OTTAWA (Reuters) – A pledge by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to ban LGBT conversion therapy has been delayed until at least September, after an attempt to recall the Senate over the summer to deal with the bill failed late on Tuesday.
Canada’s Senate, or upper chamber, held special sittings earlier this week to deal with a raft of bills passed last week by House of Commons lawmakers ahead of their summer break, adopting the key budget bill late last night.
A push by independent senators to add summer sittings to deal with other bills, like the conversion therapy one, was blocked by some Conservative senators.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland on Wednesday told reporters that she was frustrated that the Senate did not see through Bill C-6, which passed by Canada’s House of Commons 263 to 63 last week.
“Disappointed is too weak a word,” she said. “This is something that would really help Canadians and not doing it really hurts a lot of people.”
Aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, conversion therapy can include talk therapy, hypnosis, electric shocks and fasting. The American Medical Association has condemned the practice as “harmful and ineffective.”
The bill will be considered when the Senate reconvenes in late September, though if an election is called before then, the legislation will die with all other unfinished business.
Trudeau, whose Liberals have a minority government, is eyeing a snap election in September to capitalize on Canada’s emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic, two sources told Reuters.
(Reporting by Julie Gordon in Ottawa, Editing by Nick Zieminski)
