Appointments/Elections

Kael Mckenzie, Canada’s First Transgender Judge

The Globe and Mail was among the media publishing information regarding the appointment of Kael McKenzie to the Provincial Court of Manitoba.  It is there reported,

Canada’s first transgender judge has been appointed to provincial court in Manitoba.

Kael McKenzie, a Crown attorney from Winnipeg, was officially designated a judge on Dec. 17 and will begin his new job immediately.

With his appointment to provincial court, Mr. McKenzie becomes the third openly trans judge now practising in North America. The first, Victoria Kolakowski, of Alameda County, Calif., was appointed in 2010.

Many are calling Mr. McKenzie’s appointment “a Canadian milestone.”

Before his promotion, Mr. McKenzie was a Crown prosecutor for five years in family, commercial and civil law. He graduated from the University of Manitoba in 2006 and has been an active member of both the legal and LGBTQ communities since, co-chairing the Canadian Bar Association’s sexual-orientation and gender-identity conference from 2012 to 2014.

Mr. McKenzie is also serving as vice-president of the Manitoba Bar Association executive committee, the Manitoba chair of the Canadian Bar Association, and president of the Rainbow Resource Centre – which serves Manitoba’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, and two-spirit communities. He also served on the Manitoba Women’s Advisory Council.

The article shares more about Judge McKenzie.  Among the additional coverage is included at Vice News, Kael McKenzie Didn’t Set Out to Be a Trailblazer — Now He’s Canada’s First Transgender Judge and CJAD 800 News, Transgender judge in Manitoba credits hard work for his appointment.

Congratulations, Judge McKenzie.