House of Commons unanimously agrees to pass bill to ban conversion therapy
The House of Commons unanimously agreed to pass Bill C-4, the legislation to ban conversion therapy, through all stages without study or amendment after a Conservative motion, making it the first bill to pass the House in the 44th Parliament.
This rapid fast-tracking came just two days after the Liberals tabled re-worked and expanded legislation aiming to outright prohibit both adults and children from being subjected to harmful conversion therapy practices.
Bill C-4 proposes to eliminate the harmful practice in Canada for all ages, through four new Criminal Code offences. It includes wider-reaching vocabulary of what constitutes conversion therapy than what the federal government attempted to pass in the last Parliament.
Conversion “therapy,” as it has been called, seeks to change a person's sexual orientation to heterosexual or gender identity to cisgender. It can include seeking to repress someone’s non-heterosexual attraction, or repressing a person’s gender expression or non-cis gender identity.
These practices can take various forms, including counselling and behavioural modification, and they have been opposed by numerous health and human rights groups.
The legislation will now be in the hands of senators who may still want to seek changes.
If passed as is, Bill C-4 would make it a crime punishable by up to five years in prison to cause another person to undergo conversion therapy. The 11-page bill also seeks to criminalize promoting, advertising, or profiting from providing the practice, with those found guilty of these offences facing up to two years in prison.
While Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole was set to make the bill a free vote, meaning he wouldn’t whip his caucus to vote one way or the other, there was no objection heard in the chamber to seeing the bill be expedited without changes. Passing the bill in this way meant that not every MP had to stand and take a position as is done in a recorded vote.
Conservative MP and justice critic Rob Moore was the one to raise the motion, asking that the bill move straight into the Senate.
When House Speaker Anthony Rota said that he “declared the motion carried,” MPs rose in a standing ovation and those responsible for the bill on the government side went across the chamber to shake hands and hug their Conservative colleagues.
“It's a fantastic day,” said the bill’s sponsor Justice Minister David Lametti, backed by a handful of out LGBTQ2S+ MPs after the decision.
“There are clearly people in the Conservative caucus who exercised a great deal of leadership on the issue, and I thank them, I thank them sincerely. They have done a very important thing for Canadians. This is what we can do when Parliament works together,” Lametti said.
“If we can now work hard to get this through the Senate quickly, less Canadians are going to suffer.”
After the Liberals campaigned on the promise to re-introduce legislation within the first 100 days of a new mandate, the government said it was determined to get it passed, voicing optimism in cross-party support after both the Conservatives and New Democrats pledged in the last campaign to pass the bill if elected.
Still, the move, particularly the Conservative’s willingness to expedite the bill without changes, came as a surprise -- 62 Conservative MPs had raised concerns over the bill and voted against implementing the ban in the last Parliament.
While O’Toole sought to frame himself as a more progressive leader during the 2021 campaign, the party’s platform included a commitment to seek amendments to clarify that “the ban does not criminalize non-coercive conversations.”
Coming out of a meeting with his entire caucus on Wednesday where the plan was discussed, O’Toole said that all of his MPs opposed the practice and “the LGBTQ community deserves real action,” calling himself a “long-time ally.”
This is the third iteration of conversion therapy legislation tabled by the Liberals over the last few years. The most recent past version got held up in the Senate at the end of the last Parliament and died when the election was called. The attempt before that died when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prorogued the House in 2020.
Gemma Hickey, an LGBTQ2S+ rights advocate and conversion therapy survivor who joined the Liberals on Monday when the bill was tabled, said they were “overjoyed” by Wednesday’s “pleasant surprise.”
“I'm feeling so overjoyed today. I can't believe I lived to see this day, literally. After undergoing conversion therapy when I was 15 years old, I tried to take my own life. And so, I survived my suicide attempt and here I am to see this day… I can't tell you how happy I am right now,” Hickey said. “It makes me feel safer, you know, makes me feel proud to be from this country... This will save lives."
Amid questions over whether there are still Conservatives who oppose the bill, Conservative House leader Gerard Deltell said the whole caucus was behind seeing the bill move back to the legislative stage it was at six months ago before Trudeau launched the country into a summer campaign.
Both the Liberals and New Democrats celebrated that the bill had become the first piece of legislation to pass the House in the 44th Parliament, and were pleased to see that the bill advanced without having to re-traumatize the survivors who have already come forward during committee study on the previous draft to share their stories.
“I think the critical piece all through has been the testimony of survivors, and the work that survivors did in talking to members of Parliament about what they experienced as a result of conversion therapy, and the horrible negative aspects that conversion therapy has on people's lives,” said NDP 2SLGBTQI+ rights critic Randall Garrison. “These stories as they came forward, I think are what changed people's minds and what convinced people that this was important to get done.”
Noting the human cost of inaction on past attempts to pass this—conversion therapy still occurs in Canada—deputy NDP 2SLGBTQI+ rights critic and Canada’s first openly two-spirit MP Blake Desjarlais said seeing unanimous consent on this was particularly encouraging to see in his second week in the House.
“This place can work and it can get things done, and it's encouraging to know that more young people's lives won't be put at risk,” he said.
“I dream of a day when our LGBTQ issues are no longer political footballs, and we are one day closer to that future,” said Tourism Minister and out gay MP Randy Boissonnault, getting emotional. “I think we have turned a corner and turned up the heat that you can't stand against LGBTQ issues in this country anymore.”
IN DEPTH
Budget 2024 prioritizes housing while taxing highest earners, deficit projected at $39.8B
In an effort to level the playing field for young people, in the 2024 federal budget, the government is targeting Canada's highest earners with new taxes in order to help offset billions in new spending to enhance the country's housing supply and social supports.
'One of the greatest': Former prime minister Brian Mulroney commemorated at state funeral
Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday.
'Democracy requires constant vigilance' Trudeau testifies at inquiry into foreign election interference in Canada
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testified Wednesday before the national public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada's electoral processes, following a day of testimony from top cabinet ministers about allegations of meddling in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. Recap all the prime minister had to say.
As Poilievre sides with Smith on trans restrictions, former Conservative candidate says he's 'playing with fire'
Siding with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on her proposed restrictions on transgender youth, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre confirmed Wednesday that he is against trans and non-binary minors using puberty blockers.
Supports for passengers, farmers, artists: 7 bills from MPs and Senators to watch in 2024
When parliamentarians return to Ottawa in a few weeks to kick off the 2024 sitting, there are a few bills from MPs and senators that will be worth keeping an eye on, from a 'gutted' proposal to offer a carbon tax break to farmers, to an initiative aimed at improving Canada's DNA data bank.
Opinion
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
opinion Don Martin: The doctor Trudeau dumped has a prescription for better health care
Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus.
opinion Don Martin: Trudeau's seeking shelter from the housing storm he helped create
While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn’t be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place.
opinion Don Martin: Poilievre has the field to himself as he races across the country to big crowds
It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point.
opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike
When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Alice Munro, Nobel literature winner revered as short story master, dead at 92
Nobel laureate Alice Munro, the Canadian literary giant who became one of the world's most esteemed contemporary authors and one of history's most honoured short story writers, has died at age 92.
Latest updates on air quality alerts, and when the smoke may reach Ontario and Quebec
Wildfires have led Environment Canada to issue air quality advisories for parts of B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, as forecasters warn the smoke could drift farther east.
Are these Canada's best restaurants? Annual top 100 list revealed
The annual list of Canada's top restaurants in the country was just released and here are the places that made the 2024 cut.
Attack on prison van in France kills 2 officers, inmate escapes
Armed assailants killed two French prison officers and seriously wounded three others in an attack on a convoy in Normandy on Tuesday and an inmate escaped, officials said.
Maximum payout for LifeLabs class-action drops from $150 estimate to $7.86
Canadian LifeLabs customers who filed an application for a class-action settlement began receiving their payments this week, though at a much lower amount than initially expected.
Steal a car, lose your driver's licence for 10 years under new Ontario proposal
Repeat car thieves may face lengthy licence bans under proposed changes to Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act.
$1.6B parts plant for Honda electric vehicle batteries coming to Niagara Region
A Japanese company has announced it will build an approximately $1.6-billion plant in Ontario's Niagara Region that will make a key electric vehicle battery component as part of Honda's supply chain in the province.
B.C. brings in law on name changes on day that child killer's new identity revealed
The BC NDP have tabled legislation aimed at stopping people who have committed certain heinous acts from changing their names.
Manitoba premier to visit areas impacted by wildfire
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew will get a close-up look at the devastation from a large wildfire burning in northern Manitoba Tuesday.
Local Spotlight
Thieves caught on camera stealing pet chicken from North Vancouver backyard
A $200 reward is being offered by a North Vancouver family for the safe return of their beloved chicken, Snowflake.
Adopted daughter in the Netherlands reunited with sister in Montreal and mother in Colombia, 40 years later
Two daughters and a mother were reunited online 40 years later thanks to a DNA kit and a Zoom connection despite living on three separate continents and speaking different languages.
'Reimagining Mother's Day': Toronto woman creates Motherless Day event after losing mom
Mother's Day can be a difficult occasion for those who have lost or are estranged from their mom.
Chris Hadfield inspires youth musical in Sudbury
YES Theatre Young Company opened its acclaimed kids’ show, One Small Step, at Sudbury Theatre Centre on Saturday.
Ottawa pizzeria places among top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world at international competition
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
From outer space? Sask. farmers baffled after discovering strange wreckage in field
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
Wilfrid Laurier football player drafted despite only playing 27 games in his entire life
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
Federal government bans watercraft from Manitoba lake popular with tourists
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
Toronto-area dessert shop featured by Keith Lee forced to move after zoning complaint
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.