B.C. gender justice groups call for repeal of Name Act changed over child killer

By Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press on November 7, 2024.

B.C. Minister of Health Adrian Dix waits to speak during an announcement in Surrey, B.C., June 18, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

Gender justice groups in British Columbia are calling for the repeal of recent provincial legislation that prevents people convicted of serious Criminal Code offences from changing their names.

The call for the repeal of the Name Amendment Act comes from groups that include the Gender-Affirming Healthcare, the Canadian Bar Association’s BC branch and the Trans Legal Clinic.

The groups say the legislation was not necessary to protect the public and harms people most in need of legal name changes, including transgender and Indigenous people and survivors of gender-based violence.

B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix, who introduced the amended legislation last May, said then that the law will ensure people convicted of serious crimes, including violence against other people and acts against children, can’t change their name.

The changes were prompted after BC United Leader Kevin Falcon introduced a proposed private member’s bill to change the act after learning that B.C. child killer Allan Schoenborn was legally permitted to change his name to Ken John Johnson.

Schoenborn was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of his children, aged five, eight and 10, in Merritt, B.C., in 2008, but he was later found to be not criminally responsible because of a mental disorder.

Dix or a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health were not immediately available for comment.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.