Transgendered woman files human rights complaint against Nunavut government

Vanida Plamondon, a transgendered woman from Kugluktuk, faces homelessness in Edmonton after being denied medical treatment by the Government of Nunavut. She has filed complaints with the Department of Health and Social Services and the Nunavut Human Rights Tribunal. (PHOTO COURTESY OF VANIDA PLAMONDON)

Vanida Plamondon, an in-transition transgendered woman from Nunavut, paces in her emptied Edmonton apartment, retelling the story of how her life led up to her packing her belongings into a storage facility. She’ll be officially homeless in a day.

She’s frightened she won’t have a place to sleep, and hopes a women’s shelter will allow her in, but is scared that she might have to settle for a men’s shelter — not a homey place for a man in woman’s clothing and a soft-spoken voice.

“I haven’t found a job. I am moving out of my place… I’ll be on the street,” Plamondon, a native of Kugluktuk, said May 14.

She blames the government of Nunavut for her circumstances. Up until December 2011, the GN provided financial support for procedures, transportation to her appointments in Edmonton from Kugluktuk, and medication leading up to her inevitable sex change operation.

The money was cut off six months ago, and since she received that information, she’s been forced to stay in Edmonton until a resolution is reached and she can continue her treatment.

Right now she’s in the middle of her transformation — she’s been through counselling, has lived as a woman for the prerequisite year for doctors to deem her suitable for the change, and was just about to start hormone treatment.

But Plamondon has been left stranded in Alberta, unable to fly home because she cashed in her ticket home for a place to stay in the city, unable to continue treatment with no income and no governmental support and unable to find a job because of what she says is a mixture of discrimination and a past criminal record dating back 12 years.

Plamondon is a licensed carpenter, has been sober for 10 years and is mentally stable, she said, although her current situation has led to some depression.

Taking matters into her own hands, she filed an appeal to the cut in her health care benefits with the Nunavut Health and Social Services department, but received no response. On April 2, she filed a human rights complaint against the Government of Nunavut, asking for $275,000 in compensation to cover treatment and for emotional pain and suffering.

“I have been forced to walk away from everything I have worked for in Kugluktuk and have been forced to walk away from all my family and friends,” she wrote in her human rights claim.

Plamondon has yet to hear back on both claims officially, but called the human rights tribunal in Nunavut, where they said the status of her claim is still awaiting a response from the government.

The health benefits coordinator at the territory of Nunavut, Kathleen Irwin, said however, that it’s not discriminatory for Nunavut to deny these services to individuals.

“It’s not because of the money factor. It is expensive [for the procedures] but it’s just something that isn’t covered by the Nunavut health plan,” she said. “It’s not discriminatory. Ontario might cover it, they might have a more robust health care system.”

“I’m just saying, it could be this person or it could be anybody, it’s just not covered.”

Plamondon is getting desperate. She threw out a plea on her blog for help from the media to tell her story, and emailed media outlets, asking for a sympathetic ear.

Her mother, Anomak Niptanatiak, says Plamondon isn’t a stranger to conflict, however.

“In Fort Smith, yes, she was teased a lot,” said Niptanatiak of her daughters’ time in school in the Northwest Territories, back when she was a he, and went by the name Vernon Richard Paul Plamondon.

“She suffered at the hands of a lot of older kids.”

Now she feels Plamondon is suffering at the hands of the government. “I am more than disappointed. I don’t know what to say about them,” said Niptanatiak.

Plamondon has always known that she was a woman at heart, something her mother thinks is a gift, not a setback.

“In my culture we were brought up that anyone that is not normal is a gift to us. Learn, accept and help them,” said Niptanatiak. “For me, Vanida, she is a teacher to tell us how to be different, and challenges she faces with how to live in a man’s body.”

It’s different now, however. Back when Niptanatiak, 58, went to grade school she says transgendered people were treated with respect and little discrimination occured.

“It’s getting worse,” said Niptanatiak. “There was no discrimination against transgenders. It was fine. It started to come when the churches and the schools changed the curriculum.”

For now Plamondon is keeping positive. She’s hitting the streets everyday looking for work, and keeping her phone on for return call from the human rights tribunal. Where she’ll be taking that call, however, is unknown.