Thank you, Madam Chair.
Our colleague Mr. Virani's comment about the trivial or insignificant nature of my example seems a little strange to me. I don't feel that the example I gave is insignificant. If Mr. Virani takes a little time to read law reports, he may find that many things he feels are trivial have nevertheless caught the courts' attention, sometimes as far as the Supreme Court. My remarks were not insignificant, and neither were his. His proposed amendment is far from insignificant. It's important, and I believe it's also worthy of discussion.
I would like to go back to the answer provided to me by Department of Justice senior counsel Ms. Levman, because I take issue with it. I know that a parent's intervention is not a treatment, a psychotherapy service or anything like that; we can agree on that. I do, however, believe it could be considered a practice. If Ms. Levman feels it's clearly not a practice, I'd like her to explain the distinction she makes between “practice”, “treatment” and “service”. One of the principles for interpreting statutes is that the legislator does not speak in vain. In my view, we need to find different definitions for “practice”, “treatment” and “service”.
According to my humble interpretation, which may differ from Mr. Virani's, but which I do not find insignificant, it could easily be argued that it is a practice when a parent, guardian or even a neighbour tells a little boy play to wear pants or, conversely, tells a little girl to wear a dress.
I remind you that the Department of Justice's definition does not refer only to clothing. I had stopped quoting at that point, but to support the argument, perhaps I should repeat that definition. It says that a person's gender expression includes “such aspects as dress, hair, make-up, body language, and voice.” So, many things are included in gender expression. Gender, as understand it, includes quite a few behaviours.
I confess that, as a parent, I have told my daughter that she should not wear so much make-up. From what I understand, by engaging in that practice—and I do feel it can be considered a practice—I would have committed a criminal offence. I'm sure no one wants that.
I am not naive or stupid. I am concerned by the fact that we are drafting provisions of law that can lead to extreme interpretations of that kind, which we do not want when we try to interpret them. I am sure the Minister of Justice doesn't want that, nor do my Liberal, Conservative and other colleagues.
Since we began our work, I have been thinking that clause 5 of Bill C-6, which introduces section 320.101 of the Criminal Code, obviously needs to be rewritten, because it contains the most ambiguous definition ever on such an important subject, and that deserves more attention.
To sum up, I would like someone to explain the distinction being made between a practice, a treatment and a service. Could intervention by someone who is not a professional be considered a practice? We don't mention health professionals anywhere, we keep it in general terms. I know that, for a treatment or service, it has to be a professional, such as a psychologist or physician. However, anyone can engage in the practice of telling a young man that he should not use make-up or wear dresses, or of telling an eight-year-old girl that it's not appropriate to wear so much make-up and that she should wear sneakers to school instead of three-inch heels, for example. These are things that teachers, parents, guardians or friends might say to a young person, and some could interpret them to be a practice prohibited under the Criminal Code. So it would be a criminal offence, which I remind you is a very serious thing.
Thank you.