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She said shelter staff told her: “We’re all about inclusion and it’s unfortunate that you feel this way… Deal with it or leave.”

She was offered the alternative of moving to a room that, because it leads to a fire escape, does not even have a door that closes. She declined.

An appropriate balancing of the rights of both women may require that one of the women be provided with non-shared accommodation

With the help of a family friend, she inquired about her own rights with the Human Rights Legal Support Centre, which provides guidance to potential human rights complainants.

Her friend, Peta Nankivell, described Hanna as “brash,” and said that in the phone call she was angry and under stress, and used male pronouns to emphasize her objections. That led the advisor to end the call, concerned that it was in fact Hanna who was violating human rights law by her words and behaviour — which could lead the roommate to file a complaint of her own, putting the Centre in a conflict of interest.

“What you’ve told me is potentially discriminatory and potentially a violation of the law, and that individual may file against you in the future, and our role is to keep those conflicts of interest in mind,” the advisor said. No one from the Centre was available to comment Thursday.

Renu Mandhane, Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, said that as a general rule, women’s shelters have the right to restrict their accommodation to women.

“A trans person should have access to the shelter that matches their lived gender identity,” she said in a statement to the Post. “However, this does not necessarily require that a cis and trans woman share the same bedroom. An appropriate balancing of the rights of both women may require that one of the women be provided with non-shared accommodation.”

The Ontario Human Rights Code says everyone has a right to equal treatment with respect to services and occupation of accommodation without discrimination because of various grounds, including gender identity and expression. It also says everyone who occupies accommodation has a right to freedom from harassment by other occupants because of the same grounds.

• Email: jbrean@nationalpost.com | Twitter: josephbrean