What is Bill C-16 of 2017?

Bill C-16 (An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code) is the federal statute that added 'gender identity or expression' to the prohibited grounds of discrimination in the Canadian Human Rights Act and to the list of identifiable groups protected by the Criminal Code hate-propaganda provisions (sections 318 and 319). Bill C-16 received Royal Assent on June 19, 2017 and came into force the same day. It was introduced by the federal Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and built on earlier private-member bills in the Senate (Bill C-279).

The Bill made three principal changes. First, it added 'gender identity or expression' to section 2 and section 3(1) of the Canadian Human Rights Act, prohibiting discrimination on those grounds in federally regulated workplaces and services. Second, it added 'gender identity or expression' to subsection 318(4) of the Criminal Code, expanding the definition of 'identifiable group' for the purposes of advocating genocide and public incitement of hatred. Third, it added 'gender identity or expression' to paragraph 718.2(a)(i) of the Criminal Code, recognising hate motivation based on those grounds as an aggravating factor in sentencing.

Bill C-16 followed several years of provincial human-rights code amendments. Ontario added gender identity and gender expression to its Human Rights Code in 2012, followed by Manitoba (2012), Nova Scotia (2012), Newfoundland and Labrador (2013), Prince Edward Island (2013), Saskatchewan (2014), Alberta (2015), Quebec (2016), British Columbia (2016), New Brunswick (2017), Yukon (2017), Northwest Territories (2017), and Nunavut (2017). All Canadian jurisdictions had added the protections by 2017.

Bill C-16 generated significant public debate. Opponents (including psychology professor Jordan Peterson) argued that it would compel speech by requiring the use of preferred pronouns. The Canadian Bar Association, the Department of Justice, and most academic commentators rejected this interpretation, noting that human-rights law generally focuses on equal treatment in employment, housing, and services rather than on compelled speech. The Canadian Human Rights Commission has investigated complaints under the new provisions, including in workplace and federal-services contexts. Provincial human-rights tribunals have decided cases under the parallel provincial provisions. Criminal Code prosecutions for hate propaganda based on gender identity or expression have been rare, consistent with the high evidentiary threshold for section 319 convictions established in R. v. Keegstra (1990).