Bill C-4 an Act to Criminalize Conversion Therapy was passed into law at the close of the Canadian Parliament this December where both the House of Commons and the Senate unanimously voted in its favour.
This was the Liberal Government's 3rd attempt (third time lucky) to bring this obnoxious piece of legislation into being.
At this point, it is helpful to point out that despite what our Governors say, there are two sides to the Conversion Therapy Issue:
The first concerns blocking attempts by the well intentioned to persuade others to be satisfied with their sexual lot in life...i.e. if they were born male or female they should be okay with that. This is the one that is being criminalized.
The second side of this controversial coin is far more damaging in that it actually changes an Individual's sex. Our Government does not legislate against this one...in fact it pays and is delighted to see it happen.
Bill C-4...it reads:
Conversion therapy, is defined as a practice, treatment or service designed to:
(a) change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual;
(b) change a person’s gender identity to cisgender;
(c) change a person’s gender expression so that it conforms to the sex assigned to the person at birth;
(d) repress or reduce non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behaviour;
(e) repress a person’s non-cisgender gender identity; or
(f) repress or reduce a person’s gender expression that does not conform to the sex assigned at birth.
The problem with this is with respect to the wording "practice, treatment or service ...". It can mean anything. In fact, it casts such a wide net that it captures parents, clergy, school guidance officers, medical professionals and other well intentioned people. That said, you and I are apt to think and picture Conversion Therapy as involving the hooking up of some poor bloke to electrodes and having his or her brain rewired.
Despite the fact that this type of inhumane treatment went out of vogue in the 1950s and was the stuff of rogue CIA agents... if the elimination of this type of this was the only likely outcome of the new Law we too would all be most supportive.
But sadly and recklessly as noted, C-4 goes far and away beyond that.
So that leads me to the unanimous nature of the Bill's passage. Not one Leader, not one Member of Parliament nor any of our Esteemed and over-paid Senators had the courage to stand up and tell Emperor Justin Trudeau that he has no clothes. The Government has a duty to do what is in the best interests of Canadians and in this sad case it has failed miserably. So too did the Opposition since it is their job to point out deficiencies in what the Government proposes and here they were all missing in action.
And the blessed Senate - the Body of Sober Second Thought was anything but Sober in their hurried enthusiasm to get the legislation into law.
If ever there was a draft law that required sober serious second-thought and amendment ...it was this one.
Shame, Shame on Them All.
I mentioned that the other form of Conversion is the truly dangerous and damaging one and sadly is the one that our Government actually encourages....it involves the change of an individual's sex.. the loping off of parts that will not be coming back despite the many who live to regret what they have done. Studies show that depression and suicide are common effects post operation.
But I am a Libertarian and fervently believe that an Individual is free to do whatever he or she wishes to do to with their own body and long as their actions do not directly injure others. So if someone wants to cut this and that and replace it with that and this...be my guest. No law should exist for or against it.
A Big However ...the Individual must be of Adult Age to make such a major decision.
Until Adult Hood - let the Children be Children and if they think they are of a sex different from their birth sex...So Be It. They have lots of time left to make irreparable change - for good or bad.
As I See It...
'K.D. Bell'
