Transgender case headed to public hearing

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This article was published 17/09/2015 (3895 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A discrimination complaint from nine-year-old Bella Burgos against the River East Transcona School Division appears headed to a potentially landmark transgender identity public hearing before the Manitoba Human Rights Commission.

Bella’s father, Dale Burgos, said Wednesday from the family’s new home in Nanaimo, B.C., all attempts at mediation with the division had failed, there was no offer of reasonable accommodation and Bella’s complaint will go to a public hearing.

“We are waiting for a letter from HRC (the human rights commission) that should provide more details. I don’t think a date has been set,” he said.

Under its strict policies of privacy, a human rights commission official said Wednesday the MHRC cannot publicly confirm anything until it has scheduled a public hearing. Regarding policy and process, the official said even after mediation fails, the commission’s lawyer will make one last attempt to find a solution with the parties.

However, the MHRC had said earlier it has found evidence to support the possibility a Transcona school discriminated against Bella, who was eight at the time, and to send the matter to mediation.

Bella and her family have been at the centre of a dispute over her transgender identity at Joseph Teres School, her former Transcona elementary school.

A parent yelled at Bella and her older brother in 2014 and then lobbied other parents outside the school, the Burgos family has told media.

At first, the issue involved which bathroom Bella should use. She had been using the girls washroom, but after the complaint from the parent — the mother of one of Bella’s classmates — she was told to use another washroom, a gender-neutral single toilet separate from the girls room.

The matter escalated to the broader issue of transgender identity, and the Burgos family took the issue to the commission for resolution.

Burgos had earlier said the family had asked for LGBTQ education for staff and students throughout Manitoba’s second-largest school division.

“There are students in the division that are going through exactly what our daughter had experienced. I am concerned that even though the (commission) has found significant evidence of discrimination, (the division) continues to discriminate (against) other students,” he said.

“Thankfully, my children are in a school district (in Nanaimo) that has existing policies in place to protect staff and students like Bella,” he said. “In fact, within one week of her starting school, there was a staff meeting that included the presence of a certified sexual-health educator used by many schools in the district. Bella is thriving here.”

The division said in an email Wednesday, “River East Transcona is committed to making our schools a safe place for all students — and specific to this case — transgendered students. We’re fully supportive of the process of a public hearing, and we’re committed to its findings. We’ll have further comments as this process evolves and recommendations become clear.”

The MHRC official said that it typically takes four to eight months to schedule an adjudication once all attempts at resolution have been tried, but that varies depending on the complexity of the issue.

The commission has not covered travel expenses in the past, but some witnesses have participated by phone, video, or video conference, she said.

The number of unresolved complaints going to a public hearing has been increasing significantly, said the official, from two each in 2012 and 2013, to eight in 2014, with three already held this year and another three scheduled for 2015. There are six independent adjudicators who hear complaints to the MHRC.

 

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca