Jan Buterman has filed a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission after he was fired by the Greater St. Albert Catholic school district in Edmonton, Canada. Buterman was fired after disclosing his gender identity and informing the district he was in the process of transitioning from female to male.
In the letter of dismissal he received Buterman was told his transition would confuse students and parents. As Cara points out at The Curvature, this is bullshit. Young people and their parents should be learning about trans issues, learning to interact with trans folks in a respectful way, learning about our humanity. Having a trans teacher would be a great opportunity to humanize trans folks to Buterman's students and show them we're not all that scary and weird after all.
Religion was used in an attempt to legitimize Buterman's firing:
"The reason for removing you from the substitute teacher list follows a conversation we shared in which you indicated that you had been diagnosed with a gender identity medical condition and that you were undergoing physical gender changes from the female gender to the male gender," wrote Steve Bayus, deputy superintendent of schools.This case is somewhat complicated because it takes place in a public Catholic school district. I don't have a strong understanding of Canada's education system. Is this an instance where bigotry will be excused because it is supported by an organized religion? Multiple experts quoted in this article suggest human rights laws should apply."In discussions with the Archbishop of the Edmonton Diocese, the teaching of the Catholic church is that persons cannot change their gender. One's gender is considered what God created it to be."
A representative of Alberta's Human Rights Commission had this bit of absurdity to add:
Marie Riddle, the commission's director, said Alberta's human rights law does cover transgender and disability issues.But she said the law also can allow discrimination in some cases involving religious beliefs, depending on the circumstances.
"There might be discrimination, but the discrimination might be reasonable and justifiable," she said. "What we would do is look at prior case law. "
"The discrimination might be reasonable and justifiable." Seriously. At least someone is stating it outright: religion may be used to justify discrimination. Now the next step: not letting folks hide behind religious beliefs in an attempt to excuse their bigotry.
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Most Catholic schools in the province exist in a "separate" school system in Canada (that being relative, since they all still receive public funding). However, this particular school district is actually a public one, and not a separate system. So while it has "catholic" in the name, it's not really a Catholic school. Think of it more as affiliated. In which case, it has to follow the rules, as it has no constitutional right to maintain a religious affiliation and must follow the rules enshrined in the Alberta Human Rights Act.
That being said, on the off chance they skim under the wire for their purgatoryious status, there's been at least two cases in the province - one of whom I know personally - of teachers being fired from teaching at Catholic schools after being outed. While it usually takes a few years, and a lot of struggle, both have successfully sued for these dismissals.
Obviously, the school made a bad call in that it was a horribly discriminatory thing to do, but also that they really have no foundation to stand on in order to uphold their decision.
The article linked says unambigiously it's the Catholic school board that fired him, not the public school board.
Probably won't matter. In all likelihood, as long as he teaches to the Catholic curriculum, he can't be fired for gender identity reasons. This might mean that he'd have to teach that God creates us with our correct gender/sex, and that not identifying your gender with your anatomical sex or whatnot is a sin and so forth, but merely being transgendered would be a prohibited grounds for discrimination.
The school board presumably would argue that openly living as a transgendered individual would inherently teach the students that it's not sinful or whatnot, but if previously rulings have found this not to be the case for openly homosexual teachers and whoever else, I don't think they'll win. (For what it's worth, I'm sure if they fired every teacher who does something Catholics think is sinful, they're be out of teachers right fast.)
There's a difference between the "Catholic School board" and the St. Albert Catholic school district. This scholl is not on a Catholic school board. It just is named "Catholic school district. It's a weird historical quirk in this one particular area that leaves it in sort of a limbo.
It doesn't matter what the Catholic school board thinks, because this school is not a part of the Catholic school board. It is Catholic in name only. It takes guidance from the Catholic school board, but is not a part of it. This is the point I was making.
If the article says they were fired by the over-arching Catholic school board, its information is incorrect:
Former Alberta education minister David King, who currently serves as executive director of the Public School Boards' Association of Alberta, takes the argument a step further. Because the St. Albert board is a "public" school system and not a "separate" school system, as is the case in most other Catholic boards in the province, it should not base policies on the advice of the Edmonton Catholic Diocese. As King says, the board is certainly entitled to use the name "Catholic."
"But what it is not entitled to do is represent Catholicism in some of their decision-making processes, because they are not a parochial institution and they're not a separate school jurisdiction, so they have no constitutional rights to maintain that religious affiliation."
As the old axiom goes, if you take the Queen's shilling, you live by the Queen's rules. As well, it is an absolute touchstone of Canadian values that religious views must never trump the law.
I think a careful balance has to be struck between repecting the rights & sexual freedoms of individuals, and the right & relgious freedoms of a Church to establish its own religious doctrine, and spread that doctrine through its ministry, including its education ministry.
In this case I think that balance is easy to strike because the school is operating with public funds, and accepting public funds means accepting public rules. As my parents said to me when I lived with them, when I'm grown enough to pay my own bills, I'm grown enough to ignore their rules. 'Til then tough luck.
as a Canadian I'll explain: in some provinces, catholic schools can be also public schools. It means that the school is affiliated with the church and students can take religious classes, but it is funded by the government and must admit any students fall under its jurisdiction.
BUT it actually doesn't matter that the catholic school is also a public school: under Canadian human rights law,you can only fire a person under religious grounds if they are a designated clergy person. As a teacher, regular labour law applies.
I think that you are being a little hard on Ms. Riddle. She is basically putting an established legal concept in lay terms. Her comment is not at all absurd because that is basically what the law boils down to. Also note that she cannot have an official position unless there is a complaint made. She cannot take a position just because of what she reads in the newspapers.
Employers in Canada (most of the provincial Human Rights Acts are very similar) are not allowed to discriminate on the basis of certain prohibited grounds unless they can demonstrate that they are under undue hardship if they cannot discriminate. In Alberta, these prohibited grounds are: race, colour, ancestry, place of origin, religious beliefs, gender, age, physical disability, mental disability, marital status, family status, source of income and sexual orientation.
If you are interested in learning more about the Alberta human rights legislation, I would encourage you to check out the Alberta Human Rights Commission's website at: http://www.albertahumanrights.ab.ca/default.asp
Regarding your confusion about publicly funded Catholic schools, I believe that is a hold-over from Confederation. Publicly funded religious schools are the exception rather than the rule in Canada.
In addition I think that this may be a misquote:
What the Human rights commissioner is referring to is the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms - specifically section one which deals with the balancing of rights (http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/charter/1.html#anchorbo-ga:l_I-gb:s_1).
Under Canadian law you can justify limiting a right or freedom as long as that limit is "reasonable and justifiable" in a democratic society. This case is about balancing the right to freedom from discrimination based on gender identity and the right to freedom of religion.
Section 1 does not in any way justify discrimination. In this scenario a judge may find that discrimination has occurred but that the limiting of that right is justified. This does not make it better (in fact this section has been used in the past to deny a pay equity remedy for government workers in Newfoundland) but it does acknowledge that the discrimination exists and is present.
Religious freedom in Canada is much more limited than in the US. Basically, religious freedom does not extend past an individuals personal rights because then it would infringe on another person's religious freedom including the freedom to not participate in a religion. I think the school board will be hard pressed to defend this dismissal.
However, as a legal nerd I am hoping that the case ends up at the Supreme Court of Canada (which it will as the Alberta Government has a tendency to appeal these cases all the way) so that a win there would have a broader impact and possibly extend the Charter to include freedom of discrimination on the basis of gender identity (right now it only mentions sex). However, it will be a hard and long slog. I appreciate the courage that the complainant has show in bringing their experience of discrimination forward and for taking on this issue in such a public manner.
Catholics bigoted against non-traditional life choices? Dog bites man...
"The teaching of the Catholic church is that persons cannot change their gender. One's gender is considered what God created it to be."
And on what basis do they conclude that the gender God created a person to be corresponds to their physical sex rather than their identity and sense of self?
For those of you who might not know this, Alberta is the bible belt of Canada. Religious bigotry is the cultural norm. I lived in Lethbridge, one of the bigger cities yet abortions were not provided by the local hospital because Christians fought it and won. Any girl who became pregnant against her wishes would have to arrange a ride to Calgary and back (3.5 hours each way). At any pharmacy, when asking for the morning after pill one would more often be turned down by the pharmacist who would say it was against their beliefs. Naturally, Lethbridge has staggeringly high teen pregnancy rates.
However, this is not the case for Edmonton and area. Edmonton is one of the most progessive cities in Canada, and most definitely in Alberta (And St. Albert is a suburb of Edmonton, for those who don't know) and there is a huge Queer community, however, there seems to be lack of coverage on this topic. I'm in a Queer Studies class at U of A in the same city and we haven't even hear about this, so shame on the media!
I'd also like to further explain how the school system works in Canada. There are two public school systems: the Secular and the Catholic. In censuses, if you are Catholic, part of your taxes will fund the Catholic Public System, if not, your money won't go there. This is one of the reasons why Canada does not have separation of Church and State, but "tolerates" all religions.
While the religious hierarchy (like the archdioses) provides direction in the Catholic school system, it is most definitely still subject to the law *as it is still a government institution*, not a church one. I'm pretty sure the school district is going to get slapped pretty damn hard for this stupid decision.
You know, there's been like 6 or 7 articles on this in the Edmonton Journal in the last three days. :P
Just wanna give props to my favourite Edmontonian liberal nut rag. ^^
Canada does have separation of church and state.
We do but schools seem to be where that line is blurred, in Newfoundland pretty much all our schools were public but run by churches, I had to go to a protestant school and all the Catholic kids had to go to their own school, which was ridiculous in a town of 800, to have two seperate schools when one would have sufficed. Anyway, we did away with that about ten years ago since as you can imagine there were too many schools to be financially feasible. I even remember praying in school every morning and doing Bible study classes, in a public school, and I'm only 22.
Yes, I remember having to say the Lord's prayer until I was in 6th grade or so. It was about this time that the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that having prayer in public schools was discrimination and no longer permitted.
Nonetheless, there is and always has been a separation of church and state in Canada.
This story could have occurred anywhere. Something substantially similar happened to me in one of the most progressive cities in the U.S., in a city and state with trans protections. The reality is if, as a teacher, one doesn't have tenure (or a union which really wants to stick up for you) a school district can find ways to make you redundant and do it in a manner which doesn't look discriminatory.
This was a case of outward bigotry (and I'm sure they're going to be a lot more careful how they fire people in situations like in future... more often they pink slip the trans teacher as part of a standard layoff and it's very hard to prove discrimination). Many other cases involve districts putting on an outwardly supportive face (including press releases) while planning to pink slip or marginalize you in the background. People have very different standards for discrimination when it comes to their children and some who normally wouldn't have big issues with a transitioner at their job might burst a blood-vessel at have a trans person teaching their precious offspring.
What makes this story more unusual is that it usually happens to MTF people than FTM, since MTFs often have 'sexual issues' projected onto them and they're still viewed as 'male' by the offended administrators and community. ENDA and other forms of anti-discriminatory legislation don't address the very unique issues of trans people who are freelancers (which school subs are) and in the 21st Century workforce, that's a gaping hole.
To add to this, the letter Received by Buterman from the school acknowledged that Jan was diagnosed with a "gender identity medical condition" (sic). So not only could the school lose the case based on the blatant discrimination, they could also lose this case based on unlawful dismissal of an employee for a medical condition.
I'm just hoping they don't find a way to sweep this under the rug because Buterman was a substitute, and not a full-time employee.
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/www.edmontonjournal.com/news/2059641.bin
Sorry... link didn't work.
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/www.edmontonjournal.com/news/2059641.bin
Link didn't work... sorry.
I'm a Christian, but given, God's word is the same to Christians and Catholics.
God would be sad to see such hate and prejudice against his creations. The Bible may not encourage lifestyles different than the traditional, but we're also taught to accept, be kind, and not judge anyone that's different. Instead, we have these terrible examples and the people on the street with "God hates fags" signs, which is NOT representing our religion at all. We're supposed to embrace and love everyone of all lifestyle choices, not hate them for being different.
Unfortunately, for both religious and non-religious people, this is usually not the case. :(
"The Bible may not encourage lifestyles different than the traditional"
That's putting it pretty mildly (sorry, I feel like starting trouble):
Leviticus 20:13 (NIV)
If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
You'll be hard pressed to find a modern day Christian arguing for the stoning of homosexuals, HFS. If you're going to "start trouble" (your words) at least advance the ball...
Intersex issues are poorly understood by most Americans, and perhaps especially by Christians. I, myself, had never heard the term "hermaphrodite" until I was an adult, and I don't think my parents are fully aware of what it physically means to be intersex. Simple education, and the teachable moments provided by people like Caster Semenya, will go a long, long way toward common understanding.
Pissing all over someone making a legitimate effort at understanding? Not so much.
You're quoting the Old Testament. There were many extreme things in the Old Testament due to the laws and ways of the land. There was no redemption for us then, and then Jesus paid for our sins. Even in the Old Testament, Jesus says to turn the other cheek and to love thy neighbor, which I'm quite sure means anyone and everyone, even those that oppose you or you may not agree with.
"* T.Crater: stated that the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) are a covenant between God and Israel, which also set up a civil state and decreed its laws. The Christian Scriptures (New Testament) is an agreement "between God and a multinational body called the church. It is not a state, so it doesn't engage in state functions like capital punishment." 2 Thus, the death penalty called for in Leviticus 20:13 is no longer binding for Christians."
That scripture was also taken out of context. If we read the rest, it also dooms a great many number of different sexual lives, including bestiality, incest, affairs, and if a husband sleeps with his wife during her period, NOT just homosexuals.
If we return to the Old Testament book of Leviticus, we learn that this is a very small part of a much greater law that was created for the Israelites to live by. The law was created in a way that was impossible to live up to. It was created so the Israelites would know that they could never live up to God’s expectations. It was created to keep them and all of us humble and truly repentant. It was created so when the Israelites would bring their sin offerings that they would be truly repentant and genuinely ask for God to change their heart. But, that never really happened. So the law also served as proof that in order to restore our relationship with God that we needed a messiah. We needed Jesus to die on the cross to pay the price for our sin.
I'm sorry it's long, but it needed to be explained and I wish everyone pinning Christians to be hateful would just realize that sore thumbs stick out. When Jesus came after that scripture and its old laws, he became our messiah and savior, and encouraged love of all people, which every person should practice. :) Many terrible things were in the Old Testament, but that was in a time where redemption wasn't possible before Jesus came and gave us all - even those already dead - a chance to be cleared of our sins.
And I'd also like to add:
Those verses are found within the "Holiness Code" which emphasized to the Israelites that they were to be set apart to God from the rest of the nations. The CONTEXT is God's prohibition that the Israelites must not engage in the practices found in the nearby fertility cult of Molech and Ashteroth.
Gah. The existence of Catholic schools is one of the more infuriating hold-overs from the nineteenth century. (I live in Ontario, and I'm ignorant about the Alberta school system, and this particular school. However, I need to express myself on the broader subject).
Separate school systems made sense in a time when Catholics were still arguing for full rights and social acceptance. It made sense to guarantee that Catholic children would not be educated in Protestant schools. The dual system no longer makes sense, and it is detrimental to our attempts to create a multi-cultural society. If you are of a different religious/cultural background, you have practically no choice between schools.
The dual system can lead to racially segregated schools. Although Catholic schools are not allowed to forbid non-Catholic students, the majority of parents of different religious/cultural backgrounds will chose to send their children to the public schools (for obvious reasons). Thus, in certain diverse neighbourhoods, the Catholic schools are predominantly white, while the public schools can better reflect the multicultural ideals of Canada. The cultural problems are augmented when the Catholic systems have newer, and fancier schools. Or when the Catholic schools somehow acquire the reputation of being 'safer', (the belief perhaps due to the fact that they have fewer student of 'foreign' origin).
That's just the start of the problems with the separate system. In general, which system do you think the following would be easier?
-- Coming out
-- Establish a LGTB support group
-- Establish a feminist group
-- Find a teacher from a non-Catholic background
-- Question/challenge presumptions about Christianity
-- Find comprehensive and enthusiastic sex education
I'm not saying that the following are impossible to find in Catholic schools, or that Public schools are liberal havens of diversity or respect, I'm simply illustrating the inherent institutional problems of having religious based education funded in any part by the government.
People may argue that choice and competition work for school systems. While this may be true, what choice do people have who do not want their children exposed to this particular form of religious ideology?
I thought that they were a concession made for Quebec... at least that was something that someone told me at one point. I'm not sure if that's true or a "blame Quebec" thing.
At any rate, one way or the other, as a tax-paying Canadian, I really think that the bloody Catholic school system is a money drain that could (and should) be cut completely. Religious indoctrination doesn't belong in public schools. It would be a much more intelligent use of our moneys, and it would help neuter the whole "we should have public funding for all religious schools" idiocy that's happening in Alberta.
As an on-topic thing: I think it is absolutely terrible that this teacher was fired because he was transgendered. I really hope the human rights commission pulls through for him. Unfortunately, I don't think I feel as surprised by this as I wish I was - especially in the Catholic system.
Catholic School? Why am I still not surprised? Will things ever change?
As a St. Albertan (now living in Toronto), I am appalled that this is how my community has come to grace the pages of such a wonderful feminist site.
As many of the other Albertans' comments have implied, we're not all religious zealots or ignorant, just because we live in the "Texas of the North" or the "Bible belt of Canada" (as someone put it). Tell your friends: Alberta's not all bad! I am proud to live in a country that (technically) has the separation of church and state; however, it's clear from this case (and countless others) that this does not prevent ignorant people with publicly-funded authority from making misguided, harmful decisions and couching their bigotry behind their religious beliefs.
I sincerely hope this teacher will be able to return to his job (should he choose to) because the Greater St. Albert Catholic School District could really use some diversity of perspectives. Trust me. Having attended some of these schools (for their better French immersion programs), I am fully aware the good it would do for these school communities to engage in healthy discussion about gender and sexuality.
Thank you, Feministing, for once again bringing an important gender justice issue to the fore. Hopefully this kind of press will create a discourse powerful enough to call out Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools on their shameful record of discrimination and demand change.
(And can I just say how delighted I am to find other Albertans following this site? Awesome!)
What is also interesting is that in Saskatchewan at least, the Catholic divisions are allowed to favour Catholic teachers over other teachers, so they are discriminating based on religion. It is protected in the Education Act.
Canada has 3 provinces, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario, that still fully publicly fund separate systems of education for Catholics. Details differ with provincial law. Quebec and Newfoundland ended similar systems in the 1980's. In Ontario the Catholic system legally discriminates against non Catholic students in enrolment and teachers in employment and promotion. This is legal because The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freeedoms exempts deals the existed prior o confederation, in 1867! In Ontario, our provincial human rights protections exclude publicly funded catholic education. This was a big issue in our last provincial election in 2007. The conservative wanted to fund all faith based schools as we do catholic schools and they went down in flames and are promising to never touch the subject again. The Green party wants to end the catholic system and only have one school system- the got 3 times more votes than ever before. The Liberal- winning- party fought against funding other faith's schools but stood up for continuing the catholic system. They just won because the conservative option was even more hated than the current wasteful and discriminatory system. Estimates vary, but we believe it cost the provincial taxpayers an extra $500,000- $1,000,000,000 annually to operate this parallel system and polls consistantly show the voters want to form one system for everyone. All the big parties have refused, so far, to advocate for this progressive chance. A number of organizations in Ontario, and a few in Alberta, are lobbying for the chance and it'll remain an issue until it is resolved fairly and equitably. Unfortunately, we have many other greedy and self interested groups who also want public funding for their special interest schools, so we need to keep pushing for real public schools that do not discriminate on the basis of religion or any other protected human right.
While I appreciate the discussion of the connection between parochial and public schools in certain provinces in Canada, again, I just wanted to state how this type of termination of trans employees (especially freelance employees like Mr. Buterman) occurs in public schools and even in districts seemingly covered by anti-discrimination policies. There are serious loopholes in legislation which still make it relatively easy for a company to terminate freelance employees. This is especially disturbing since a huge number of both blue and white collar workers in North America now fall under this category.