BC Court to Hear Appeal of Woman Fined $10K for Private Remarks

The Supreme Court of British Columbia will hear an appeal by a woman ordered her to pay a $10,000 penalty after remarks she made in a private conversation with a friend were ruled discriminatory by a B.C. tribunal.

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) confirmed the hearing in a release this week, saying it will represent the woman.

According to the findings of the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal, B.C. resident Kristin Olsen and Terry Wiebe were longtime friends who also shared work and living arrangements before their relationship deteriorated.

Wiebe lived in a motorhome on Olsen’s property from 2014 to 2018. Following a dispute between the two, Wiebe filed a complaint with the tribunal in 2019.

Wiebe, who identifies as transgender, alleged that Olsen discriminated against her for her gender identity after Wiebe expressed to Olsen her desire to get “top surgery” to remove her breasts. According to the ruling, the tribunal had accepted that Olsen was concerned about Wiebe getting top surgery because of her mother’s battle with breast cancer and concerns with the medical risks of the surgery.

The ruling said that Olsen had advised Wiebe not to go through with the surgery, and that she was “fine as a lesbian” and did not need to “mutilate” her body. Olsen denied using the word “mutilate,” but the tribunal found it “more likely than not” that Olsen had used the term.

The tribunal ruled in January 2025 that Olsen’s refusal to assure Wiebe that she could continue to live on the property if she received “top surgery” adversely affected the tenancy relationship. The tribunal awarded Wiebe $10,000 in damages for “injury to dignity, feelings, and self-respect.”

Olsen’s petition calls on the Supreme Court of British Columbia to overturn the decision, saying the tribunal wrongly found that a tenancy relationship existed within the meaning of the Human Rights Code, and failed to properly consider her Charter-protected rights to freedom of expression.

The petition also argued that Olsen was not hostile towards Wiebe’s gender identity, and that the tribunal penalized private conversations between the two women involving their personal friendship.

The hearing is expected to take place over two days this week.

In a statement, Olsen said she was grateful for the JCCF’s support after representing herself throughout several years of tribunal proceedings, adding that she is now “thoroughly exhausted by this seemingly biased process.”

JCCF constitutional lawyer Marty Moore said the court case will test how much power human rights tribunals can have when it comes to private discussions between individuals, and is an example of the BC Human Rights Tribunal “overreaching to police speech.”

“It highlights the serious need for legislative reform to prevent private individuals from going through this punishing process on account of expressing their sincere opinions and concerns,” Moore said.

In February, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ordered a former Chilliwack school trustee, Barry Neufeld, to pay $750,000 after ruling that he had violated the Human Rights Code by publishing content that it deemed “discriminatory” and exposed LGBT people “to hatred or contempt.”

Neufeld had publicly criticized the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) curriculum used in B.C. schools and described teaching children that they could change genders as “child abuse.” He is seeking judicial review of the tribunal’s decision in B.C. Supreme Court.