B.C. lab ordered to pay $32K for misgendering transgender, non-binary patients

British Columbia’s human rights tribunal has ruled that a private laboratory provider must pay $32,000 in damages, along with other costs, for discriminating against transgender and non-binary patients.

The tribunal found LifeLabs and its subsidiary Excelleris Technologies misgendered and outed three patients at clinics in Vancouver and Burnaby in 2019.

Its decision says a non-binary person was told they had to choose either male or female to receive lab services and was outed to other patients by being required to discuss their gender identity in a public space.

It also says one transgender patient was unable to update their gender marker on medical records, and another was misgendered on lab reports and opted out of necessary cancer screening to avoid being misgendered again.

The tribunal heard last year from one expert who said gender-diverse people face barriers in accessing health care, and that misgendering can be a “significant source of distress.”

Tribunal member Theressa Etmanski says LifeLabs must update its policies and staff training around gender identity, and make available to transgender and non-binary patients private spaces to discuss their identity.

“Information about a patient’s sex may be medically relevant in the provision of laboratory services. However, I wish to be clear that there is no evidence before me to support that the standard is medically necessary or justified,” Etmanski says in the decision issued Oct. 29, 2026.


This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2026.

Aaron Sousa, The Canadian Press