Recognition (Canada)

Recognition (Canada). This is a multi page section that gives information on recognition of nonbinary gender identities in Canadian services and government. In Canada, passports and immigration documents are issued federally by the Canadian government while driver's licenses, health cards, and birth certificates are issued by the appropriate provincial government.

Recognition in federal government
In 2017, the Canadian government passed bill C-16, which added "gender identity" and "gender expression" as prohibited grounds for discrimination. Following C-16 the government has put interim measures in place before they can issue documents without "M" or "F". As of February 2019, the Canadian government has not issued any documents without "M" or "F" on them. However, they have introduced a process to have an observation added to passports or a letter issued alongside immigration documents, stating that "The sex of the bearer should be read as “X”, indicating that it is unspecified."

Recognition in provincial governments
The recognition of nonbinary people by provincial governments varies across Canada. All provinces and territories have removed requirements for surgery, but many still do rely on a medical model of transness. At this point only Alberta and Ontario have moved away from the medical model for all applicants, removing the requirement for a letter from a medical practitioner. That being said some provinces have removed have also removed this requirement, but only for those over a certain age.

Every province and territory has added explicit protections for "gender identity" in their human rights legislation. The majority of provinces protect "gender expression" as well.


 * Blue(#9FF) means it's friendly to nonbinary people.
 * Yellow(#FFB) means it's somewhat friendly to nonbinary people.
 * Red(#F99) means it's not friendly at all to nonbinary people.

Recognition by businesses and services
See recognition in services.