Capital Pride welcomes the Government’s commitment to finally ban conversion practices. Conversion practices cause serious harm, perpetuate stigma and have been widely discredited. In recognition of the serious impact of conversion practices, any legislation to ban these practices must be comprehensive in scope, provide funding and support for survivors and include a public education campaign.
This summer, Bill C-6 which banned conversion therapy died when Parliament was dissolved. Following the election, Capital Pride, along with 100 other organizations, signed onto No Conversion Canada’s Community Call to Action, calling on Parliament to ban conversion practices and support survivors.
The Call to Action provides a detailed set of criteria that the legislation must address. It is available here: /bit.ly/3bqMh0r
Absent from the Throne Speech was a commitment to end the discriminatory blood ban. We welcome recent news that Canada Blood Services has announced it will seek regulatory approval to move from a discriminatory screening process to a behaviour based approach. However, we will continue to work with the All Blood is Equal coalition to push for an end to the blood ban without further delay. More information about the campaign is available here: www.allbloodisequal.ca
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