Trudeau Gov't introduces bill to protect transgender Canadians from discrimination & hate speech
Click to viewThe Trudeau government introduced on Tuesday federal legislation that would guarantee legal and human rights protection to transgender people across Canada, casting it as the latest in a Liberal tradition of human rights advancements.
"I'm proud to say that moments ago, I introduced legislation, Bill C-16 ... that would ensure that Canadians will be free to identify themselves and to express their gender as they wish while being protected against discrimination and hate," said Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould adding that, "because as Canadians, we should feel free and safe to be ourselves."
The proposed legislation was met with loud cheers and applause from several members and advocates of the transgender community who were invited to join the justice minister on the occasion of International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.
Bill C-16 would update the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code to include the terms 'gender identity' and 'gender expression'.
While the inclusion of gender identity and expression has been in the making for over a decade, this is the first time such legislation is being proposed by a sitting government.
If passed, the legislation would make it illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender identity or expression. It would also extend hate speech laws to include the two terms.
Criminal laws would also be updated to make it a hate crime when someone is targeted because of their gender identity or gender expression, meaning judges would have to consider it as an aggravating factor in deciding what sentence to impose.
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YAY! This has been a long time coming