A rare but righteous display of unity

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This article was published 06/12/2021 (1459 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s the parliamentary equivalent of seeing a unicorn.

Last week, MPs in Canada’s House of Commons voted unanimously — that’s right, with across-party-lines agreement — to pass Bill C-4, An Act to Amend the Criminal Code (conversion therapy). The legislation, which must now receive Senate approval before becoming law, prohibits both adults and children from being subjected to the harmful and long-controversial practice known as conversion therapy, which involves various invasive tactics intended to change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual or gender identity to cisgender.

This was the third recent attempt to pass legislation banning conversion therapy; the first bill died when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prorogued Parliament in 2020 and a second stalled in the Senate when the last parliamentary session ended.

That bill had passed in the House, but 62 Conservatives voted against it, citing concerns about its possible impact on “non-coercive conversations.”

Mr. Trudeau promised during the recent federal election campaign to re-introduce conversion-therapy legislation within his reinstalled government’s first 100 days. With Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole having declared an intention to allow his caucus members a free vote on the issue, the unanimity of Bill 4’s passage — with Conservative MP and justice critic Rob Moore raising the motion to expedite the bill’s passage and transfer to the Senate — came as something of a surprise.

Upon emerging from a caucus meeting on Wednesday shortly before the vote on Bill 4, however, Mr. O’Toole — who describes himself as a longtime ally of the LGBTTQ+ communities — stated that all his MPs oppose conversion therapy and that “the LGBTQ community deserves real action.”

The unanimous vote to send the bill directly to the Senate eliminated the necessity for each MP to stand to account in a recorded vote.

The Senate, of course, might still seek to make changes to the bill. If it passes there in its current form, Bill 4 would make it a crime, punishable by up to five years in prison, to force another person to undergo conversion therapy. It would also make it an offence, punishable by up to two years in prison, to promote, advertise or profit from the provision of conversion therapy.

Newly elected NDP MP Blake Desjarlais (Edmonton Griesbach), the nation’s first openly two-spirit Member of Parliament, called the bill’s passage an unexpectedly heartening development after just two weeks on the job.

“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.

Justice Minister and Attorney General David Lametti, the bill’s sponsor — who has been in Parliament for considerably longer — was similarly effusive.

“This is what we can do when Parliament works together,” said Mr. Lametti. “It’s a fantastic day.”

It is, indeed, a remarkable achievement. So much so that upon the bill’s fast-tracked passage, the House erupted in applause and several Liberal cabinet ministers left their seats, crossed the floor and shook hands with — or even embraced — some of their Conservative counterparts.

“Fantastic” is an apt description for the turn of events, as such displays of parliamentary unity and public good will are generally relegated to the realm of political fantasy. And one ought not get one’s hopes up that partisan rancor and intransigence will not resume at their regular feverish pace.

Even those who believe in such whimsically wonderful things as unicorns have prudently tempered expectations about the frequency with which they might actually appear.