(OTTAWA) LGBTQ+ rights advocates are not yet reassured by changes to the Criminal Code banning conversion therapy in Canada.
They say that the ideologies underlying these methods are still present in Canada.
According to the definition of the Canadian government, conversion therapy is “a practice that aims to change a person’s sexual orientation to make them heterosexual, to change their gender identity to make them cisgender or to change their gender expression that she corresponds to the sex assigned to her at birth.
No one has been charged or brought to trial since the changes to the law.
Nick Schiavo, executive director of No Conversion Canada, worries that those advocating these therapies are trying to use “coded language” to avoid falling under the law.
Florence Ashley, an assistant professor at the University of Alberta’s law school, says it’s common for organizations to use looser terms, such as saying they want to help people explore who they are. are really.
Federal Justice Minister David Lametti calls conversion therapy a “horrendous” practice. Banning them could take some time to take hold as the police have to learn how to investigate the subject. In particular, they must learn to analyze programs that could be concealed by coded language.