Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen on Thursday introduced in the House of Commons First Reading of Bill C-404, an act to establish a national day of to raise awareness of conversion therapy. The bill would deem January 7 National Conversion Therapy Awareness Day from now on. Conversion therapy was banned in Canada through the 2020 Bill C-6 and subsequent, stricter Bill C-4 in 2021, which went into effect in 2022. The Senate and the House of Commons in December 2021 unanimously passed Bill C-4, and by January 7, 2022, conversion therapy became illegal in Canada..The Government of Canada considers conversion therapy to be when a person “seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation to heterosexual, to change an individual’s gender identity to cisgender, or to change an individual’s gender expression so that it corresponds to the sex assigned to them at birth.”It calls traditional beliefs about gender and sexuality “myths and stereotypes.” Anyone who pushes the idea that someone is actually a male if they have male anatomy or female if they have female anatomy and dissuades the individual from undergoing “gender-affirming care,” (surgical or hormonal sex changes) is liable under the Criminal Code. “Conversion therapy has caused significant harm to persons who have been subjected to it, including depression, anxiety, self-rejection, social isolation, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, as well as infringing on their rights to dignity and equality,” stated Bill C-404.“Parliament considers that it is desirable to raise awareness of the harms caused by conversion therapy and that it is fitting that the 7th of January be established as a day of reflection,” states the Liberals’ bill. A total 293 of the 365 days a year are currently dedicated to “2SLGBTQI significance,” in a list that is “not exhaustive.”
