A conservative Langley-based group is attempting to make a human rights complaint about the bathroom signs at the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal in Vancouver.
Kari Simpson’s Culture Guard announced it has launched a new complaint, targeting the head of the Human Rights Tribunal and the attorney general for B.C., because signs on the women’s room at the tribunal’s offices read “Trans People Welcome.”
According to a complaint filed last week by Simpson, a woman with Culture Guard allegedly had her rights violated because when using the washroom stall, she “heard a loud male voice” talking in the stall next to her.
The complaint singles out Morgane Oger as the woman in the other stall.
In December, Oger was before the board alleging discrimination after Bill Whatcott distributed flyers making various claims about Oger, a trans woman. Oger was a 2017 NDP candidate in a Vancouver riding during the last provincial election; she narrowly lost to Liberal incumbent Sam Sullivan.
The complaint claims that the Culture Guard member felt intimidated.
“Her security of person was violated, she remained in the stall until she was certain that the biological man, Oger, had gone for fear of being bullied,” the complaint stated.
Last spring, Oger was among the organizers of a peaceful counter protest against an anti-SOGI rally attended by Simpson.
Simpson told Black Press Media that she had invited the Hells Angels to come to the rally with her group, although Vancouver Police Department officials could not confirm any attended.
Oger said she believed Simpson was attempting to bully her with the complaint.
“Kari Simpson’s recognition as a vexatious litigant is long overdue,” Oger added.
She noted that she and Simpson have one point of agreement.
“I agree that every building should have a single stall washroom,” Oger said.
Single-stall washrooms provide a place where anyone, including those who identify as being gender non-binary, can use and feel secure, Oger said.
READ MORE: Hells Angels invited to rally by anti-SOGI organizer
Simpson’s demands in her complaint include creating “women only” and “men only” washrooms at the BC Human Rights Tribunal, and that the tribunal define “sexual harassment” to include “a male using a women’s washroom and a female using a male’s washroom” in provincial law, and to essentially redefine gender in B.C. law as being only about biological sex.
She asked further for $180,000 in damages.
The majority of complaints to the Human Rights Tribunal do not go before the panel itself, either because they are dealt with through mediation or because they are not found to meet the criteria the tribunal will consider.
