Hello, Are You Woke Yet?

"A lack of access to menstrual products in men's toilet rooms has raised concerns regarding washroom equity."

"[Under proposed regulations employers will be required to provide menstrual products] in each toilet room. [One product dispenser] is assumed to be purchased for each toilet room, regardless of gender, across all work sites under the control of large business employers in the federal jurisdiction."

"[In addition  to the dispensers government would also] require one covered container for the disposal of menstrual products to be installed in every toilet compartment, in women's, men's and gender-0neutral toilet rooms."

"Therefore, these covered containers would be added to all toilet compartments [stalls] in men's toilet rooms across the federal jurisdiction."

"[The proposed regulations will improve sanitation and help] build a more inclusive Canada."

Government of Canada

Kevin Hiebert with the advocacy group Changing the Flow based in the Region of Waterloo in Ontario, says the groups directly impacted by lack of access to period products should lead the discussion on how to get menstrual equity right. (Mike Stewart/Associated Press)

Yes, this is what consumes the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau. Live and let live just won't cut it. Very special arrangements must now be made into law to address 'equity' and provide the transgendered who represent 0.2 of Canada's population with considerate comfort. The balance of the population not needful of that kind of 'comfort' may find themselves accommodating a government move to see that there is free and ample menstruation products available to that vanishingly small component of the population, courtesy of the taxpayer and those who must purchase their own hygiene products

 

Four government departments -- the Ministries of Development, Indigenous Services, Natural Resources and Transport Canada -- are sponsoring this inspired move to improve hygiene and accommodate transgender individuals in federally regulated workplaces. Employers under the proposed regulations would be required to see that menstrual products are freely available in bathrooms, whether designated for male or female use. 

The proposed new regulations, according to government, will result in a more inclusive atmosphere for individuals who have moved from their natal birth identification to the gender of their choice. This is a private process, individual determination of how one wishes to conduct their lives as far as gender is concerned. Why it has become a matter of public display and attention requiring the entire population to fall into place behind the delicate subject of gender choice is puzzling indeed.

Within the wider public many women are and will continue to be uneasy about sharing bathroom space with a man living as a woman and the reverse is also a reality; many men will feel extremely uncomfortable in the presence of a woman now living as a man, in their midst while in the process of performing normal evacuations. 

But the proposed regulations are to become a government-sponsored instrument that will result in more worker productivity, an increase in workplace safety, the improvement of employees' physical and psychological health, a reduction in discrimination against 2SLGBTQ1+ communities while impacting positively on Indigenous workers and disproportionately benefit the poor. Gender-based discrimination will be addressed by this initiative resulting in increased fairness and equality. All this to be achieved by mandating menstrual product dispensers be placed in each men's washroom

According to government estimates the full cost of the regulations would come in at $116.6 million stretching from 2024 to 2033. Details such as estimates of how costly the purchase of the products and their installation [containers for disposal], represents part of the total cost. Thoroughly thought out and justified by the dire need to provide former women now living as men with female menstrual products. Meant as well to be used by anyone who requires them. Another free benefit for government workers.

The products will be there, widely available for the select few that will take advantage of their presence as a bonus salute to their newly-acquired status, while the majority of workers will no doubt become accustomed to the presence of these products which the larger balance of employees may find their presence peculiar, even annoying in the presumption that they are needed at all. In that perhaps it would be more useful to assign singular toilet stalls separate and apart from others for the specific use of individuals requiring these menstrual products to begin with?

The 2021 Census of Population included for the first time a question on gender and the precision of "at birth" on the sex question, allowing all cisgender, transgender and non-binary individuals to report their gender.

Canada is the first country to collect and publish data on gender diversity from a national census.

Of the nearly 30.5 million people in Canada aged 15 and older living in a private household in May 2021, 100,815 were transgender (59,460) or non-binary (41,355), accounting for 0.33% of the population in this age group.

The proportions of transgender and non-binary people were three to seven times higher for Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2006, 0.79%) and millennials (born between 1981 and 1996, 0.51%) than for Generation X (born between 1966 and 1980, 0.19%), baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1965, 0.15%) and the Interwar and Greatest Generations (born in 1945 or earlier, 0.12%).

Over time, the acceptance and understanding of gender and sexual diversity has evolved. Further, there has been social and legislative recognition of transgender, non-binary and LGBTQ2+ people in general. Younger generations may be more comfortable reporting their gender identity than older generations.

In May 2021, the Canadian population aged 15 and older had an average age of 48.0 years. In comparison, the transgender population had an average age of 39.4 years, while the non-binary population had an average age of 30.4 years.

Just under 1 in 100 young adults aged 20 to 24 were non-binary or transgender (0.85%).

Nova Scotia (0.48%), Yukon (0.47%) and British Columbia (0.44%) had the highest proportions of transgender and non-binary people aged 15 and older among provinces and territories.

Victoria (0.75%), Halifax (0.66%) and Fredericton (0.60%) had the most gender diversity among Canadian large urban centres.

Just over half of non-binary people aged 15 and older (52.7%) lived in one of Canada's six largest urban centres: Toronto (15.3%), Montréal (11.0%), Vancouver (10.8%), Ottawa–Gatineau (5.6%), Edmonton (5.4%) and Calgary (4.5%).

Nearly 1 in 6 non-binary people aged 15 and older (15.5%) lived in the downtown core of a large urban centre. This share was more than twice that of transgender people (7.0%) and over three times higher than that of cisgender people (4.7%).

Statistics Canada

 

Under Ottawa's proposed regulations, employers would be required to provide menstrual products in women’s, men’s, and gender-neutral toilet rooms. Photo by DEREK RUTTAN/London Free Press files