A transgender former Ontario school bus driver who labeled his bus the “Lolita Line” has filed a human rights complaint over his dismissal.
The driver, identified only by the initials L.Z., lodged the complaint on March 16 at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, according to Reduxx. He alleges discrimination in employment over ethnic origin, gender identity, and sex.
The complaint names Landmark Bus Lines, the company that employed him, and the York Catholic District School Board. No hearing has been scheduled.
Parents filmed the driver outside St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Elementary School in Woodbridge in June 2025. The video showed him half inside his bus in a pink-and-white Japanese schoolgirl uniform, with a short skirt, bare midriff, and long white stockings. A sheet of paper taped to the windshield read “Lolita Line.”
The name often refers to Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 novel, in which a man sexually abuses his 12-year-old stepdaughter. Reduxx said the term also evokes the sexualizing of young girls.
The school board emailed families afterward. It said outside companies handle school busing in Ontario and that the company confirmed he would no longer transport students to the school.
The complaint went unnoticed for months. Ontario’s tribunal does not post upcoming hearings online, so there was no realistic way for the public to know the case existed. It surfaced only because the driver asked for a publication ban, granted Oct. 13 and published Oct. 23, the National Post reported.
In granting it, the tribunal said the driver identifies as a “transgender woman” and said he faced threats and discriminatory labels after the video drew media attention. It sealed his personal details.
Advocates for transgenderism argue that a person’s unmeasurable and changeable “gender identity” should be treated in law and culture as more important than their male or female biology.
If the tribunal finds discrimination, it can order back pay and damages for injury to dignity, as well as reinstatement. It can also dismiss a complaint it decides has no reasonable prospect of success.
National Post columnist Jamie Sarkonak argued the tribunal is treating the driver as the victim, and that neither the board nor the bus company could have kept him on the route. She compared it to a 2022 Oakville case in which a shop teacher wore large prosthetic breasts to class, with the Halton school board saying human rights rules barred enforcement.
The complaint comes as fights over gender identity and children continue across North America. A Manhattan Institute analysis published Monday found at least 15,437 minors in Washington state carried a transgender-related diagnosis on insurance claims between 2017 and 2023. Voters there decide two related ballot measures Tuesday.
Two other clips involving transgender adults have drawn similar criticism in recent months. A TikTok creator known as Lilly Tino has drawn criticism from other transgender creators over videos explaining gender identity to young children, including one teaching them the word cisgender. Comedian Grace Freud faced backlash in February over a stand-up joke about killing children over bathroom access.