Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has inspired thirst on the internet with photos of himself in his youth. Photo: Getty Images

Discrimination against transgender people will be formally banned across Canada, and crimes against them will be included in the country's hate crimes law, under new legislation introduced on Tuesday by the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The legislation comes at a time of intense debate over transgender rights in the United States, and it fulfills a pledge Trudeau made during his election campaign last year. The government timed the introduction of the bill to coincide with an International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.

"Everyone deserves to live free of stigma, persecution and discrimination - no matter who they are or whom they love," Trudeau said in a statement. "Today is about ensuring that all people - regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity - feel safe and secure and empowered to freely express themselves."


Jody Wilson-Raybould, the justice minister, said the government had acted on recommendations from advocates for transgender people, and had written the legislation to cover both gender identity, or how people define themselves, and gender expression, or how people choose to act, dress or otherwise display their identity.

"Diversity and inclusion have long been among the values Canadians embrace," Wilson-Raybould said in the foyer of the House of Commons here on Tuesday, accompanied by transgender activists, some of them minors. A flag used by transgender activists stood nearby.

In the past, courts and human rights tribunals in Canada have generally decided to hear cases involving transgender people, but they did so on the basis of broad provisions in existing law prohibiting discrimination based on sex, said Brenda Cossman, a law professor at the University of Toronto and the director of its Mark S. Bonham Center for Sexual Diversity Studies.

"This just makes that crystal clear," Cossman said, adding that she believed it was nevertheless a significant step.

The government's proposals include changes to both the federal criminal code and the Canadian Human Rights Act. The changes to the criminal code will have a broader effect, because criminal law is solely a federal responsibility in Canada, while each province has its own human rights charter.

Current law makes it a crime to make "hate propaganda" against members of specific groups; the proposed legislation would add transgender people to the list. It would also oblige judges to consider in sentencing decisions whether crimes were caused by or aggravated because of discrimination against transgender people.

Though the federal human rights act applies only to citizens' interactions with the federal government or with federally regulated industries like airlines and phone companies, Cossman said that the proposed revisions would still bring significant changes, and that the federal government was "leading by example."

She said that only eight of Canada's 13 provinces and territories specifically included transgender people under their human rights laws, and that only five covered both gender identity and gender expression.

Canada's House of Commons has twice passed similar legislation during the previous Conservative government, but objections from Conservatives in the country's appointed Senate stalled the bills until they died when the parliamentary sessions ended.

The new legislation is expected to have an easier time. The earlier bills were proposed by members of the opposition New Democratic Party, but the Senate has traditionally been reluctant to stall bills the government proposes. If it does so, the government has more resources to overcome roadblocks than opposition members of Parliament do.

Alexandre Baril, an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa's institute of feminist and gender studies, said the new bills were welcome but insufficient on their own. "We cannot count on legal reforms to protect transgender people," Baril said. "It will be a first step, but after that, there are so many things we need to focus on."

Among other things, he said, there was still an acute need to improve health support, particularly for mental health needs, for transgender people in Canada.

The New York Times