Issues of Identity and Equality in Nixon v Vancouver Rape Relief

 

a blog*on*nymity ID TRAIL MIX by Jena McGill

In December 2005, the British Columbia Court of Appeal released its long-awaited decision in Vancouver Rape Relief v Nixon [Nixon]1. This is the highest level court in Canada to ever rule on a case of alleged discrimination against a transsexual person; in fact, Ms. Nixon’s is the first trans-based human rights case in Canada to move past the level of a Human Rights Tribunal. As the case has proceeded through the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal, the B.C. Supreme Court and most recently the province’s Court of Appeal, it has generated an ongoing dialogue in legal and feminist communities around the country that focuses on issues of identity, exclusion and the human rights of gender variant people. Following the release of the Court of Appeal’s decision, Ms. Nixon announced that she plans to seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.2