Fired nurse raises question of trans discrimination versus sex-based rights at appeal hearing

Résumé détaillé

Amy Hamm is a former B.C. nurse who was fired after a discipline panel found comments she made while off-duty were discriminatory against transgender people.

The hearing for a former registered nurse, who is challenging a disciplinary decision that found she made discriminatory and derogatory statements about transgender people while off-duty, began Tuesday in Vancouver.

Amy Hamm brought the appeal after she was suspended, then fired, from Vancouver Coastal Health and ordered to pay nearly $94,000 in costs.

The sanctions resulted from a disciplinary hearing by the B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives (BCCNM) that found, on four occasions, Hamm committed unprofessional conduct related to statements she made on online platforms while identifying herself as a nurse.

In the appeal petition, Hamm is described as prolific writer and a "long-time advocate of women's rights, particularly with respect to the adverse impact of gender ideology on such rights."

She said the appeal fundamentally comes down to the question of a regulator's jurisdiction.

"When a public debate is still alive in our legislatures, in our courts and in the courts of comparable democracy, may a professional regulator decide which side is correct and then discipline a professional who is on the other side? We say it may not," said Bildy.

Bildy highlighted examples of what she claimed were inconsistencies in the panel's findings of discrimination.

She said a personal essay Hamm wrote containing the line "woman is not a feeling, woman just is" was found by the BCCNM panel to be "discriminatory erasure."

In another instance Hamm wrote "men cannot become women," which was also found to be discriminatory.

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