ARTICLE · 19 SEPTEMBER 2019

Novel Issues Raised By Transgender Human Rights Complaints

Devry Smith Frank LLP

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A recent human rights complaint against several salons in Vancouver, British Columbia sheds new light on the relationship between human rights law and persons who identify as transgender.

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Marty Rabinovitch

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A recent human rights complaint against several salons in Vancouver, British Columbia sheds new light on the relationship between human rights law and persons who identify as transgender.

Discrimination Against Transgender Persons

Jessica Yaniv, a transgender woman from British Columbia, has launched human rights complaints against several salons in Vancouver who refused to wax her on the basis that she had male genitalia.

While no ultimate decision has yet been released, the reasons of the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal in Yaniv v. Various Waxing Salons, 2019 BCHRT 106 (CanLII) have raised some novel issues in human rights litigation.

The Tribunal has been critical of Yaniv particularly because of the manner in which she is pursuing her complaint. She has launched dozens of separate complaints against different salons. The Tribunal noted that this "opens a valid question about her motives in filing so many complaints."

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