The writer is simply confused about the legislation..

Bill C-16 does NOT aim to insert specific protection for transgendered into the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (which indeed already prohibits discrimination, period) but rather, into the Canadian Human Rights Act.  

(It also seeks to change the Criminal Code to include gender as a grounds in hate crime laws.)

Do note, guantanamo, that sexual orientation is also not specifically listed as a protected group in the Charter -- because the courts have clearly upheld that S. 15.1 means that everyone is equal under the law, whether they're specifically mentioned or not, and that includes gays as well as gender nonconforming people .  There is no need to amend the Charter, and it's not what Bill C-16 is aiming to do.

The G&M should have gotten someone competent to write this article.