(Ottawa) Rebelote: After the House of Commons, last week, the Senate of Canada rushed through the bill on Tuesday to ban conversion therapy.
The modus operandi was the same as last Wednesday for the lower house of Parliament, that is, the proposal to rush through Bill C-4 came from the Conservative benches.
Leader of the Official Opposition in the Upper House, Leo Housakos, has put forward a motion to immediately put a seal of approval on the bill. He did so by pleading that its adoption in the House of Commons showed that there was a consensus on this issue.
“The House of Commons did the right thing a few days ago,” said the Conservative senator.
” They [les députés] did so because they felt it was in the national interest […] And I do not believe that it is appropriate to exploit this file for political ends or to use it to sow division, as it is the case in any file “, he pleaded.
Nobody being opposed to it, C-4 is endorsed without debate and without study in parliamentary committee.
And that means that conversion therapy will soon become officially banned in the country, once Bill C-4 receives Royal Assent from the Governor General of Canada, Mary Simon.
On the other hand, for the Conservatives, it is one less thorn in the side. Because during the last legislature, 62 of the 119 members of the party voted against the previous incarnation of the bill, C-6, at third and last reading, after having done almost everything to hinder its progress.
The Liberals, for their part, have one less divisive stake to exploit.
A tougher bill
Introduced last Monday by the Minister of Justice of Canada, David Lametti, Bill C-4 is a new version of Bill C-6, which deals with the same issue, and which died on the order paper in the last legislature.
However, its provisions are different.
The legislation is tougher; in particular, it broadens the prohibition of the practice not only among minors, but also among adults.
Conversion therapies aim to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity either spiritually or psychologically. In 2012, the World Health Organization published an opinion on the practice, arguing that it posed a “serious threat to the health and rights of those affected”.
Under Bill C-4, new offenses would be added to the Criminal Code.
It would now be an act punishable by imprisonment for up to five years, while promoting or advertising a person – minor or major – in conversion therapy, while promoting or advertising it would be punishable by imprisonment for up to five years. ‘at two years.