Justice committee  Dear honourable members, thank you for inviting the Canadian Human Rights Commission to contribute to your study of Bill C-279, a bill to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to include gender identity and gender expression as grounds of discrimination. I would like to introduce

Justice committee  To answer your question, as I said at the outset, we currently accept complaints—and have forever—from transgendered individuals under the ground of sex, and sometimes under the ground of disability, and we will continue to do so. To answer your question, strictly speaking, I sup

Justice committee  Yes, they will.

Justice committee  I really can't say—I don't know. I've not spoken to any first nations about this particular issue, so I just can't speculate on whether or not it would be an issue.

Justice committee  Sorry, just so I understand, when you ask for context, do you mean context around this bill that's before this committee?

Justice committee  I don't know what I can say in answer to your first question more than what I've said. This law, if passed, would apply equally to first nations, to aboriginal peoples.

Justice committee  I really don't know the answer to that question. I think that would be a question that would be better put to the Department of Justice. I really don't know. If there's any duty to consult, I think it would be something that would be of concern to the Department of Justice and th

Justice committee  I can't recall specifically what we said with respect to consultation and obligation. If you have it there, I'm happy to hear it, but I don't recall exactly what we said about the duty to consult. I believe we discussed it in the context of the government's duty to consult. I'm n

Justice committee  I really can't comment on that. I really don't know the answer to that question. The law would apply, as I say, to first nations communities as well as to all other Canadians. I really haven't thought about whether or not a transition period would be required in this situation.

Justice committee  For the purposes of that bill and for the purposes of the repeal of section 67, we did support that transition period, yes.

Justice committee  I really can't say. I really can't speculate on whether we would or we wouldn't support that.

Justice committee  Given that it is not our bill—it's a member of Parliament's bill—I don't know whether we would engage in that unless called upon by Parliament to do so.

Justice committee  I am sorry, I do not understand the question. Could you repeat it?

Justice committee  To add two new grounds to the list of prohibited grounds in the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Justice committee  That's right.