MPs clapped, cheered, shouted. Some ran across the aisle to hug their political opponents..This celebration erupted when the House of Commons unanimously agreed to pass the Liberal’s Bill C-4, legislation that criminalizes broadly defined conversion therapy. .The Senate unanimously agreed to fast-track the bill. It cleared its last hurdle Wednesday when Governor General Mary Simon granted it Royal Assent. .Why were those MPs so joyous?.Horrible sins have been committed by depraved minds under the guise of conversion therapy. .Some particularly wicked conversion therapy tactics used in the past include electric shock, ice baths, force-feeding and food deprivation, vomit-inducing drugs, exorcisms, and degrading rituals..Inflicting this kind of cruelty on children, or anyone, warrants hard jail time. .There’s nothing wrong with a bill zeroing in on these practices and clarifying that they are illegal in an effort to protect potential victims..The problem with Bill C-4 is that it criminalizes counselling children with gender dysphoria, strips away parental rights and can even hurt people in the LGBTQ community. .Bill C-4 increases chances of authorities showing up if a militant outsider decides parents had the wrong conversation with their child or sought counselling for said child going through gender dysphoria, which some children naturally go through..It deprives LGBTQ people, or anyone including children struggling with aspects of their sexuality, of counselling because therapists will fear being jailed. .It removes obstacles for children — bombarded with the topic of sexuality and how many pronouns and genders allegedly exist (check out CBC Kids News) — who decide to transition to another gender before they’re old enough to really understand the consequences..No doubt, the Liberals cheered extra hard, marveling at having Erin O’Toole as an opposition leader more concerned about pandering to them, than betraying his party. Again..The Conservatives brought the motion to unanimously pass Bill C-4 without debate or review..That’s not what some “shocked” Conservatives who met in caucus earlier expected. What transpired in the House wasn’t what O’Toole pitched..“There was no consensus, no takeaway from the meeting that this was going to happen two hours later,” said one Conservative who asked not to be identified. O’Toole punishes critics. .“A decision that was never clearly articulated to caucus was made without time for reflection. It was an abdication of leadership.”.Some Conservative MPs are spitting mad that O’Toole secretly struck a deal with the Liberals. .Bill C-4 is a tougher version of Bill C-6 which was opposed by 62 Conservative MPs and some Conservative senators because its definition of conversion therapy was too broad. .Bill C-4 remains open to anyone’s interpretation of what actually constitutes ‘conversion therapy’. And it’s one of the world’s toughest pieces of gender therapy legislation expanded to eliminate the practice for all ages, not just under 18. .It criminalizes conversion therapy — which seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation to heterosexual, to change an individual’s gender identity to cisgender, or to change their gender expression to match the sex they were assigned at birth..It criminalizes sending a child for conversion therapy outside Canada, to advertise conversion therapy, or to profit financially from the practice..Anyone who knowingly causes a person to undergo conversion therapy, or provides it, is guilty of an indictable offence and faces five years in prison. Anyone who promotes or advertises conversion therapy, or receives financial or other material benefits from it, is guilty of an indictable offence and faces two years in prison..The Criminal Code already addresses the illegality of inhumane conversion therapy practices. So why pass this bill, at least in its current form?.It may not be as much about conversion therapy as it is about transitioning of young people. It’s driven by activist-academic gender ideologists..No one who appeared at last December’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights hearings on Bill C-6 – which died in the Senate when the election was called – claimed to have been subjected to inhumane practices, aside from being prescribed off-label prescription drugs in the 90s..Testimony leaned on the premise that conversion therapy was a major problem lurking in society’s shadows. .Lawyers, medical professionals, religious leaders, and people in the LGBTQ community testified against what they called a bad piece of legislation hurting anyone struggling with sexual issues by taking away freedom to seek therapy..Derek Sloan sat in on these hearings when he served as an Independent..“In the Justice Committee we didn’t have much of any evidence of abusive interactions going on,” Sloan told Western Standard..He says Bill C-4 is “grotesque overreach” undermining parental authority..Body image disorders through puberty aren’t new. .“Sexuality is complicated. This bill seems to be premised on sexuality never changing. Sexual preferences change. Gender identities change. There are kids that every day have different identity. I’m not being facetious. These people on one hand talk about 100 genders, then say it’s fixed in stone,” said Sloan..Sloan pointed to studies showing 80% of children identifying as transgender, if left alone, will come to identify with the body they were born with and be well-adjusted..With Bill C-4 the problem arises if parents want to seek counselling to help them through the struggle..“Could parents be criminalized? If a parent wanted to get a child help, they’d face problems.”.“Even if a parent would never go to jail, this law, because it’s a criminal law, has kind of a chilling effect on other things. This law could influence provincial standards as to when child services want to intervene.”.The bill could criminalize parents choosing a wait-and-see position and make fending off zealots who push life-altering, sterilizing, puberty-blocking pills harder..Therapists and religious leaders will be under Bill C-4’s microscope that outlaws conversations on certain topics..“There are certain things clients cannot bring up, that the therapist must refuse to talk about,” said Sloan..Expect legal challenges to this flawed bill..Slobodian is the Senior Manitoba Columnist for the Western Standard.lslobodian@westernstandardonline.com
