VANCOUVER—A Vancouver human-rights tribunal has ruled there’s no room for public debate about whether transgender people are who they say they are.

Well-known trans advocate Morgane Oger filed the complaint against Christian activist Bill Whatcott after he distributed flyers disparaging her for being a trans woman.

The 104-page ruling, which goes into detail about the types of discrimination trans people face, is a win for trans rights in B.C. and across the country, said Susanna Allevato Quail, Oger’s lawyer.

“This decision is really a landmark decision in establishing the scope of protections under the human-rights code for transgender people,” she said.

In defence of the flyers, Whatcott had argued that he was contributing to important public debate about the morality of being transgender. The judgment rejects this argument, Quail explained.

It is no longer “a legitimate subject of public debate, whether or not it’s OK to be transgender or whether transgender people are real,” she said.

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The decision reads that this so-called debate of whether trans people exist and are entitled to dignity “is as valuable to ongoing public debate as whether one race is superior to another.”

The flyers Whatcott distributed described Oger as a “biological male” and a “transvestite” who is “embracing transgender propaganda and trying to live a lie.” They referenced Oger’s pre-transition name alongside a photo of her before she transitioned.

The flyers were distributed in the Vancouver-False Creek riding in 2017 when Oger was running for office with the B.C. NDP.

Oger’s human-rights complaint said the flyers were discriminatory and hateful. Whatcott denied the allegations, asserting that his freedom of speech and religion entitled him to publish his views on Oger.

Whatcott told the Star that the ruling “doesn’t matter,” and he has no confidence in the system. He plans to continue distributing flyers about Oger and told the Star he will do so at an upcoming event in Kamloops this weekend.

“I’m not going to shut up,” he said, adding he has no intention of paying the fines ordered by the tribunal, both because he doesn’t want to and because he doesn’t have the money.

Oger said she is relieved by the decision but is also feeling emotionally drained, having just read through the decision before speaking with the Star.

“I am really so happy, that in a tribunal, using the law, we finally put it down that someone publishing hateful material that says that a transgender woman is a man, got in trouble,” she said.

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“It was just very vindicating to read the analysis by the court, but so awful to relive the moments, because I can’t get them out of my head and my heart and that’s awful.”

Transgender people have been protected by B.C. human-rights law since 2016 and by Canadian human-rights law since 2017.

As outlined in the ruling, “despite some gains, transgender people remain among the most marginalized in our society.” Their lives are marked by “disadvantage, prejudice, stereotyping and vulnerability.”

Back in 2017, after Whatcott distributed the flyers, Oger feared for her safety and on the advice of police employed various personal security tactics, the ruling explains. She also had to tell her children to pay close attention to strangers and that somebody might want to hurt her because they “(hate) me because of who I am.”

Reached while she was on a ski vacation with her children, Oger said she would take her kids out for hot chocolate and share the news.

“I’m going to give my kids a hug and explain to them how this terrible period is behind us now,” she said.

In the ruling, posted on Wednesday, the tribunal judge ordered Whatcott to pay Oger $35,000 in compensation for injury to her dignity, feelings and self-respect. Whatcott was also ordered to pay Oger an additional $20,000 for his improper conduct during and before the hearings.

In discussing the discrimination that trans people experience, the ruling says that “unlike other groups protected by the (human-rights) code, transgender people often find their very existence the subject of actual public debate,” resulting in some people believing trans people are less worthy of respect and basic rights.

The ruling also describes that during the hearing, Oger was repeatedly and deliberately attacked “based on nothing more than a belief that her very existence is an affront.”

Quail said the ruling is a dream come true for trans rights.

“(It) is really so encouraging,” Quail said.

“To have the tribunal say, ‘You know you can’t argue that you are just commenting on a legitimate public issue,’ because this is not a public issue. There is no debate about whether people are or should be transgender.”

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