is not surprising, as it was mandated by the Supreme Court of Canada years ago, and appears to be offered more as a concession now (the carrot being offered to look progressive), than anything.

That doesn't mean that anyone is giving up. But I do want people to know that if it doesn't happen or appear (in the media) to be discussed, it's not a case of being forgotten.

I'm mulling over what else we can do, and am open to suggestions.

--
Take care,
Mercedes Allen
Alberta Transgender Resources: http://www.albertatrans.org/

Used by Permission