Wednesday, May 15, 2024
ADVT 
National

Transgender Community, NDP Urge Trudeau Government To Change Travel Regulations

The Canadian Press, 18 May, 2017 10:11 AM
    OTTAWA — Jennifer McCreath has a fear of flying of a different sort: a fear she won't be allowed on board.
     
    McCreath, a 43-year-old transgender woman in St. John's, N.L., takes issue with a federal regulation that prohibits airlines from transporting anyone who "does not appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification presented."
     
    Doing away with the regulation is a cause the federal NDP has been pushing for five years, and one for which Justin Trudeau expressed support before becoming prime minister.
     
    It's also one the federal Liberal government should be all over, given its self-proclaimed reputation as the party of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, McCreath said in an interview Wednesday.
     
    "It all comes back to the notion of equality," said McCreath, who described having to wait for two hours in a holding area before a flight to the United States in 2011, when she was in the process of changing the gender on her birth certificate.
     
    The Canadian regulation, she said, gives officials too much power in cases where someone doesn't look like the gender indicated on their identification.
     
    "Ultimately, access to air travel or any type of transportation is ... a fundamental service that's out there. It just sends the wrong message."
     
    Trudeau's cabinet has the ability to change the regulation immediately, said Randall Garrison, the NDP's critic for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer issues.
     
    The regulation has nothing to do with safety and does little more than subject transgender Canadians to public humiliation and obstructs their fundamental right to travel, Garrison said.
     
    He noted Trudeau himself raised the issue both in the House of Commons and on Twitter in 2012, when he was an opposition MP.
     
    "If he supported removing this discriminatory regulation then," Garrison asked during question period Wednesday, "why as prime minister has he taken absolutely no action?"
     
     
    The question came one day after Transport Minister Marc Garneau introduced a new passenger bill of rights, a response of sorts to last month's sensational viral video showing airline security forcibly dragging a passenger off a United Airlines jet.
     
    The Liberal government is looking at the transgender issue, Garneau responded.
     
    "We will have more to say in due course."
     
    Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale's office went further in a statement on Wednesday night, noting all passengers — regardless of their gender identity or expression — are expected to have a travel document that is valid and up to date.
     
    "This includes ensuring that they accurately resemble their identification documents," the office said.
     
    Earlier Wednesday, transgender Canadians were on Parliament Hill to push for the passage of the government's Bill C-16, a ban on discrimination on the basis of gender identity or gender expression.
     
    If passed, the legislation would make it illegal to deny someone a job or to discriminate against them in the workplace on the basis of their gender identity or how they outwardly express it.
     
    It would also amend the Criminal Code to extend hate speech laws.
     
    Fae Johnstone, a 21-year-old social work student at Carleton University who helped to organize Wednesday's rally, sees the current travel regulation as "oppressive" and "transphobic."
     
    "I don't look like the gender marker that is on my identification," said Johnstone, who identifies as neither a man nor a woman.
     
    "I don't think it is very fair that if I tried to travel that because I'm trans, because I present differently than they expect me to, that they wouldn't let me travel."
     
    The Liberal government also says it is working to address gender identity on passports — an issue already tackled in countries like Australia and New Zealand.
     
    "That work is continuing," Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould told the Senate legal affairs committee earlier this month.
     
    For her part, McCreath said she hasn't been back to the United States since 2011, a trip she used to take at least once a year.
     
    "It left a very bad and sad taste in my mouth," she said.
     
    "I learned very quickly that just because I'd had ... (sex-reassignment) surgery didn't necessarily mean I was going to find full acceptance in the world as a woman."

    MORE National ARTICLES

    Aga Khan Opens Ottawa Pluralism Centre, As Trudeau Chopper Controversy Swirls

    OTTAWA — The Aga Khan returned Tuesday to Ottawa to unveil the new headquarters of an international organization that is positioning itself as an antidote of sorts to growing strains of populism and intolerance around the world.

    Aga Khan Opens Ottawa Pluralism Centre, As Trudeau Chopper Controversy Swirls

    Man Offers 'Apology Beer' After Drunken Break-in Attempt At Halifax Apartment

    Man Offers 'Apology Beer' After Drunken Break-in Attempt At Halifax Apartment
    Caitlynne Hines said a drunk man attempted to enter her north end apartment on May 5, insisting a friend was staying at the apartment upstairs.

    Man Offers 'Apology Beer' After Drunken Break-in Attempt At Halifax Apartment

    Jagmeet Singh Steps Down As Ontario NDP Deputy Leader During Federal Bid

    Jagmeet Singh Steps Down As Ontario NDP Deputy Leader During Federal Bid
    Jagmeet Singh is stepping down as deputy leader of the Ontario NDP while he runs for the federal party's leadership, but he's not resigning his seat in the provincial legislature.

    Jagmeet Singh Steps Down As Ontario NDP Deputy Leader During Federal Bid

    Three Accused In Murder Of B.C. Gangster Want Case Tossed Over Delays

    Three Accused In Murder Of B.C. Gangster Want Case Tossed Over Delays
    Surrey's Jujhar Singh Khun-Khun, 25, has been charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder in relation to the 2011 shooting death of gangster Jonathan Bacon in Kelowna. Khun-Khun is being charged alongside two other men.

    Three Accused In Murder Of B.C. Gangster Want Case Tossed Over Delays

    Women-only Overdose Prevention Site Opens On Vancouver's Downtown Eastside

    VANCOUVER — A safe injection site that will only serve women has opened on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

    Women-only Overdose Prevention Site Opens On Vancouver's Downtown Eastside

    Drier Conditions Ease Flood Threat In B.C., But Warm Weather Could Complicate

    Drier Conditions Ease Flood Threat In B.C., But Warm Weather Could Complicate
      Regional District officials say recent drier weather stabilized slopes in the Shuswap region near Tappen, and in the Killiney Beach subdivision on the west side of Okanagan Lake.

    Drier Conditions Ease Flood Threat In B.C., But Warm Weather Could Complicate