Whose Rights Violated?

"It's affecting everyone in the house. This can completely ruin your recovery, let alone your safety, let alone your life. Those two nights were hell for me."
"We were all choked by our own anxiety, our crippling PTSD symptoms. You could cut the tension in the house."
"All of us were completely upset and flabbergasted, pretty much, and instantly all full of fear. They won't even allow a man on the property without permission by the staff and all the residents. And we had no pre-warning of any of this. There was never any discussions. It was never mentioned. We were all just blindsided."
"Everyone in the house has had at some point male-enforced trauma. This is not about discrimination, this is about the safety of male-enforced trauma victims."
"[Shelter staff said] 'We're all about inclusion and it's unfortunate that you feel this way ... Deal with it or leave'."
Kristi Hanna, 37, former paramedic, recovering addict

Kristi Hanna, who filed a human rights complaint after being told she was the one discriminating against a pre-operative transexual women who was in a shelter for female substance abusers: “We were all just blindsided… This is not about discrimination, this is about the safety of male-enforced trauma victims.” Tyler Anderson/National Post

Ms. Hanna did leave, at least temporarily, fearful of spending another night in close intimate proximity to a man claiming himself to be a woman, and seeking haven and support in the very same facility that Ms. Hanna was occupying, along with other abused women trying to adjust to the miserable reality of their situation, to eventually resume a normal lifestyle, as much as possible. The 'house' she referred to was the Jean Tweed Centre's Palmerston House.

The former paramedic struggles from the traumatic after effects of sexual abuse and additional problems relating to her alcohol and cocaine addictions. She had always been, she said, an "active ally in the LGBTQ community". Suddenly finding herself in a compromised safety issue personally when confronted with the reality of being in effect, forced to share sleeping accommodation in a two-bed bedroom with an individual who looked nothing like a woman.

Simply by stating he was a woman and decided to transition from a man to a woman and needing a place to stay, he was accepted by the Toronto shelter for women as a 'she'. Staff at the facility were uncompromising when Kristi Hanna objected to having to share a bedroom with a 'pre-operational' male. She had herself been living there , a re-purposed Victorian house, for a seven-month period.

After spending two anxious and sleepless nights in the company of the man-who-would-be-a-woman sleeping several feet away from her, she vacated the house, staying over with friends, sleeping on their couches as a "transient" in preference to another night of fear over being raped. She had lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, stating that the shelter "admitted a male bodied transgender into the safety of my home, bedroom and safe spaces", causing her stress, anxiety, rape flashbacks, symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder, and sleep deprivation.

"[The agency is] fully aware of the requirements under the Ontario Human Rights Code and are well known for our work in providing trauma informed care across our programs."
"With respect to accommodating trans women, we do not discriminate; nor do we impose modifications with respect to accommodation."
"We do, however, do our best to meet the needs of all parties affected in a way that complies with the requirements of shelter standards and trauma-informed practice."
Lucy Hume, outgoing executive director, Jean Tweed Centre

In mid-July, the women sheltering at the facility were introduced to the man who arrived as a transgender woman, an individual whose behaviour stood out for notice, someone who failed a sobriety test when in fact residents before being admitted must be clean for a month beforehand. The trans went to detox, then was admitted and assigned to Ms. Hanna's bedroom, a double room, beds five feet apart.

The trans, described as late 20s with facial hair, chest hair, wearing combat boots thumping about the house failed to impress the women sheltering there. At a communal dinner described by Ms. Hanna, the trans spoke of his wife in a past marriage, as well as a pregnant fiancee. During conversations the trans spoke of unidentified women as "hot", expressing a preference for Latina women -- in mannerisms that struck the women present as inappropriately "piggish".

After informing the facility staff that the trans's presence made her feel vulnerable and fearful, others present joined her in signing a petition to staff. She was offered an alternative; she could move to a room leading to a fire escape without a door. The room she had been occupying for the past seven months would continue to be used by the trans. That's when she moved out to begin circulating on friends' couches.

She approached the Human Rights Legal Support Centre to access information on her own rights through a telephone call. The adviser on the line on the other hand took offense at her attitude and ended the conversation but not before informing her that it was she violating human rights law through her attitude, so much so that the trans could file a complaint against her, placing the shelter in a conflict of interest.

"What you've told me is potentially discriminatory and potentially a violation of the law, and that individual may file against you in the future, and our role is to keep those conflicts of interest in mind", the adviser chided her in no uncertain terms. On the other hand, according to Renu Mandhane, Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, women's shelters as a general rule have the right to restrict their accommodation to women.

"A trans person should have access to the shelter that matches their lived gender identity. However, this does not necessarily require that a cis and trans woman share the same bedroom."
"An appropriate balancing of the rights of both women may require that one of the women be provided with non-shared accommodation."
Renu Mandhane, Chief Commissioner, Ontario Human Rights Commission

And that's just what happened. The woman that is Krisi Hanna was hoisted out of her bedroom in favour of granting occupancy to a man who clearly acted as a man leaving no doubt that he was and is a man, despite his stated inclination to consider himself a woman, thus triggering an instant cultural kow-towing to the icon of transgenderism.

The shelter staff, in essence, contravened the Ontario Human Rights Code by denying Krisi Hanna's rights in favour of conferring rights on someone whose gender-appropriation status falls into the vaunted new sanctity of transgenderism. No equality of consideration between a woman and a trans; the trans obviously has preferential treatment in a society falling over itself to oblige and accommodate.

Yet the Code is quite clear, that everyone has a right to equal treatment of services and accommodation without discrimination inclusive of gender identity and express with the proviso that all those occupying accommodation have a right to freedom from harassment by other occupants sharing equal grounds in the Code. A total travesty of entitlement and justice heaped upon a woman in need, and it wasn't the trans.

Palmerston House, Jean Tweed Centre