A woman has been ordered to pay $10,000 in damages because her comments about transgenderism – recommending a friend not pursue “top surgery” – caused “hurt feelings.”
It is in a report at LifeSiteNews that the case of Kristin Olsen, of British Columbia Canada, is described.
Her case now is pending before a provincial Supreme Court, after a human rights “tribunal” ordered her to pay $10,000 for her private comments to a friend.
The Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms now is working on her case.
The origins of the fight were comments she made during a conversation with a friend, at that time, Terry Wiebe.
Wiebe lived at Olsen’s property from 2014-2018 and the two shared working and living arrangements at the time.
Olsen explained that the fine is problematic, in that it “makes it clear that the tribunal is determining that it is mandatory that the public accept or believe in gender theory or be held in violation of the Human Rights Code.”
The fight erupted in 2019 when Wiebe, who identifies as transgender, filed a complaint with the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal, alleging that Olsen committed discrimination based on “gender identity and expression.”
The report explained, “Wiebe had told Olsen she was considering a mastectomy or ‘top surgery.’ The tribunal noted that Olsen was concerned about Wiebe undergoing the procedure, due to her mother having had breast cancer and other risks associated with the procedure.”
Olsen then allegedly told Wiebe not to have the surgery, as she was “fine as a lesbian.”
Olsen denied describing the procedure as mutilating Wiebe’s body, but the Tribunal claimed she did, and ended up ordering the $10,000 damage payment to Wiebe, “as a result of injury to feelings and self-respect.”
Olsen’s case includes that the tribunal blew the decision by finding that a tenancy relationship existed, and also made a mistake “in finding that her comments constituted discrimination, and failed to properly consider freedom of expression protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
Lawyer Marty Moore said, “This case shows yet again an example of the BC Human Rights Tribunal overreaching to police speech.”
