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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A longtime former Yellowknifer made national headlines last week after filing a human rights complaint stating that she and her lesbian partner were refused service by a family physician because they're gay.

Former Yellowknife resident Andrea Markowski recently filed a human rights complaint in Manitoba after she said she was refused service from a family physician because of her sexual orientation. - Herb Mathisen/NNSL photo -

Andrea Markowski, who recently moved to Winnipeg, said a foreign-born doctor was uncomfortable with her and her partner Ginette, and refused them service because of the doctor's religious beliefs.

She filed complaints with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba and the Manitoba Human Rights Commission. On Monday, Markowski said she was burnt-out from the media attention the story has garnered but is glad people are paying attention.

"I'm grateful for the interest and the concern," she said.

When in Yellowknife, Markowski served as a deputy warden at the North Slave Correctional Centre. She was also active with the now-defunct gay advocacy group OutNorth.

Therese Boullard, director of the NWT Human Rights Commission, said there has never been a case in the NWT like Markowski's to her knowledge. She has been with the commission since the NWT Human Rights Act came into effect in 2004.

"Certainly that issue hasn't come up in the Northwest Territories that I'm aware of," she said.

Boullard said as far as she is aware, this is only the second time in Canadian history where a gay couple has made a complaint alleging discrimination by a physician. The first complaint involved a lesbian couple and a specialist in British Columbia who refused to perform an in-vitro fertilization procedure.

In 1995, the British Columbia Council of Human Rights found Dr. Gerald Korn "discriminated against Tracy Potter and Sandra Benson when he refused to provide them with artificial insemination services because they are lesbians."

Potter and Benson also have a Yellowknife connection. The couple used to live in the city, where Potter had been a practising family doctor.

Asked if she had ever experienced any discrimination in Yellowknife similar to what she claims happened in Winnipeg, Markowski said: "Never in my whole life."