Got marginalization Canada? YUP!! Check out my letter to the Air Travel Identity Screening folks at the Dept. of Justice.

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Dear Sir or Madame;

While the nature of this complaint is quite rare, it indeed affects myself and several others on an extremely large scale. A major oversight has been made in regards to a policy which is strangely not an old policy, but is a NEW one as of July 2011. This legislation change has complicated my entire life and emphasizes the fact of being marginalized by my own federal government. Here is the explanation.

On July 28th, 2011, the latest Identity Screening Regulations below were released:
http://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-2007-82/20110729/P1TT3xt3.html

In them You have SPECIFICALLY disallowed transgendered and pre-op transsexual individuals to fly in Canada or abroad by not allowing them to board any aircraft. . Section 5.2 item C clearly states:
 
“if the passenger does not appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification he or she presents;”

This Clause was NOT in any previous versions of the regulations so it brings to question, since transgendered people were VERY well known to exist in 2011, why was it introduced?  With Federal Private Members bill C389 which attempted to bring basic human rights to Transgendered persons reaching the Senate in 2011, there is no excuse to have added this clause without considering it could be EXTREMELY marginalizing to this group of people.  And considering the present Conservative Governments stance on Bill C-389 was a resounding NAY through all 3 parliamentary readings, it shows this Federal Government took NO time in dictating its direct bigotry against people like me. But this gets even more personally discriminating!

In my home province of New Brunswick, Section 34 of the Vital Statics act states only by means of Gender Reassignment Surgery can I obtain any of my NB identification in my lived gender.

http://laws.gnb.ca/en/showfulldoc/cs/V-3//20120129

This means my Driver’s License issued from New Brunswick, our only provincial photo ID, which would be used to show at the airport, CANNOT be changed to my lived gender. And to make things all the more worse, I am scheduled this June 2012 to have my Gender reassignment surgery completed IN CANADA which requires flight too and from the clinic for this procedure. But your complete lack of sensitivity on this issue has caused me great strain to know how it will be possible to get my LIFE AFFIRMING SURGERY completed and be able to fly. So what in the name of CANADA do you expect me to do? My provincial and federal government have now trapped me in conflicting legislation!!  How could you be so cruel and obtuse?

Several other provinces Vital Statics Acts are similar so NB is not the only one in question. But these provincial laws were based in old legislation long before today’s transgender awareness campaigns. Your legislations are BRAND NEW!   Although I admittedly have no knowledge of the complexities of securing air travel in our country,  I do know there are easy ways accommodation could be made for persons like myself with medical conditions. For instance, since the Identity Screening Regulations are now under renewal, this would be a great time to remove section 5.2 item C or at least add documented Transgender leniency to travelers within that item. If need be we should be allowed to show a carry note from my physician to state my condition and then be addressed and treated as the sex I am living and permitted to fly without hesitation, whether for surgery or any other issue.


I await your prompt reply in this matter and thank you for your time;


Sincerely;


ME.