On April 30, MFUR Executive Member Arlene Macklem made a presentation to the Manitoba Standing Committee on Justice in support of Bill 43, which amends the Human Rights Code to include gender expression as a protected ground under the Code.
You can read the presentation below:
I am pleased to speak this evening on behalf of MFUR. We are retired union members and the Manitoba affiliate of the 500,000 member Congress of the Union Retirees of Canada (CURC).
CURC is affiliated with the Canadian Labour Congress and MFUR is affiliated with the Manitoba Federation of Labour.
We appear today to speak in favour of Bill 43 which amends the Human Rights Code to include gender expression as a protected ground under the Code. This builds on the work of a previous NDP government that added gender as a protected ground in 2012. We support fully the submission of the MFL on this important bill.
As former trade unionists we bargained many such provisions into the “No Discrimination” provisions of our collective agreements, after first adopting such policies in our respective membership conventions. As important as collective agreements are, we know that not all workers, or indeed all citizens, have such protections, which is why we fully support including gender expression as a protected characteristic under the Code. We note, sadly, that here in Canada, in the U.S. and elsewhere around the globe there has been an attack on equity seeking groups across the board, including open discrimination against people on the grounds of their gender expression.
In New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and Alberta, governments have opted to invoke the Constitution’s Notwithstanding Clause to block some students from using their preferred pronouns, gender expression, and even restricting student use of change rooms and washrooms other than those of their assigned sex at birth.
Canada’s Charter was written to protect people’s rights and the use of the Notwithstanding Clause is a regressive move, often amounting to nothing more than a “solution in search of a problem”.
We saw this regressive attack on gender expression rights in the last provincial election and we note that a majority of Manitoban’s did not support these attacks.
Manitoba has historically been a leader in anti-discrimination measures. In the 1970’s we were one of the first jurisdictions to adopt Human Rights legislation. And over the decades, amendments to our Human Rights Code have increased protections for all equity-seeking groups.
At times these legislative protections have not been popular with everyone. We submit that popularity ought not to be the goal, rather it ought to be fairness for all citizens.
Bill 43 extends human rights coverage and very much lives up to the challenge that Nelson Mandela expressed so eloquently when he said:
“To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.”
Equity and equality measures strengthen our community. Attitudes change, inclusivity advances, and society’s change, for the better. This is what Bill 43 represents for Manitoba, and we commend the government for bringing this legislation forward.
I am pleased to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you.