Titled Trans Module 101 — Understanding Gender Diversity and Inclusion, the free, self-paced course was officially launched on Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31, and in most provinces will contribute an estimated 1.5 hours toward continuing professional development requirements.
Lee Nevens, president of the CBA’s B.C. branch
“We have to take this first step quickly and powerfully to make sure people actually understand who we are and our identities as the foundational part,” they told Law360 Canada in a recent interview.
“Because without that, people are more susceptible to misinformation and disinformation and arguments based on fear and misunderstanding of differences,” they added. “There’s a lot of misinformation and disinformation that’s used to target trans people, to reduce our access to the justice system, to reduce our inclusion, to attack our human rights.”
Those attacks have become increasingly widespread across North America and beyond.
Statistics Canada reported last year that hate crimes targeting sexual orientation increased 69 per cent in 2023 from the previous year. In the United States, the nonprofit GLAAD, which works to increase acceptance of the LGBTQ community, reported 918 anti-LGBTQ incidents last year, including protests, bomb threats, vandalism and physical assaults. Nearly half of those directly targeted transgender individuals.
Trans people in Canada and the United States have also faced increasingly restrictive legislation at the provincial and state levels. In 2023, Saskatchewan passed its Parents’ Bill of Rights, which requires parental consent for students under 16 to use a different name or pronoun at school and mandates that staff use a student’s legal name unless parental permission is granted. Last year, Alberta passed the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2024, which, among other things, restricts trans participation on female sports teams, requires parental consent for children under 16 to change names or pronouns at school, and bans gender-affirming surgeries for minors.
In the United States, 70 anti-trans bills have passed and 737 are under consideration across 49 states, according to Trans Legislation Tracker, an independent research organization.
The CBA’s September 2022 Access to Justice for Trans People report, which recommended the creation of courses for the legal sector, found that, amid an overall access-to-justice crisis globally, trans people are among the most disadvantaged groups in Canada.
Nevens said research compiled for the report found that trans people have a higher rate of legal problems in all areas of the law — including employment, housing and human rights — and a greater incidence of co-occurring legal problems, largely stemming from discrimination based on their identity.
Among trans people, “that is paired with lower trust in the justice system and the people who operate in it, greater fear of attending court or going to a lawyer’s office, and fear that they’ll be misgendered or that their lawyer won’t be competent in trans legal issues,” they explained.
“So where this training fits in,” they added, “is to try to at least start to address the second part of that problem and to build some competency within the system so that trans people can get good legal advice and representation.”
Presented by members of the CBA Gender Diversity Advisory Group, including Nevens, the course covers five key areas, beginning with an overview of two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual (2SLGBTQIA+) terminology, including sexual orientation, gender identity and expression (SOGIE). 2SLGBTQIA+ is the acronym used by the Government of Canada.
The training module goes on to discuss transphobia and how to recognize the systemic barriers that trans and gender-diverse people face in society and the legal system. It examines how discrimination limits access to legal and social services, and how legal professionals can implement change by helping to create safer, more inclusive spaces. Finally, it explores the role of allies and how multiple identities impact access to justice.
It’s too early to gauge uptake, but early reaction to the course is positive, said Nevens. And while the module is voluntary, the CBA is advocating for improved legal education on trans identities and trans legal issues in law schools, as well as through provincial bar exams and the Federation of Law Societies of Canada.
They said it will be followed sometime in the next year by a second course that focuses on legal issues that may affect trans people in various areas of practice, including refugee law, family law, fertility law and corrections.
“We’re going to try to get experts in each of those areas to do sort of a ‘here’s what you need to know,’” said Nevens. “And we’ll also be aiming to include some best practices or checklists for firms who are looking at their own employment practices and their own inclusion within the workplace and how to make sure that they’re meeting those obligations, including the effect on their trans employees.”
For legal professionals, they added, taking the course is not only an opportunity to expand your awareness, but a personal commitment to Canadian values.
“It’s been a really difficult few months to be a trans person in this world,” said Nevens. “The rhetoric coming from the United States and the executive orders targeting us are very extreme — to the point of trying to eliminate our identity.
“I think in Canada,” they added, “we have an opportunity to double down on our values and our justice system — which protect people from discrimination, including trans people — and to show the world that this is the best path forward for having an inclusive and thriving society.”
If you have any information, story ideas or news tips for Law360 Canada, please contact John Schofield at john.schofield1@lexisnexis.ca or call 905-415-5815.