Fredag 10. desember stemte et flertall i landets Senat for et forbud mot konverteringsterapi. Det innebærer at forbudet er blitt gjeldene lov.
Det var Canadas liberale statsminister Justin Trudeaus som foreslo tiltaket, som førte til applaus på begge sider av midtgangen. Canada vedtok en tidligere versjon av lovforslaget i juni, men det kom seg ikke gjennom Senatet før Trudeaus nyvalg i september.
Konverteringsterapi, også kjent som homoterapi, er for mange en svært omstridt behandling med mål om å endre en persons seksuelle orientering eller kjønnsidentitet.
Loven omfatter også forbud mot å tvinge mindreårige til å underlegge seg konverteringsterapi og forbud mot å sende mindreårige til utlandet for å gjennomgå terapi der.
Å utsette andre for konverteringsterapi kan ifølge loven straffes med opptil fem års fengsel.
Jurist og ekspert på konstitusjonell rett, Marty Moore, kommenterer loven slik overfor Lifesitenews:
A Canadian constitutional lawyer blasted new radical legislation banning so-called “conversion therapy,” saying it is “dangerous” and criminalizes “conversations between consenting adults.”
“Bill C-4 is riddled with constitutional concerns. The fact that it criminalizes conversations between consenting adults seems to be entirely ignored,” Marty Moore, a lawyer for the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), told LifeSiteNews.
Moore said that Bill C-4 does not target “harmful practices” but rather targets one’s choices and beliefs “concerning sexuality and gender.”
“Bill C-4 is overbroad and dangerous, and will harm adults, adolescents and children, including LGBTQ Canadians,” Moore told LifeSiteNews.
Bill C-4 was passed without debate with sweeping bipartisan support in Canada’s House of Commons last week and in the Senate on Tuesday. It received Royal Assent on Wednesday to become law.
The “conversion therapy” ban bill was guaranteed quick passage in the House last Wednesday after Conservative Party of Canada Member of Parliament Rob Moore successfully motioned to have the bill “fast-tracked” to the Senate.
Not a single MP or senator from any party spoke out against the bill to prevent it from being passed or even debated.
In essence, Bill C-4 punishes anyone helping children or others with gender confusion or unwanted same-sex attraction with jail time of up to five years.
It is now illegal in Canada for anyone to try and reverse a person’s orientation from homosexual to heterosexual.
It is also now illegal to try and “repress or reduce” a homosexual or transsexual behavior or tendency in a person, even if it is an adult wanting help.
Moore told LifeSiteNews that Bill C-4 is “riddled with constitutional concerns,” adding that it fails to even define “abusive and coercive practices that Canadians would associate” with the term “conversion therapy.”
Lawyer: Bill C-4 ‘interferes severely’ with people’s religious beliefs ‘regarding sexuality’
Moore told LifeSiteNews that Bill C-4 not only “interferes severely with the teaching and practice of religious beliefs regarding sexuality and gender identity,” but it also “prevents religious LGBTQ persons from receiving support in accordance with their own religious faith.”
“This violates the Charter freedom of religion and conscience,” Moore said.
Moore added that those targeted under the new bill have the right “to challenge the law itself as an unjustified violation of fundamental Charter freedoms of conscience, religion and expression.”
Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) condemned the passage of C-4 by the Canadian Senate.
“This new law will be used by LGBT activists to go after parents of traditional faiths and values who raise their male and female children to live according to their biological sex,” CLC president Jeff Gunnarson said.
“The bill insanely calls biblical-based anthropology in which God creates humans as “male and female” a ‘myth.’”
CLC political operations director Jack Fonseca said the bill is a “parental prosecution bill” based on revealing statements by Liberal government ministers.
Indeed, CLC warned in a recent video that Bill C-4 in all its forms could lead to parents and pastors being jailed.
In March, the JCCF had a Nanos National Survey conducted on its behalf showing that 91 percent of Canadians agree that adults should have the “right” to get the “sexuality counselling of their choice,” regardless of the desired goal of that therapy.
The poll surveyed 1,016 Canadian adults nationwide from February 28 to March 4, 2021.
According to the JCCF-sponsored Nanos poll, the results from the survey show that there is “strong support” in Canada for allowing anyone who wants to overcome unwanted same-sex attraction or gender confusion to be able to attain help.
Lawyer: Conversion therapy bill imposes ‘narrow ideological view of sexuality and gender’
Moore told LifeSiteNews that Bill C-4 removes the ability of health professionals as well as parents to “determine treatments in the best interests of children who are experiencing gender distress.”
“Bill C-4 imposes one narrow, ideological view of sexuality and gender, which violates the fundamental Charter freedom of Canadians to have their own thoughts, beliefs and opinions concerning sexuality and gender,” Moore said.
He added that Bill C-4 “discriminates against LGBTQ persons by denying their equal right to receive the support or therapy of their own choosing concerning their sexuality, gender identity, sexual addictions and sexual behaviour.”
Bill C-4 is the Liberals’ third attempt at a so-called “conversion therapy” ban via legislation. It is a new reiteration of Bill C-6, which the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tried to pass previously. However, C-6 was dropped along with all others after a federal election was called.
Bill C-6 was identical to Bill C-8, which was the Liberals’ first attempt at a “conversion therapy” bill. Bill C-8 was also dropped, along with all other bills, when Trudeau prorogued Parliament in August 2020.
The text of Bill C-4 defines the term “conversion therapy” in the broadest sense.
According to the bill, “conversion therapy” is “any practice, treatment or service designed to: change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual; change a person’s gender identity to cisgender; change a person’s gender expression so that it conforms to the sex assigned to the person at birth; repress or reduce non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behaviour; repress a person’s non-cisgender gender identity; or repress or reduce a person’s gender expression that does not conform to the sex assigned to the person at birth.”
