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
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
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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