Adam Zivo: Trans activist Jessica Yaniv crusades against free speech

Jessica Yaniv, now Jessica Simpson, centre, arrives for a B.C. Human Rights Tribunal hearing in Vancouver, on Friday July 26, 2019. Photo by Darryl Dyck/National Post

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Transgender activist Jessica Simpson, formerly known as Jessica Yaniv, is now using the British Columbia’s Human Rights Tribunal (BCHRT) to go after critics of gender ideology. 

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Also previously known as “Jonathan Yaniv,” Simpson has been described by courts as a “prolific litigator” and is infamous for launching unsuccessful human rights complaints and civil lawsuits.

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This March, the activist targeted Canadian media with a new round of BCHRT complaints: four directed towards the Western Standard and its publisher, Derek Fildebrandt, and another three directed towards commentator Barbara Kay.

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These complaints alleged, among other things, that referring to Simpson as a “trans-identifying male,” and amplifying third-party statements that deny the legitimacy of transgender identities, constituted discrimination and caused reputational harm, emotional distress and increased exposure to harassment. Simpson further objected to the use of terms like “self-identified,” and to being referred to with male pronouns or female pronouns placed within quotation marks.

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When Fildebrandt and Kay subsequently criticized Simpson’s complaints on social media, the activist responded by filing additional BCHRT complaints accusing them of undue retaliation.

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When I emailed Simpson about these complaints and their impact on media freedom, the activist responded: “freedom of expression is not absolute. Canadian law, including human rights legislation, clearly establishes that expression which rises to the level of discrimination or hate may be subject to legal constraint… Characterizing such actions as an ‘undermining’ of freedom is a misstatement of the law.”

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Fildebrandt says he wasn’t surprised by the complaints.

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“We’re certainly not afraid. We’ve expected this for some time, and it was greeted with a belly full of laughter,” he said in an interview with me in April over Zoom. He explained that the Western Standard’s policy is to use preferred pronouns when an individual’s transgender identity is irrelevant to the story, but that, according to him, Simpson obviously does not meet this bar and, further, the activist’s behaviour is “undeserving of respect, and therefore undeserving of accommodation.”

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His response shouldn’t surprise anyone who is familiar with this character’s past behaviour.

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Simpson first gained international notoriety in 2018 after filing BCHRT complaints against several immigrant-owned beauty salons that refused to provide a “Brazilian wax” of the activist’s intact male genitalia. The tribunal dismissed these complaints, however, and determined that Simpson was substantially motivated by “racial animus” and the pursuit of financial gain. 

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”A scrotum is different than a vulva — regardless of the gender of the person it is attached to,” said the ruling, which suggested that Simpson likely made the respondents “feel uncomfortable or awkward for her own amusement or as a form of revenge.” Although the activist was ordered to pay the respondents $2,000 each as punishment for “extortion,” two of the spas shut down due to the pressure and costs of litigation.