The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario has awarded an Indigenous transgender woman more than CAD $35,000 (about $25,500) in damages, following her six-year legal battle against a waxing salon owner who discriminated against and publicly humiliated her, as the court determined.
The anonymous complainant, known as A.B. during the proceedings, filed her case in 2018 after she attempted to book a leg waxing service from the salon Mad Wax in Windsor, Ontario, owned by Jason Carruthers. After speaking with an employee who later testified that she did not know what the word “transgender” meant, A.B. received a call back from Carruthers, who assumed that A.B. wanted a Brazilian wax and told her that nobody would offer that service to “someone like you” — referring to her status as a trans woman, per court documents.
Following that call, A.B. — who at the time was a director at a local trans community organization — posted a video to social media warning trans people not to book services at Mad Wax, but removed it shortly afterward. Carruthers, claiming that he feared a “media circus,” then sent a press release to several local outlets including the Windsor Star that repeatedly referred to A.B. and trans women in general as “males” and claimed she had made “threats” against his business.
In a decision handed down May 23, tribunal Vice Chair Karen Dawson found that Carruthers had violated the Ontario Human Rights Code on multiple counts. Dawson stressed that while both parties’ versions of events differed significantly, Carruthers’ testimony “changed on key points when challenged on cross-examination,” including whether he had used the phrase “someone like you.” Dawson held that Carruthers “repeatedly misgendered” A.B. during their phone call; fixated on what he believed her genitals to be; outed her by distributing the personal information she had provided during the booking process to the press; used transmisogynistic stereotypes in claiming she had threatened him; and sought to publicly embarrass her in the media to disparage her human rights claim.
“I find that the respondents’ actions struck at the core of the applicant’s identity and in a very public way,” Dawson wrote. According to A.B.’s testimony, the ordeal caused her immense personal trauma, including the loss of her job, the dissolution of her marriage, increased issues with substance abuse, and suicidality. Although Dawson balked at awarding A.B. the full $50,000 amount she requested, the ruling nevertheless held that “an exceptional award is warranted in this case.” Carruthers was ordered to pay A.B. CAD $35,000 plus pre-judgment interest accruing from March 2018, as well as post-judgment interest beginning June 22 until the full amount is paid. Dawson also ordered Carruthers and all his employees to complete the Human Rights Commission’s online training course and provide proof within 30 days.
