NDP’s Morgane Oger launches foundation to fight hate crimes

BC NDP vice-president and prominent transgender rights activist Morgane Oger has started a foundation to fight hate crimes.

Oger will serve as executive director of the new Morgane Oger Foundation, with a mission “to increase equality and justice for all Canadians by working to diminish the gap between the federal and provincial law of Canada and its application.”

The foundation will focus on taking legal action against people accused of hate crimes, and will educate others to do the same.

Statistics Canada tracked 211 police-reported hate crimes in B.C. in 2016 alone, up 29 per cent from the year before.

“When society is struggling with money and things like this, hate crimes increase. So part of the problem is life is becoming more difficult,” said Oger.

WATCH: Chilliwack school trustee compares gender transitioning to child abuse

0:56 Chilliwack school trustee compares gender transitioning to child abuse

The move comes amid a heated battle in Chilliwack over the province’s sexual orientation and gender identity curriculum (SOGI 123), where School Board Trustee Barry Neufeld compared gender transitioning to “child abuse.”

Oger said people like Neufeld highlight the need for foundations like hers.

“He’s got to go. It’s long overdue that somebody goes after him,” she said.

The foundation’s first project will be to support litigation that would confirm legal protections of gender identity and expression through the courts.

Oger ran as the NDP’s candidate in Vancouver-False Creek in the 2017 election but was defeated by BC Liberal Sam Sullivan by 560 votes.

If she had won, she would have been the first transgender MLA in the province.