Deliberations over Bill C-6

January 25 may mark the final days of uncertainty for parents and pastors over Bill C-6. The Justice Committee has finished its review and forwarded the conversion therapy bill, with recommended changes, back to the House of Commons. The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada encourages citizens to contact MPs over the break.

David Cooke, of the Campaign Life Coalition, believes that five new changes will make things tougher on conservative Christians. He notes that a petition with 16,000 signatures was ignored, along with the warnings given by the EFC and the Canadian Council of Catholic Bishops. He says that the addition of the term “gender expression” to the definition of conversion therapy would make it “a crime for parents to control how their children…might choose to express their ‘identity.’” He sees no religious exemptions in what he calls “a draconian proposal.”

National Post Journalist, Barbara Kay suggests deep-sixing Bill C-6. Justice David Lametti, and all but seven Conservative party members, don’t seem to see the problems associated with it after their endorsement recently. The Justice Committee is busy reviewing and adjusting it. Section 4.2 of the Department of Justice Act requires, “the Minister of Justice to prepare a Charter Statement for every government bill to help inform public and Parliamentary debate.” The intent is to identify potential justifications for any limits a bill may impose on charter rights and freedoms. There seems little debate on this bill with its willingness to impose up to five years in prison for violators. 

Conversion therapy is currently defined as “any practice, treatment or service designed to change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual or gender identity to cisgender, or to repress or reduce non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behaviour.”

The overview from the Minister of Justice notes that there may be issues that impact freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and equality among other things. In Section 15 he says that the bill discourages and denounces “harmful practices and treatments that are based on myths and stereotypes about LGBTQ2 people. They include myths and stereotypes that the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ2 people are undesirable and temporary conditions that can and should be changed.”

As Kay, and researchers like Paul Dirks, recognize, over 80 percent of children experiencing gender dysphoria return to their sex at birth designation without serious intervention. Change is normal. Britain, Sweden and Finland are putting stricter structures around research into place when children are involved. Finland disallows surgical intervention under age 18. Stories of regret by those undergoing transition continue to emerge. In Canada, fear of criminal charges could easily derail legitimate questions of inquiry for a counselor or pastor.

Lametti cites psychological professionals as denouncing conversion therapy with resulting harms such as “distress, anxiety, depression, stigma, shame, negative self-image, a feeling of personal failure, difficulty sustaining relationships, sexual dysfunction and having serious thoughts or plans of – or attempting – suicide.” The Justice Minister is clear that “private discussions between an individual struggling with sexual orientation or gender identity and those seeking to support that individual, such as teachers, school counsellors, faith leaders, family members and friends” are not prohibited.

We will see after January 25 when parliament resumes.