Few, as yet, have noticed, but Canada is currently undergoing a widespread crackdown on those who dissent from the premises of transgender ideology.
Earlier this month, Quebec’s Human Rights Tribunal ordered Station10, a hair salon in Longueuil, to pay Alexe Frédéric Migneault—who identifies as “non-binary”—$500 because their advance booking appointment form asked that prospective customers to select whether they are male or female.
Migneault didn’t have to book a haircut in advance, but it was the cheapest way to do it. According to the CBC, which published a puff piece on February 19 that clearly supported Migneault’s claims, the form “forced Migneault to specify whether the service was for a man or a woman,” which is a truly bizarre and sinister way to describe an online form.
“‘Choose whichever’ is something that is said a lot to non-binary people but it’s extremely tricky for us to do that,” Migneault told the CBC. “As soon as we pick one of these two options, we force ourselves to become either completely invisible… or we have to come out.” The salon responded to Migneault’s questions by telling him to “choose whichever” and sent a reassurance that they could be fully accommodating.
Migneault was also assured that the form was “only a guideline.”
That wasn’t enough. The agenda of LGBT activists is to transform society and remake it in their image, and Migneault didn’t think accommodation was sufficient—and headed to Quebec’s Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission to pursue the salon legally, even though Station10 “offered Migneault three free haircuts and changed its website to include a non-gendered option.” Migneault, however, claimed in an email that “(f)orcing a non-binary person to choose between male and female is a form of erasure.”
Despite all this, the CDPDJ concluded that Migneault had been a victim of discrimination in 2024 and advised Station10 to cough up $500 to mitigate the risk of a lawsuit.
Station10 declined, with co-owner Alexis Labrecque describing the shakedown as “extortion”; the National Postnoted that Migneault “requested $12,500 from the salon, for ‘moral damages, material damages and punitive damages,’” claiming that the experience caused “their mental health to deteriorate, leading to them leaving their place of employment and having thoughts about committing suicide.”
The salon, understandably, was upset by this, and filed a $5,000 counterclaim for “abuse of court services”; the case escalated to the Human Rights Tribunal, which took the unique approach of nullifying both claims but reiterating the order that Station10 pay the “suggested” fine of $500.
Migneault appears to be something of a professional litigant; La Pressereported that Migneault has filed up to 100 complaints against various businesses and boasted about this on social media feeds, which are full of complaints about Canada’s lack of accommodation for “non-binary” people. According to one Facebook post:
Three years … It took me THREE YEARS to get a driver’s licence without error. Simply because I’m a non-binary … My existence is so “difficult” to bureaucratize for Gouvernement du Québec apparently. That speaks volumes about the quality of infrastructure in which it chooses to operate
In another post cited by the National Post, Migneault wrote:
Happy International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia! Here’s my new answer to an intrusive question about my gender identity.” The statement reads: “i do not identify as a boy or a girl, i identify as a nuisance. an irritant. a fool and a problem.
The salon told CBC Radio-Canada that they may appeal this latest tribunal decision, too. Trans activists, meanwhile, are standing by the nuisance. “I hope this judgement will change things,” trans activist Celeste Trianon, who apparently didn’t bother to read the details of the case, told the CBC. “I hope this means that trans and non-binary people will benefit from the same spaces as everyone else. It is dangerous to politicize such cases, especially in a context where trans rights are vulnerable.”
In a far more insidious case, former Chilliwack school trustee Barry Neufeld was ordered to pay $750,000 for violating the Human Rights Code for posting content opposing LGBT ideology this month. “Mr. Neufeld invoked negative and insidious stereotypes about LGBTQ people, especially trans people, which denied their inherent dignity and, in some cases, reflected the hallmarks of hate against them as a group,” the tribunal’s decision stated.
Neufeld had been a prominent opponent of the BC government’s SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity) curriculum, and the BCTF and Chilliwack Teacher’s Association asked for the massive sum as “compensation” for members of the association who identify as LGBT for “injury to their dignity, feelings, and self-respect.” The ruling is clearly intended to be punitive and have a chilling effect on any dissent from LGBT ideology in Canada.
“This is a global free expression story but not a single person opposed to a $750,000 fine for speech is quoted,” noted Josh Dehaas of the Canadian Constitution Foundation of the CBC’s coverage. “Barry served as a school trustee for over 20 years,” MLA Heather Maahs wrote on X. “He was also a probation officer who served for 25 years. Most of his clients were sex offenders. He saw red flags when SOGI 123 was introduced and spoke out. Nine long years this case sat on the books with the HRT. If a murderer’s case isn’t heard in 2 years you walk free. This is entirely disgraceful from every angle.”
