Transgender air force member fined for 17 Wing Winnipeg protest

A transgender military member has been fined in a case where she was Tasered while fighting to have her gender identity changed on her file.

Royal Canadian Air Force Sgt. Athena Morris was fined $2,000 for unlawfully entering a restricted area at 17 Wing Winnipeg on March 31, 2025, when she demanded the gender marker on her file be changed. Morris, a transgender woman, said she had been trying to get her gender identifier changed since January of that year.

The incident was a culmination of “months of friction,” defence counsel Maj. Carlos Da Cruz told military judge Stephen Strickey Monday during a hearing at HMCS Chippawa, a Royal Canadian Navy Reserve division in Winnipeg.

Da Cruz told court Morris was misgendered by colleagues and superiors and told she wasn’t allowed to use the women’s bathrooms or showers.

“Despite this, she tried to do things the right way,” Da Cruz said. “Instead of being assisted, she was incorrectly turned away by staff.”

On the day of the incident, Morris went to an administrative counter at the military base to ask that her gender identification be changed. Staff refused the request because they believed she didn’t have the right documents to make the change.

In protest, she went over the counter, entered an orderly’s office and tied herself to a chair with a scarf and refused to leave until the change was made. Military police were called and, when she resisted arrest, she was shocked with a Taser and forcibly removed.

She was jolted a second time while handcuffed in the military police cruiser, which Strickey ruled was an excessive use of force in a decision last week.

During a separate hearing on Friday, Strickey also ruled Morris’s Charter rights were violated when she wasn’t given an adequate opportunity to access a lawyer when she was taken to hospital after being shocked with a Taser.

Four days after the incident, Morris’s gender ID was changed using the documents staff originally rejected.

Morris has been in the military for 20 years. She is currently under medical review for release from the Canadian Armed Forces for a diagnosed mental health disorder.

Morris said during the hearing she felt staff were unwilling to learn from their mistakes.

“A recurring theme in my experience has been that when individuals are confronted with the harm or discriminatory effects actions or decisions have caused, rather than attempting to understand the concern and correct the problem, response was sometimes defensive and the original decision maintained or reinforced,” she said.

She noted that she’s had positive interactions with some staff that have gone out of their way to to improve equality among military members.

Morris said she was willing to take extreme measures during the incident to bring attention to the issue, but didn’t anticipate the outcome.

She was originally charged with three counts of assaulting a police officer and resisting or escaping from arrest or custody, but instead pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of entering a restricted area unlawfully in exchange for the court recommending the judge accept her plea of not guilty to the other four charges.

Under the National Defence Act, a judge can accept a plea from a different charge as long as it stems from the same incident as an existing charge.

The court ordered a reduction in her sentence to remedy Charter violations against her.

Since the incident, new protocols have been put in place, including public facing customer service, the installation of physical barriers and use of personal alarm systems, military counsel Maj. Laurent Carignan said.

The judged summarized Morris’s actions as a “regrettable lack of judgment.”

“The court acknowledges that your intent was to bring attention to an important issue that affected you personally. However, as a senior, non-commissioned member of the CAF of 20 years of service, to unlawfully enter into a restricted operational area to conduct a peaceful protest that necessitated (military police) to remove you is not acceptable,” Strickey said.

Strickey also acknowledged the length of the proceedings and the effect it had on the service member’s family.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca