You know, the more I'm hearing, the more problematic this is. The one thing I'll agree with Mr. Virani on is that this is an expansion of the definition of conversion therapy. It's introducing new language that the government did not put forward originally. I'm going to ask the department.... I think this certainly opens up the legislation to a charter challenge more than the original wording.
What bothers me, Madam Chair, with all due respect to everyone around the table, is that now it seems plain to me that the intention was always.... And again, all the resources of government, which we in opposition do not have.... This isn't a new bill. It was introduced before the Prime Minister prorogued. It has been brought back. They've had all the time in the world to work on it.
Last night, at the end of the day—I think it was around 5:30 here Atlantic time, so it would have been 4:30 eastern time—we received a government amendment to their own legislation. Did it amend this clause? No. It amended the preamble to include “gender expression”. I thought at the time, “Why are they amending the preamble to include gender expression but not amending the bill to include gender expression?” It would have been nice to have that amendment last night. We didn't.
Now we fast-forward to today, when we're trying to do clause-by-clause on what is an important bill, and the government table-drops this amendment without an explanation, without hearing witness testimony on what this amendment would do, how it broadens the bill or what the effect would be. To me, it's completely unacceptable that we would conduct ourselves that way. It would be more excusable if it came from an opposition party, because we don't have the resources of government.
All of us were told to get our amendments in on time, which we all did. The Green Party—and they certainly don't have the caucus resources of the larger parties, let alone government—got their amendments in, as did the NDP, and we put forward amendments to this bill, on time. Then last night, at end of day, we get a government amendment to the preamble that doesn't make any sense, because it doesn't align with the legislation.
Then, midway through clause-by-clause, they table-drop an amendment. That is 100% unacceptable. I don't know how they expect opposition parties to be able to deal with that. They come to the table without a clear explanation of what the bill does or what the change does, only to say it's more expansive and it's going to capture more things. Of course it does. Originally it said “sexual orientation” and “gender identity”. Now it says “gender expression”, but we as parliamentarians do not have a clear idea of what that is going to capture in our Criminal Code legislation.
I'm really disappointed. It's completely unacceptable. I don't know why we didn't receive the government's amendment last night when we received the amendment to the preamble.
Anyway, it is disappointing, and I would like an answer on this. In my view, a broadening of what is captured in the definition will almost certainly result in a greater chance of the legislation being struck down under the charter.
Maybe we could get an answer on that. Thank you.