Over the next couple of months, Trans Rights Commission Toronto will be leading a campaign to make legal name changes free for trans people in Ontario.

Trans people’s names often differ from what the government recognizes to be their name (their ‘legal’ names), and this discrepancy can introduce several barriers to participation in public life—particularly in situations where legal identification is relevant, such as employment, education, and government services. Participation in these domains often comes—if it does at all—at the expense of their privacy and dignity.

While Ontario provides a legal name change process, many trans people are unable to access it owing to financial constraints. In a lot of cases, these financial constraints are exacerbated by difficulties accessing employment as a direct result of a discrepancy between their legal and actual name, placing them in a precarious position that is difficult to get out of.

Waiving legal name change fees for trans people (something the Registrar General has authority to do under section 12.1(1)(b) of the Change of Name Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C.7, and already does for Indigenous individuals in specific circumstances) will serve as an important step towards reducing financial barriers trans people face accessing this process and will result in a significant and immediate improvement to the quality of life of many socioeconomically disadvantaged trans Ontarians.

We’re now in the first phase of our campaign. As part of this phase, we’re building strategic relationships with key partners including allied legislators, unions and civil society organizations both so that we’re equipped with a unified institutional voice and in order to leverage their unique strengths towards trans people’s right to be recognized under their true identities.

We’ll then focus on community consultations, including hearing from trans people about the impact a legal name change (or lack thereof) has had on their lives and the challenges they faced accessing it. In addition to that, we will spotlight the issue in regional media to create a political environment conducive to the change we’re looking for.

Once we have community backing and the support of external institutions and have placed the issue in the public spotlight, we’ll be bringing it to the attention of the Registrar General (or Deputy Registrar General). We’re confident at this point this will bring about positive change; in the unexpected event it does not, however, we are equipped to escalate and take on this issue more politically.

We’ll need your support throughout this process, so if you’re not signed up to our mailing list yet, please do so by visiting our website at trct-cdtt.ca.