Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I agree with the very lucid argument of my colleague, Mr. Seeback, regarding the confusion that's caused by definitions or lack thereof, and I find myself in the unique position of disagreeing with Ms. Glover, in that perhaps amendment NDP-1 causes more confusion than clarity. I agree with her when she describes the despicable act of having transgendered persons having their testicles removed or being subject to violent assaults, but I remind all members of this committee that those things are illegal. They're assault, probably assault causing bodily harm, possibly aggravated assault. The provisions of the Criminal Code allow for an aggravating factor based on any bias, and enumerate some of them, and then have a final catch-all of any other similar factor.
As members of the committee know, I feel there's some redundancy here, which is why I require some clarity.
I have a question for Mr. Garrison, if he's prepared to answer it. In his attempt to remove gender expression from his bill, does he think it's covered in his proposed definition of gender identity, which is contained in his second amendment? Or is he confident that it's protected under the current tribunal jurisprudence, which it clearly is in my view. We've heard emphatically from witnesses that transsexualism is discrimination based on sex or gender. Is he satisfied leaving it as a matter of Canadian Human Rights Tribunal arbitration written judgments, or does he believe that it's covered in his next section?
I'm more confused by all of it, because the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal used a different word. They didn't say “gender identity”. They stated that transsexualism is discrimination based on sex or gender. I don't know if that's the same as gender identity or gender expression or both.
I put that out to Mr. Garrison to answer if he chooses to, because I am more confused now than I was when we started this process.