Kael McKenzie (born 1971) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

judge, who was appointed to the

Provincial Court of Manitoba The Provincial Court of Manitoba (french: Cour provinciale du Manitoba) is the lower trial court of the Province of Manitoba. It has mainly a criminal jurisdiction, as well as limited concurrent jurisdiction with the Court of King's Bench in ma ...

on December 17, 2015. He is noted as the first

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

person ever appointed a judge in Canada."Canada appoints its first transgender judge"
''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', December 18, 2015. A 2006 graduate of the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

firm of Chapman Goddard Kagan"Trail-blazing transgender judge". ''

Winnipeg Free Press The ''Winnipeg Free Press'' (or WFP; founded as the ''Manitoba Free Press'') is a daily (excluding Sunday) broadsheet newspaper in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It provides coverage of local, provincial, national, and international news, as well as ...

'', December 19, 2015. and as a Crown prosecutor in family, commercial and civil law. He co-chaired the

Canadian Bar Association The Canadian Bar Association (CBA), or Association du barreau canadien (ABC) in Canadian French, French, represents over 37,000 lawyers, judges, notaries, law teachers and law students from across Canada. History The Association's first Annu ...

's Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Conference from 2012 to 2014, and has served as vice president of the

Manitoba Bar Association The Manitoba Bar Association (MBA) is an organization of members of the legal profession in Manitoba, Canada. It is a non-profit professional association, and is a branch of the Canadian Bar Association. As of 2021, the MBA represents approximatel ...

, as Manitoba chair of the

, and president of the provincial Rainbow Resource Centre for Manitoba's

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

and

two-spirit Two-spirit (also two spirit, 2S or, occasionally, twospirited) is a modern, , umbrella term used by some Indigenous North Americans to describe Native people in their communities who fulfill a traditional third-gender (or other gender-variant) ...

communities. He served for several years in the

Canadian Forces } The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; french: Forces armées canadiennes, ''FAC'') are the unified military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force. ...

before attending law school. Outside of his legal work, he has also been a volunteer for the

Winnipeg Folk Festival The Winnipeg Folk Festival is a nonprofit charitable organization with an annual summer folk music festival held in Birds Hill Provincial Park, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The festival features a variety of artists and music from around the ...

, the St. James Historical Museum and the

North American Indigenous Games The North American Indigenous Games is a multi-sport event involving indigenous North American athletes staged intermittently since 1990. The Games are governed by the North American Indigenous Games Council, a 26-member council of representatives ...

. He is a member of the Manitoba Métis Nation."Kael McKenzie sworn in as 1st transgender judge in Canadian history"

CBC News CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.ca. ...

, February 12, 2016.

References

Judges in Manitoba LGBT judges Transgender men LGBT lawyers LGBT First Nations people University of Manitoba alumni Living people 1971 births Robson Hall alumni 21st-century Canadian judges 21st-century Canadian LGBT people {{Canada-law-bio-stub