On Thursday January 28, 2021, the Quebec Superior Court made a ruling in a case brought by the Centre for Gender Advocacy at Concordia University, supported by Egale Canada Human Rights Trust, LGBT Family Coalition and Gender Creative Kids Canada. The case centred around challenges to the parts of the Civil Code of Québec that determine how someone’s sex and/or gender are recorded officially and found that several articles of the Code are not consistent with the rights outlined in the Quebec Charter.
The decision by Justice George Moore affirmed rights of non-binary people, parents, non-citizens and trans youth to be accurately represented on various forms of documents and identification.
The decision requires the Quebec government to change the Civil Code to allow:
- Non-binary people to change their sex marker on their Act of Birth (birth certificate) to a third option
- Trans and non-binary parents to change their designation on the birth certificates of their children, including an option to be referred to as Parent instead of Mother or Father
- Refugees, permanent residents and immigrants who do not have Canadian citizenship to change their legal name and sex designation
- Trans and non-binary youth to change their legal sex without a medical evaluation
However, Justice Moore decided to retain the ability of parents to veto their child’s name change applications and the requirement for each person to have a sex designated at birth, including for intersex individuals.
The provincial government will have until December 31, 2021 to make changes to the Quebec Civil Code to reflect the ruling.
JusticeTrans is keeping an eye on these developments and we are pleased to see this progress.
See an announcement from the Centre for Gender Advocacy for more information.
Read the full text of the ruling here.