When it takes effect on Friday, the law will put Canada in the company of more than a dozen countries that have banned the widely discredited practice.
A Canadian law banning so-called conversion therapy is poised to go into effect on Friday, making it a crime to provide or promote services intended to change or repress a person’s sexual orientation or gender expression.
With the new law, Canada’s criminal code will prohibit forcing someone to undergo conversion therapy; taking a minor abroad to take part; and profiting from, promoting or advertising the practice. Violations can draw sentences of up to five years’ imprisonment.
“This is an incredibly important step to making sure queer and trans people in Canada feel valid and deserving of full protection,” said Michael Kwag, a policy director at the Community-Based Research Center in Toronto, which researches the health of people of diverse sexualities and genders.
Photo (from left to right): lawyer and human rights advocate, Brittany Whalen; author, conversion therapy activist and survivor, Gemma Hickey; Director of Litigation, Department of Justice, Bennett Jensen; Knowledge Exchange and Policy Development Director, Michael Kwag.
This article was written by Christine Hauser and originally published by the New York Times. Please click HERE to read the full article.
