British Columbia’s human rights tribunal has ordered LifeLabs, through Excelleris Technologies, to pay $32,000 for misgendering and discriminating against transgender and non-binary patients.
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British Columbia’s human rights tribunal has ruled that LifeLabs and its subsidiary Excelleris Technologies must pay $32,000 in damages, along with other costs, after finding they discriminated against transgender and non-binary patients through misgendering.
The tribunal found that in 2019, three patients at clinics in Vancouver and Burnaby were misgendered and, in at least one case, outed. The decision says one non-binary person was told they had to choose either male or female in order to receive lab services, and that the person was also outed to other patients after being required to discuss their gender identity in a public space.
The tribunal also found that one transgender patient was unable to update their gender marker on medical records, and that another transgender patient was misgendered on lab reports and opted out of necessary cancer screening to avoid being misgendered again.
Tribunal member Theressa Etmanski said in the decision issued Oct. 29, 2026, that while information about a patient’s sex may be medically relevant to laboratory services, there was no evidence presented to show the discrimination was medically necessary. Etmanski wrote, “Information about a patient’s sex may be medically relevant in the provision of laboratory services. However, I wish to be clear that there is no evidence before me to support that the standard is medically necessary or justified.”
The tribunal said LifeLabs must update its policies and staff training around gender identity and make private spaces available to transgender and non-binary patients to discuss their identity.
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