Senate passes bill to ban conversion therapy

Conversion therapy is about to become illegal in Canada after the Senate passed a bill Tuesday criminalizing the practice, the Toronto Star reported.

The bill had previously failed after Trudeau prorogued Parliament in 2020 amid the WE Charity scandal, and a second version of the bill did not have the chance to pass Senate due to Trudeau calling an election in September.

The bill will make it so that conversion therapy, through all of its stages and for both adults and children, be banned. The definition of what constitutes conversion therapy has also been expanded.

Conversion therapy, as such, no longer means the approach of trying to turn those who have sexual orientations other than heterosexual into heterosexuals.

The revised definition of conversion therapy also includes attempts to help someone with gender dysphoria desist from that dysphoria into being at ease with their born body. The ban on conversion therapy for gender identity could be read to mean that if a person, no matter their age, identifies as transgender, that identity must be accepted without question.

The preamble of the new bill states:

"Whereas conversion therapy causes harm to the persons who are subjected to it; Whereas conversion therapy causes harm to society because, among other things, it is based on and propagates myths and stereotypes about sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, including the myth that heterosexuality, cisgender gender identity, and gender expression that conforms to the sex assigned to a person at birth are to be preferred over other sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions; And whereas, in light of those harms, it is important to discourage and denounce the provision of conversion therapy in order to protect the human dignity and equality of all Canadians..."

Under the new bill, the practices of conversion therapy will introduce four new Criminal Code offences.

According to the bill, "This enactment amends the Criminal Code to, among other things, create the following offences:
(a) causing another person to undergo conversion therapy;
(b) doing anything for the purpose of removing a child from Canada with the intention that the child undergo conversion therapy outside Canada;
(c) promoting or advertising conversion therapy; and
(d) receiving a financial or other material benefit from the provision of conversion therapy."

New punishments for conversion therapy would include up to five years in prison. The promotion, advertising, or profiting from conversion therapy would also see prison time of up to two years.

Justice David Lametti, who sponsored the bill, said it was a "fantastic day" for Parliament after it passed unanimously in the House of Commons. "This is what we can do when Parliament works together," Lametti said, according to CBC.