A complaint brought forward by trans activist Jessica Yaniv has been deferred for six months by the BC Human Rights Tribunal for her failure to pay costs from previous unsuccessful complaints against three beauty salons.

According to the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, Yaniv failed to pay $6,000 in costs to beauty salons she accused of discrimination for refusing to wax her genitalia. Yaniv filed the complaints in 2018 and the tribunal dismissed them in 2019.

In October, the Human Rights Tribunal thoroughly dismissed Yaniv’s case, ruling her persistent complaints that female salon workers refused to wax her scrotum were part of a campaign to both enrich herself and punish South Asian people, whom she views as hostile to the rights of transgender people.

Yaniv 'targeted small businesses, manufactured the conditions for a human rights complaint'

In effect, the tribunal found the respondents did not offer scrotum waxing to anyone, so they did not deny Yaniv a service in the first place. It also preferred the respondents’ evidence wherever it conflicted with Yaniv’s, which was “disingenuous and self-serving.”

Yaniv “targeted small businesses, manufactured the conditions for a human rights complaint, and then leveraged that complaint to pursue a financial settlement from parties who were unsophisticated and unlikely to mount a proper defence,” read the ruling. The ruling orders Yaniv to pay $2,000 to each of the three beauty salons for “improper conduct” including using human rights law as a “weapon” for “extortion.”

On Jan. 7, the Justice Centre said Yaniv had launched a new complaint, against a salon run by immigrant women who are of the Sikh faith. The salon, She Point Beauty Studio in Surrey, B.C., said it was approached by Yaniv seeking services in August of last year, like Brazilian bikini waxing and leg waxing.

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But due to her refusal to pay the costs from the previous complaints, the tribunal has deferred this new complaint until the costs are paid, or for six months.

According to the Justice Centre, this means Yaniv cannot pursue any complaints during this time, and if the costs aren’t paid after the six months, another deferral can be placed, or the complaints can be dismissed altogether.

With files from Joseph Brean

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