I would certainly agree with both Hershel and Erin.
What I would add is that, in my opinion, hate crime in particular is in part a result of us as a society believing, or not challenging, the notion that some people are less human than others, or less worthy of protection than others. It becomes very difficult for us, who are the public educators, to counter that notion, or to stop it from growing. If we cannot point to legislation, if we cannot point to our government and say that our government has stated clearly that trans people are equal....
So including these terms explicitly in the Canadian Human Rights Act and within the Criminal Code enables us to do that. Yes, education is important, but without the backing from legislation, there's only so much potency to that.