Canada has banned conversion therapy.
Canada voted to ban the act of providing, promoting, or advertising conversion therapy on Wednesday. The bill defined conversion therapy as the “practice, treatment or service designed to change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual, or to change a person’s gender identity to cisgender.”
“It’s official: Our government’s legislation banning the despicable and degrading practice of conversion therapy has received Royal Assent — meaning it is now law,” tweeted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “LGBTQ2 Canadians, we’ll always stand up for you and your rights.”
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It’s official: Our government’s legislation banning the despicable and degrading practice of conversion therapy has received Royal Assent – meaning it is now law. LGBTQ2 Canadians, we’ll always stand up for you and your rights.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) December 8, 2021
The bill, titled C-4, creates four new Criminal Code offenses related to conversion therapy, causing a person to undergo conversion therapy, subjecting a minor to conversion therapy abroad, profiting from the provision of conversion therapy, and advertising conversion therapy practices.
Each offense comes with a penalty of two to five years in prison.
The bill was fast-tracked through the House of Commons and the Senate last week by the Conservatives and was the first royal assent signed into law by Canada’s new governor-general, Mary Simon, reports Global News.
Canada’s liberal government had previously attempted to pass the bill, to little success, allowing it to become a wedge issue in the Canadian Legislature. Last week, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole said that his caucus would accelerate the bill’s passage, reports Global News.
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“The Trudeau government has been using LGBTQ2S Canadians as political pawns and conversion therapy as a political weapon. Long enough,” Conservative Sen. Leo Housakos tweeted after the Senate passed the new bill. “That’s why today we gave the govt a clear path forward in banning conversion therapy.”
Conversion therapy has been a controversial subject among the gay and transgender, and religious communities. As of December, 20 states in the United States have passed laws banning conversion therapy for minors, and five have partial bans.
