Ottawa: A transgender magistrate was named this week to the Manitoba provincial court, becoming the first transgender judge in Canada.

Kael McKenzie, a lawyer and then a crown prosecutor in Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba, was named late in the week by an independent judicial nominating committee.

The daily newspaper The Globe and Mail reported that McKenzie thus became the first openly transgender judge in Canada and the third in North America, following judges in California and Texas.

The newest member of the trio called the nomination an important step forward.

‘For my community, I think it means a lot,’ McKenzie told the public CBC News network.

‘I think it means we’ve hit that glass ceiling and broke through it.’