justdad7 Profile picture
4 Jan, 6 tweets, 2 min read
Thread on Bill S-202 and the Charter for Canadians. parl.ca/DocumentViewer…
The proposed ban on 'conversion therapy' for gender identity violates the guarantees of fundamental justice in Section 7 of the Charter in two ways. The first is vagueness. Fundamental justice requires /2
that a criminal law define with reasonable certainty the conduct it prohibits. There is no agreement on what gender means, how many genders there are, whether there is such a thing as gender identity and, if there is, whether it is fixed or fluid. A therapist cannot be know /3
whether a particular form of therapy will or will not lead to a criminal penalty. The second point is that the law arbitrarily denies people the right to beneficial health care. The law, as drafted, does not distinguish between consensual and non-consensual therapy. The only /4
exception is caves out is for what it calls sex change surgery. (The status of hormone therapy and puberty blocking drugs is unclear.) A patient who seeks psychotherapy for gender identity issues in order to avoid surgery and drugs will not be allowed to get it. There are two /5
decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada which have held that denying people access to medically beneficial care violates the Charter:
R. v. Morgentaler, 1988 CanLII 90 (SCC), [1988] 1 SCR 30, <canlii.ca/t/1ftjt> which dealt with abortion law and /6
Chaoulli v. Quebec (Attorney General), 2005 SCC 35 (CanLII), [2005] 1 SCR 791, <canlii.ca/t/1kxrh> which struck down a ban on purchasing private health insurance. I am going to try to develop these arguments more fully as time permits.

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More from @justdad7

7 Jul
cgshe.ca/open-letter-bi…
The Centre for Gender and Sexual Health and Equity is calling for changes to #BillC8 to make the provisions on gender identity even more extensive and restrictive than they already are. The open letter claims that Bill C-8 /2
and the existing Ontario legislation on conversion therapy exempt various practices at the former CAMH gender clinic which the authors consider to be conversion therapy. It proposes to add language referring to a patient's social or medical transition "as determined by the /3
patient themselves." This suggests that any exercise of clinical judgment to recommend against transition could be considered conversion therapy. The proposed amendments will probably not pass and would not make much difference as the simple existence of the law will be enough /4
Read 6 tweets
7 Jun
Thread on what is wrong with Canada's #BillC8 on conversion therapy. The definitions in the bill are both vague and overbroad. The bill is bad policy and is open to constitutional challenge as a violation of both Section 2 and Section 7 of the Charter. /2
The bill equates sexual orientation, where there is a strong clinical consensus that conversion therapy is ineffective and harmful, with gender identity, where there is substantial and ongoing controversy. /3
The definition in #BillC8 is flawed even in the context of current gender theory. It talks about changing gender identity to cisgender without considering the possibility that gender identity could be non-binary, agender or any one of a growing list of possibilities. /3
Read 16 tweets
14 Mar
Supporters of Canada's #BillC8 on conversion therapy say that similar bans have been upheld in the U.S. However the U.S. legislation is quite different. The California law which was upheld was limited to licensed therapists. /2 scholar.google.com/scholar_case?c…
The court found that the state has a broader latitude to regulate speech by therapists than to regulate speech in general. A ban on a particular form of therapy, which involved speech, did not violate the 1st amendment. Bill C8 is a federal criminal law which is not limited to /3
licensed professionals. It applies to everyone including clergy and private individuals. It is also much broader in scope and could prohibit legitimate forms of therapy such as therapy for juvenile sexual offenders. It could be challenged as a violation of Charter protected /4
Read 5 tweets
8 Mar
In honour of #InternationalWomensDay I searched canlii.org for all the mentions of "woman" in Canadian statutes. There were 91 hits in statutes in force. First up is The Married Women's Property Act which abolishes the common law rule that married women could not /2
own property separately for their husbands. Self-id was not a big thing back in 1870. Next is the Womens Institute Act of Alberta which allows women to establish institutes for the study of " home economics, including home nursing, household science, sanitation, food values, /3
sick room cookery, house furnishing, sewing and other matters..." Each woman who signs the application for incorporation is to pay a the sum of $0.25 to be held in trust for the institute. There are various acts creating advisory councils of the status of women /4
Read 7 tweets
31 Jan
I was asked the other day what kinds of therapy for gender dysphoria #BillS202 I can't give a legal answer. The language of the bill is too vague to enable me to predict how a court would apply it to a given fact situation. The practical answer is that conversion therapy will /2
mean whatever the most powerful transgender lobby group says it means. Criminal charges, if if there is an acquittal, can ruin a doctor professionally, financially and personally. Very few professionals will be prepared to test the limits of the law by asking hard questions in /3
therapy sessions or resisting demands for a referral for hormones. This is already occurring as a result of professional association and provincial rules. A Criminal Code amendment will make the situation worse and harder to change.
Read 4 tweets
7 Jan
Talking to your MP about conversion therapy legislation (Canadian focus). 1. Assume your MP does not understand gender identity. If you are the parent of an ROGD child you have been immersed in these issues for several years. Your MP has probably never had to think about them /2
before. Go slowly and be patient.
2. You will need to convince the Liberal government to change its mind on this issue. Even if you and your MP are social conservatives, you need to present arguments which will persuade Liberals. 3. In particular, you should not attempt to /3
defend conversion therapy to change sexual orientation. 'Like a double agent': A Saint Johner's fight against conversion therapy | CBC News cbc.ca/news/canada/ne…
4. Develop your basic talking points and have at least one reference available to back up each point you make. /4
Read 6 tweets

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