B.C. nurse gets suspension, fines for comments about transgender people

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A B.C. nurse has been suspended and fined nearly $94,000 for making “discriminatory and derogatory statements” about transgender people.

The B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives says a disciplinary panel has issued a decision against Amy Hamm, suspending her for one month, while also ordering her to pay the college costs and disbursements within two years.

The panel said in its verdict in March that Hamm committed professional misconduct for making statements across “various online platforms” between July 2018 and March 2021 that were partly designed “to elicit fear, contempt and outrage against members of the transgender community.”

The college says Hamm has filed an appeal of the discipline order in B.C. Supreme Court, and the penalty and costs are stayed until that appeal has been resolved.

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms says in a news release that Hamm was penalized for “her statements defending the right of women to access female-only spaces.”

The release says Hamm had worked in health care for more than 13 years and had been promoted to be a nurse educator.

Lisa Bildy, Hamm’s lawyer, says in a statement that they believe the panel made “legal and factual errors” in reaching its decision, which penalizes the nurse for expressing “mainstream views aligned with science and common sense.”

Hamm says in the statement that her comments are not hateful.

“I’m appealing because biological reality matters, and so does freedom of expression,” she says.

The college says in its notice of the penalty decision that the verdict is an “important statement against discrimination.”

“Nurses and midwives occupy a position of trust and influence in our society,” the notice says.

“The college will continue to stand up against discrimination and believes it is a core aspect of our public protection mandate to ensure nurses uphold the important principle that the health care system is non-discriminatory.”

The announcement comes nearly a month after the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announced it had filed two complaints with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.