MLAs have been taking feedback from police and the Northern Mosaic Network on proposed amendments to NWT vital statistics legislation, including a request for more gender-neutral language and questions over how RCMP are notified of a name change.
The GNWT is amending the Vital Statistics Act and Change of Name Act to make the legislation more inclusive for transgender, non-binary, gender-diverse and two-spirit people.
One of the proposed amendments adds an option for transgender and non-binary people to request that their name change not be published in the Northwest Territories Gazette, a government publication that provides a list of orders and notices required by legislation.
Currently, the registrar general can choose not to publish a name in the NWT Gazette or notify authorities if the name change is minor, the person was already commonly known under their new name, or publication of the name change would cause undue hardship.
RCMP Chief Superintendent Dyson Smith asked MLAs to remove the option for the registrar general to not notify authorities, or include an amendment that would exempt RCMP from this.
Advertisement.
Advertisement.
Smith explained that criminal records in the NWT are associated with a person’s legal name, and RCMP officers will search someone’s name before responding to a situation to help understand if the person is a threat to police or the public.
If RCMP are not notified of a name change, he said, the criminal records will not be transferred to the new legal name and officers may put themselves in danger.
Yellowknife North MLA Shauna Morgan asked Smith what RCMP do now if the registrar general chooses not to inform the police about a name change. Smith said this hasn’t happened while he’s worked for the NWT RCMP.
Morgan further asked what RCMP do to verify someone’s legal name if a person doesn’t have any identification or does not provide a name.
Advertisement.
Advertisement.
Smith explained that, along with your legal name, a person’s criminal record is associated with them through their unique fingerprint section number, but this number can only be verified once someone is at an RCMP detachment.
“I’m less concerned with the after-effect of not notifying someone, because we can find out who people are eventually,” he said.
“I am very worried about the onset, though, when we dispatch our officers to a call and we don’t know the full history of someone that we’re about to send the men and women into.”
He said the ability to link someone’s criminal record with their legal name is important, particularly with the high turnover of police in the NWT.
“We really rely on these databases to inform our new members of potential threats as well as any conditions that they should be monitoring,” said Smith.
More gender-neutral language
Representatives from Northern Mosaic Network and Qmunity Camp NWT also spoke to MLAs on Monday about proposed amendments to the Vital Statistics Act and Change of Name Act.
Chelsea Thacker, executive director of Northern Mosaic Network, asked the territorial government to consider using more gender-neutral language when referring to parents and people who give birth.
Thacker also said the legislation and proposed amendments use the terms sex and gender inconsistently and interchangeably, and proposed the GNWT use the term “gender marker” instead.
Advertisement.
Advertisement.
They raised concerns about how some of the language written in legislation could be interpreted in the future to harm 2SLGBTQIA+ people in ways that are not the intention of this government.
“We need to address these potential loopholes to prevent them from being weaponized in the future, and to ensure strong and lasting protections for 2SLGBTQIA+ people,” said Thacker.
The Northern Mosaic Network also raised issues with the amendments that would allow people to request their names not be published in the NWT Gazette. The group’s concern is that the process for this is not clearly set out, meaning 2SLGBTQIA+ people could be required to prove their gender or that they are experiencing hardship and violence.
Thacker said the organization had no issues with the concerns raised by the RCMP and was not opposed to RCMP being notified of a name change.
