BC’s Limits on Name Changes Hurt the Vulnerable, Advocates Say

When the B.C. government announced changes to the Name Act in May, it said they would improve public safety.

But organizations representing Indigenous people, LGBTQ2S+ people, survivors of gender-based violence and sex workers say the changes harm vulnerable populations who require legal name changes for their own safety and well-being.

The amendments to the Name Act ban legal name changes for people convicted of specific crimes or deemed dangerous offenders or long-term offenders.

Those found not criminally responsible for reasons of a mental disorder or who were a minor at the time but charged as an adult will also be prevented from legally changing their names.

Everyone else aged 12 and older must undergo a mandatory criminal record check before a legal name change is approved.

Introduced originally as a private member’s bill by BC United leader and then-MLA Kevin Falcon in April, the draft of the Bill 26 Name Amendment Act that eventually became law was presented by Health Minister Adrian Dix on May 13.

The amendments were announced a week after news reports revealed that Allan Schoenborn, who was found not criminally responsible for killing his three children in Merritt in 2008, had legally changed his name to Ken John Johnson in 2021.

Johnson continues to reside at a forensic psychiatric hospital in the Lower Mainland. However, he has been granted unsupervised leave for up to 28 days annually.

“What this legislation does is it says that people who have been found guilty of very serious offences — violence against other people, acts against children — will not be permitted to change their name,” Dix said shortly after the introduction of the bill.

The list of criminal offences triggering the name change ban includes violent crimes and crimes against children, such as child pornography, sexual assault, sexual exploitation, murder, trafficking and child luring.

But it also includes crimes LGBTQ2S+ people, people experiencing homelessness and addiction, sex workers and people fleeing gender-based violence with their children are regularly charged with, say critics.

These include kidnapping, removing a child from the country, gross indecency, breaking and entering, trespassing and overcoming resistance in the commission of an offence.

The amended act also stands in the way of Indigenous people, who are overrepresented in the criminal justice system, reclaiming names that were changed under colonization.

“The law frustrates decolonization work,” Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, said in a statement from a joint press release with PACE Society, Qmunity, West Coast LEAF and the Catherine White Holman Wellness Centre’s Trans Legal Clinic.

“UNDRIP [United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples] and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission call on all levels of government to enable residential school survivors and their families to reclaim names changed by the residential school system,” Stewart’s statement continues. “This change seems heavy handed and unfair.”

‘You can’t escape your criminal record’: Smith

No one can avoid criminal responsibility by changing their name, says Adrienne Smith, litigation director of the Catherine White Holman Wellness Centre’s Trans Legal Clinic.

“The criminal justice system provides accountability through sentencing and you can’t escape your criminal record in any way,” they said.

The act already included the ability to refuse name change requests “sought for an improper purpose or... on any other ground objectionable.”

The amended act allows people covered by the Witness Protection Program Act and Witness Security Act to legally change their names, regardless of their criminal record, Smith points out.

And it does nothing to prevent people from adopting an informal name change, they added.

“That really shows how the government didn’t understand what they were doing,” they said, adding the amendment violates the B.C. Human Rights Code and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Trans Legal Clinic is considering filing a Charter challenge.

Johnson’s name change made news earlier this year when he requested that the British Columbia Review Board redact his new name in future decisions. The board said no.

The act does not affect name changes due to marriage, reverting to a birth surname or changing the name of a child born in B.C., because they don’t require going through the legal name change process.

‘It’s deeply problematic’

For those with sex-work-related convictions included under the amendment, “it’s deeply problematic,” said Kit Rothschild, community co-executive director of PACE Society. PACE runs the Gender Self-Determination Project, helping transgender and Two-Spirit people change their names.*

Additionally for trans, Two-Spirit and Indigenous people, the amendment creates a “huge obstacle to having a name that matches your identity,” further complicating access to health care, housing and employment when their official ID doesn’t match their chosen name, Rothschild added.

For survivors of gender-based violence, the existence of a criminal past could subject them to continued violence without the ability to hide from their abusers, says Kate Feeney, director of litigation with West Coast LEAF.

“We don’t agree with that,” she said.

Sometimes people end up in the criminal justice system for acts of self-defence, Feeney says, or because the legal system did not provide protection for their children.

“Nobody should be barred from seeking safety for themselves,” she said. “We don’t like to see the politicization of government policies, and a move away from policies that are evidence-based and equity-driven, to score political points.”

‘We were horrified to hear that’

Legal name changes, which cost $137 for adults, currently take about 16 weeks to process.

A criminal record must be obtained 30 days in advance of submitting a name change application and costs an additional $28.

“They’re promising that this will delay name change applications by four months,” Smith said.

Adding a criminal record check for all applicants means Vital Statistics will now be aware of more people’s criminal records, Smith says. This includes young offenders, whose records are typically sealed.

“They’re seeking to get indirectly something that they cannot get directly,” Smith said. “We say that’s coercive and it’s wrong.”

People who are found not responsible for reasons of mental illness are not convicted of a crime and are not treated the same way by the legal system as people who are convicted, Smith notes. But they are treated the same under the amended act.

In a statement to the Vancouver Sun earlier this year, Premier David Eby indicated he wanted to return to a pre-2002 requirement that all legal name changes be publicly reported.

At one time it was published in the newspaper, Smith notes.

“This is extremely dangerous for transgender people, and we were horrified to hear that,” they said, adding it is also dangerous for sex workers and people fleeing gender-based violence.

The Tyee requested an interview with Eby, but he was not made available.

In an email to The Tyee, the premier’s office said it's aware of the criticisms and the potential impacts on marginalized communities. The government is “listening to people and remain committed to the purpose of the amendment, which is to prevent dangerous criminals from abusing the name change process to hide their identity and avoid accountability,” the statement continued.

“We always want to make sure that government policies work for people, and we will take a close look at the details of this, working with community, to ensure that it does.”

* Story updated at on Nov. 13 at 3:24 p.m. to note the amendment includes sex-work-related convictions, not charges.