Editor, The News:
Re: ‘Self-ID gender is your choice’ (Letters, April 12).
I respect what Coun. Kiersten Duncan said. However, her letter seemed biased, as the majority of it was about defending the LGBTQ community.
She appeared to dismiss women and children’s concerns, which are very real.
From my research, it appears, like many, Maple Ridge residents are worried about little girls being exposed to penises while showering in the women’s change room.
Well, there is a legal test for that, and it is called the Community Standard Test of Tolerance.
According to the case R v. Butler (1992), 70 C.C.C. (3d) 129 at 45, the Community Standard Test of Tolerance is “Concerned not with what Canadians would not tolerate being exposed to themselves, but what they would not tolerate other Canadians being exposed to.”
I do believe that when the provincial government amended the B.C. Human Rights Code (July 2016) to include gender identity, it did not apply the Community Standard Test of Tolerance. If it had applied the Community Standard Test of Tolerance, a compromise would have been reached, which is necessary because members of the LGBTQ have rights, too.
I am confident that when Maple Ridge drafts its new policy, it will apply the Community Standard Test of Tolerance, the B.C. Human Rights Code, and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. To do otherwise is drafting a pool changing room policy that I believe will not be able to withstand a constitutional challenge.
Linda Meyer
Maple Ridge
