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Bill 43 – the Human Rights Code Amendment Act, Adding Gender Expression as a Protected Characteristic

June 06, 2025

Author

Mikayla Hunter

On Monday, June 2nd,2025, Bill 43 passed its third and final reading in the Manitoba legislature. Bill 43, the Human Rights Code Amendment Act, added gender expression to the list of protected characteristics under the Manitoba Human Rights Code. With the passing of this Bill, Manitoba joins the majority of Canada in including gender expression as a protected characteristic. Only Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories still do not have gender expression listed under their provincial/territorial human rights codes.

The passing of Bill 43 during Pride Month is fitting. Bill 43 would protect trans and gender diverse Manitobans from discrimination on the basis of their gender, however, they are not the only ones who will benefit. Gender expression is not just for trans and gender diverse people. Cisgender people also express their gender in the way that they dress and act. Despite this, the story of Bill 43 is filled with misunderstandings and transphobia. Even in the third and final reading, every member of the Progressive Conservative caucus voted in opposition to Bill 43. The question is: why?

What is driving the opposition?

One of the major oppositions from those who voted against the bill was the question of what it would take to launch a human rights complaint. There were concerns about what would happen if someone accidentally misgendered someone, while others were concerned about compelled speech. Karen Sharma, the Executive Director of Manitoba’s Human Rights Commission, spoke in favour of Bill 43 and offered words to assuage such concerns. She affirmed that “the code applies to employment, housing and other services, and not to interactions between private individuals or inside religious institutions.”

There were also concerns that the Manitoba Human Rights Commission would be overwhelmed with so-called frivolous human rights complaints on the basis of gender expression if Bill 43 was passed. At the federal level, this influx of human rights complaints based on gender expression is not present, based on the available data. At the start of 2023, the Canadian Human Rights Commission had over 2,500 inquiries and potential complaints, and more than 1,800 accepted complaints on their docket. From 2019 to 2023, there were zero accepted complaints made on the grounds of discrimination based on gender expression.

Gender expression has been a protected characteristic for many years in other provinces, as well as at the federal level. As such, we can look to other jurisdictions for precedence. Nova Scotia was one of the first regions in Canada to introduce gender expression as a protected characteristic in 2012. This means that Nova Scotia has over a decade of experience in managing gender expression human rights complaints. However, the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission noted that while there are some complaints that come in based on one protected characteristic, many complaints had multiple levels of discrimination such as race, gender, and disability. The nine submitted complaints pale in comparison to the 32 related to mental disability, 22 related to physical disability, 29 related to race/colour, and 22 related to sex, allowing for more nuanced complaints that are more reflective of people’s experiences of intersecting oppressions.

All told, the fear of the Manitoba Human Rights Commission being overburdened with complaints on the basis of gender expression appears to be unfounded based on the experience of other jurisdictions. Moreover, the potential for an increased number of complaints should not be used as a means to oppose Bill 43; instead, concerns for overburdening the system should be used to bolster supports for the processes and bodies that evaluate and work to address human rights complaints.

History of gender expression as a protected characteristic in Canada

Nova Scotia and Ontario started the rest of Canada on the path of including gender expression into human rights codes across the country. Since 2012, two territories and six provinces have followed suit and added gender expression as a protected characteristic to their regional human rights codes. Canada passed the inclusion of gender expression into the Canadian Human Rights Code in 2017.

Province/TerritoryYear Gender Expression Added
Ontario2012
Nova Scotia2012
Newfoundland and Labrador2013
Prince Edward Island2013
Alberta2015
British Columbia2016
Québec2016
Canada (federal)2017
New Brunswick2017
Nunavut2017
Yukon2017
Manitoba2025
Northwest TerritoriesN/A
SaskatchewanN/A
Table 1 Source: https://www.cdnaids.ca/trans-rights-legislation-in-canada/

Gender identity and gender expression: what’s the difference?

Another question that came up from those opposed to the bill was a fundamental misunderstanding of what gender expression is and how it is different from gender identity. Everyone expresses a gender (or lack thereof) in their daily lives. Everyone also has a gender identity. There are many sources to look at for a definition of gender identity and gender expression. Given that this conversation centres on legal protections, the Government of Canada’s definitions are useful:

Gender identity: Gender identity is each person’s internal and individual experience of gender. It is their sense of being a woman, a man, both, neither, or anywhere along the gender spectrum.

Gender expression: Gender expression is how a person publicly presents their gender. This can include behaviour and outward appearance such as dress, hair, make-up, body language and voice. A person’s chosen name and pronoun are also common ways of expressing gender.

Discrimination based on gender identity can also involve discrimination based on gender expression, but not always. An employer who chooses not to hire someone because they are a woman or because they are non-binary are discriminating based on gender identity. If they choose not to hire a woman or a non-binary person because they don’t dress femininely enough for the employer’s liking, that is discrimination based on gender expression. In this last example, it’s not the person’s gender that is being discriminated against, but rather how their gender is expressed. A human rights complaint on that issue would likely not fall neatly into gender identity and so, gender expression is a necessary protection.

Conclusion

Bill 43 has passed its third reading and is now awaiting royal assent. This is a huge win for all people living in Manitoba, regardless of gender identity. But it is especially crucial for cis and trans gender men and women, non-binary and gender diverse folks, and Two Spirit people who will be protected from discrimination on the basis of the gender expression under the Manitoba Human Rights Code.

Gender expression has been a protected characteristic across Canada for over 13 years. This is not a new or radical concept. By passing Bill 43, Manitoba joins the majority of Canada in recognizing this important human rights issue.

There’s also a very easy way to prevent having a human rights violation being made against employers and other services: don’t violate another person’s human rights.


References

Bill C-16 (historical). openparliament.ca. (n.d.). https://openparliament.ca/bills/42-1/C-16/  

Department of Justice (2016, May 17). Gender Identity and Gender Expression. Government of Canada. https://www.canada.ca/en/department-justice/news/2016/05/gender-identity-and-gender-expression.html

Human rights complaints: Our complaints data. Canadian human rights commission | Commission canadienne des droits de la personne. (n.d.). https://www.chrc-ccdp.gc.ca/our-work/human-rights-complaints  

Lambert, S. (2025, May 6). Tories call for changes to manitoba bill adding gender expression to human rights code. The Canadian Press. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/gender-expression-manitoba-human-rights-code-progressive-conservatives-1.7528238

Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission. (2025). (rep.). 2023-2024 Annual Report (pp. 1–38). https://humanrights.novascotia.ca/sites/default/files/23-24_nshrc_annual_report-web.pdf  

Volunteer, C. (2017, September 11). Trans rights legislation in Canada. Canadian Aids Society. https://www.cdnaids.ca/trans-rights-legislation-in-canada/  

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