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Trudeau government introduces transgender rights bill

Trudeau government introduces transgender rights bill

Transgender Canadians should 'feel free and safe' to be themselves under new Liberal bill

Harassment, discrimination and violence faced by LGBTQ community is 'unacceptable,' PM says

May 17, 2016

Quote:
'I feel safer'

Bill C-16 would update the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code to include the terms 'gender identity' and 'gender expression."

While the inclusion of gender identity and expression has been in the making for over a decade, this is the first time such legislation is being proposed by a sitting government.

Wilson-Raybould was joined by Charlie Lowthian Rickert, a 10-year-old transgender girl, whom she described as "wise beyond her years."

The young girl said the proposed bill made her feel safe and gave her a sense of hope for a better future.

"It will improve our future so that we can live a more accepting, a more joyful life ...," Rickert said to a loud round of applause.

"It will protect us from, as the minister of justice said, hateful propaganda, assaults, rape — stuff like that. It could protect us and stop the people who would have just gone off and done it in the past, and discriminated or assaulted us but now it could be stopping them and basically punishing them  if they actually do it."

"I feel much safer," she said.

. . .

NDP critic cautiously optimistic

NDP MP Randall Garrison, a longtime advocate for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community, was also invited by the government to attend Tuesday's announcement.

The New Democrat has made several attempts over the years to introduce similar legislation through various private members' bills, only to see them die on the order paper or be defeated in the Senate.

"This is an important day, but I want to remind people this is the seventh time that this bill has been introduced in the House of Commons," Garrison said on Tuesday. 

"What makes today special is it's the first time that it's a government bill," the NDP critic for LGBT issues said.

Garrison thanked the government for going beyond its election promise to include the full protections for gender identity and gender expression that he included in his most recent private member's bill.

-

Full article:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/transgender-bill-trudeau-government-1.35...

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Comments

Submitted by Arthur Cramer on May 17, 2016 - 4:47pm.

Debater, the NDP and activists led on this issue for years. Stop acting like you guys are the ones who thought of it. Its offensive.

»
Submitted by Arthur Cramer on May 17, 2016 - 4:52pm.

Hey everybody, it doesn't matter what occured before Justing Trudeau. He intorduced a bill in the House, so the Libs and Trudeau, ONLY, get the credit. Look how wonderful they are!

»
Submitted by mark_alfred on May 17, 2016 - 4:55pm.

Good news.  I note it has all party support too (I assume, given that Ambrose expressed support). Hopefully it survives the Senate.

»
Submitted by pookie on May 17, 2016 - 5:57pm.

Arthur Cramer wrote:

Hey everybody, it doesn't matter what occured before Justing Trudeau. He intorduced a bill in the House, so the Libs and Trudeau, ONLY, get the credit. Look how wonderful they are!

What are you talking about?  Randall Garrison has been everywhere today.  

»
Submitted by Arthur Cramer on May 17, 2016 - 6:15pm.

pookie wrote:

Arthur Cramer wrote:

Hey everybody, it doesn't matter what occured before Justing Trudeau. He intorduced a bill in the House, so the Libs and Trudeau, ONLY, get the credit. Look how wonderful they are!

What are you talking about?  Randall Garrison has been everywhere today.  

You know I am poking fun at the spin on this Pookie. You KNOW that the MSM will play it as Trudeau being Superman and the Libs will later say we brought in this legislation and deserve all the credit. Why do you INSIST on ALWAYS acting like everything I post is the stupidest thing you ever heard. You know what I think about the Libs and you know what I'm likely to post. I've been following Twitter all day on this since I learned of it and the Lib Saviour spin on this thing has been non stop. Stop acting like I am always such a boob. I don't like it. I don't know why you always have to patronize me the way you do.

»
Submitted by mark_alfred on May 17, 2016 - 6:21pm.

It's a bit annoying that Trudeau, a johnny-come-lately to the struggle, gets an award for it (Laurent McCutcheon Award) rather than Garrison who's worked on the issue for over a decade.

»
Submitted by pookie on May 17, 2016 - 6:30pm.

Oh give it a rest Arthur.  The idea that people should know when you are "just kidding!!!", given your general posting style, is beyond absurd.

»
Submitted by Mr. Magoo on May 17, 2016 - 6:34pm.

According to CBC, the award was for "continued support for lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual individuals in Quebec and across Canada.".  Formally, it seems he tabled the new bill AFTER receiving the award.  So I don't think the award is solely for tabling this one bill.  Hell, it hasn't even passed yet.

»
Submitted by mark_alfred on May 17, 2016 - 6:39pm.

Oh.  Hmm.

»
Submitted by Left Turn on May 17, 2016 - 7:51pm.

mark_alfred wrote:

It's a bit annoying that Trudeau, a johnny-come-lately to the struggle, gets an award for it (Laurent McCutcheon Award) rather than Garrison who's worked on the issue for over a decade.

Or Bill Siksay, whose Canadian Human Rights Act, introduced in parliament in 2005 and designed to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender indentity or expression, is the basis of the current Liberal bill.

»
Submitted by Arthur Cramer on May 17, 2016 - 8:00pm.

pookie wrote:

Oh give it a rest Arthur.  The idea that people should know when you are "just kidding!!!", given your general posting style, is beyond absurd.

Seriously Pookie? Look in the mirror. Stop concern trolling me.

»
Submitted by alan smithee on May 17, 2016 - 8:31pm.

What a joke. You press for certain things to be done and when finally a government turns around and does them,you shit all over them because you hate their colours. Pfff.

»
Submitted by pookie on May 17, 2016 - 10:13pm.

Arthur Cramer wrote:

pookie wrote:

Oh give it a rest Arthur.  The idea that people should know when you are "just kidding!!!", given your general posting style, is beyond absurd.

Seriously Pookie? Look in the mirror. Stop concern trolling me.

I'm not "concern trolling" you.  I am calling you out on your BS.

»
Submitted by Arthur Cramer on May 17, 2016 - 10:46pm.

pookie wrote:

Arthur Cramer wrote:

pookie wrote:

Oh give it a rest Arthur.  The idea that people should know when you are "just kidding!!!", given your general posting style, is beyond absurd.

Seriously Pookie? Look in the mirror. Stop concern trolling me.

I'm not "concern trolling" you.  I am calling you out on your BS.

I know you think you're a lot smarter than I am. You're not any smarter than am I and it isn't up to you to try and put me in my place. If you don't like my posts, don't respond, and certainly don't expect me to hold back on saying what I think when it is not aimed at you.  You are concern trolling me. Please stop. 

»
Submitted by Debater on May 18, 2016 - 12:03am.

mark_alfred wrote:

It's a bit annoying that Trudeau, a johnny-come-lately to the struggle, gets an award for it (Laurent McCutcheon Award) rather than Garrison who's worked on the issue for over a decade.

Why don't we give both Trudeau & Garrison credit?

They have both been part of advancing LGBTQ rights.

Garrison has played a role for several years, but it took someone with Trudeau's influence as Prime Minister to make it a reality.

»
Submitted by quizzical on May 18, 2016 - 12:38am.

this is like Obama's Nobel Peace Prize...lololol

»
Submitted by JKR on May 18, 2016 - 1:26am.

It will be a wonderfully historic day for Canada when this bill becomes law!

»
Submitted by Debater on May 18, 2016 - 11:24am.

It's certainly not a bill that Harper or the Conservatives would have introduced.

»
Submitted by swallow on May 18, 2016 - 11:39am.

Good for Bill Siksay, Randall Garrison, and many many unheralded transgender rights activists for fighting for years for this. Good for the government for doing the right thing. 

I just hope it gets through the Senate this time! 

»
Submitted by kropotkin1951 on May 18, 2016 - 11:40am.

Bill was the first MP to advocate for this law. He worked tirelessly on it before retiring from politics. I was happy to see that the Justice Minister acknowleged his role.

Quote:

Welcome and thank you for being here. I wanted to first start off by acknowledging the traditional territory of the Algonquin people. I am extremely pleased to be here today with all of you and standing with members and advocates of the transgender community, Parliamentary Secretaries Blair and Casey and joined by my colleague Randy Boissonnault who is going to provide some remarks en français. I want to acknowledge Randall Garrison, a colleague of ours and before that Bill Siksay before him whose efforts helped bring us to where we are today.

http://www.straight.com/life/699766/justice-minister-jody-wilson-rayboul...

»
Submitted by mark_alfred on May 18, 2016 - 11:42am.

Re:  post #18


Bill C-279 - An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code (gender identity), a similar bill from Garrison, did pass third reading in the House of Commons under the Harper majority, meaning that various Conservatives did vote in favour of it.  It was the should-be-abolished Senate that killed it.  Ambrose, who did vote against Bill C-279 last time, has signalled her intention to support Bill C-16.

»
Submitted by mark_alfred on May 18, 2016 - 11:44am.

Re:  post #20.  Yes, it was good to see the acknowledgement.  Showed good class, I felt.

»
Submitted by JKR on May 18, 2016 - 11:47am.
quizzical wrote:

this is like Obama's Nobel Peace Prize...lololol

How are passing very good legislation and winning an international prize similar?

»
Submitted by swallow on May 18, 2016 - 11:52am.

Introducing good legislation. It still has to get through the Senate! 

»
Submitted by quizzical on May 23, 2016 - 6:43pm.

JKR wrote:
quizzical wrote:
this is like Obama's Nobel Peace Prize...lololol

How are passing very good legislation and winning an international prize similar?

giving Justin any credit for this is like Obama's peace prize.

he never did a fn thing towards USA peace and neither has Justin done anything towards this Bill.

»
Submitted by Unionist on May 23, 2016 - 7:28pm.

swallow wrote:

Introducing good legislation. It still has to get through the Senate! 

It has a far better chance of getting through the Senate - where people are allowed to vote their conscience - than the toxic House.

When Mike Duffy returned to the Senate, the first thing he said was to not only support access for abortion services in his province (PEI, for those that are wondering), but to question whether the same access to medically-assisted dying would be enforced by the federal government through use of the Canada Health Act.

The Senate blocked Mulroney's anti-abortion bill after the Supreme Court decision in 1988 - and abortion has been uncriminalized ever since.

The Senate blocked Harper's anti-union legislation.

The Senate is, like, actually, our only real hope for protection of the rights of Canadians.

I'm not worrying about how the Senate will come down on this issue.

»
Submitted by swallow on May 23, 2016 - 9:21pm.

I am, since the Senate has blocked Grarrison's bill previously, after it had passed the House. 

»
Submitted by JKR on May 24, 2016 - 12:08am.
quizzical wrote:

JKR wrote:
quizzical wrote:
this is like Obama's Nobel Peace Prize...lololol

How are passing very good legislation and winning an international prize similar?

giving Justin any credit for this is like Obama's peace prize.

he never did a fn thing towards USA peace and neither has Justin done anything towards this Bill.

Didn't Justin's government introduce and back this bill?

»

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