Hamilton won't settle with Christian Heritage Party over transgender bus shelter ads

Hamilton city council won't settle a lawsuit after all with the Christian Heritage Party (CHP) over the city removing bus shelter ads aimed at the transgender community.

City council voted 10-3 Wednesday not to offer to settle the suit, a reversal of a 6-3 committee decision last week to cover the legal costs. That means the court battle continues.

The move comes after the CHP placed three HSR bus shelter ads in 2016. It coincided with the city's intent to pass a new transgender and gender non-conforming protocol. The ads depicted someone who appeared to be male entering a door marked "Ladies Showers."

"Competing human rights," it read. "Where is the justice?"

The CHP also distributed 3,500 flyers to Hamilton Mountain homes. The flyers encouraged residents to contact city councillors to especially keep transgender women out of women's washrooms.

The city pulled the bus shelter ads and apologized "for the offensive nature." Coun. Aidan Johnson said at the time that the ads "do not support the dignity of transgender people and their right to full equality under the law."

The city also told Outfront Media, the third-party company that handles HSR ads, to be more careful about ad content.

The CHP and its Hamilton Mountain electoral district, with CEO Jim Enos, filed court documents later that year. The CHP said it has the right to promote "Christian teaching and values."

The party was asking for the city to repost the ads and cover legal costs.

Councillors Johnson, Jason Farr, Matthew Green, Sam Merulla, Chad Collins, Terry Whitehead, Brenda Johnson, Arlene VanderBeek and Rob Pasuta voted against settling, as did Mayor Fred Eisenberger.

Councillors Tom Jackson, Doug Conley and Maria Pearson voted in favour. ​

The discussion was in camera, but Brenda Johnson — who voted for the settlement at the committee level — said she'd since talked to city staff, and was "very strongly" switching her vote.

The potential of a settlement disheartened Will Rowe, the transgender rights activist who spoke out against the ads in 2016.

"Our access to public washrooms is a human rights issue in Ontario," he said before the meeting. 

"If the city votes to settle, this will reinforce the message that trans people are not valued or protected in Hamilton."

This is especially true given what led to the protocol, Rowe said.

The city had to implement one as part of an Ontario Human Rights Tribunal settlement, which came after a transgender woman was refused access to a women's washroom. 

That incident and the ads, he said, were both "sloppy procedural missteps resulting in the city appearing to allow transphobic actions to occur."

Albertos Polizogopoulos, lawyer for the CHP, wouldn't comment on the matter.