As part of their need to get bills that died during prorogation back on the Order Paper, the Liberals yesterday reintroduced the bill that would ban “conversion therapy” as a criminal offence. Erin O’Toole insists that he’s against this pseudo-science – really! – but in the same breath claims that this bill is terribly flawed and that the Liberals are just introducing it to set a trap for him. His claim that the bill is problematic is dubious, because he claims that it would criminalise conversations about sexuality or gender identity between a minor and their parents or faith leader, when that’s clearly not the case. This, however, is a pervasive bogeyman that the social conservatives in the Conservative caucus want to put forward, and we’ve seen versions of it for years. Remember how they were so opposed to the government’s legislation allowing for same-sex civil marriages, and how they were rending their garments and howling that this was going to mean that their pastors and preachers were going to be forced to perform these marriages, or that their sermons would be denounced as hate speech? Did any of that happen? Nope. But there is a constant need to beat the drum that their religious freedoms are being trampled by the LGBT community because said community simply wishes to exist unmolested.

To an extent, though, this is the Liberals throwing the cat among the pigeons, because it’s going to be O’Toole’s first big test as leader when it comes to whether or not he’ll appease the social conservatives to whom he owes a debt for their support of his leadership, or whether he’ll keep trying to project the image that his is a big, welcoming party that wants to draw in members of this community. From previous conversations with insiders when previous private members’ bills on banning conversion therapy were introduced, that this sends the Conservative caucus into a panic because they know it’s going to sow divisions in their ranks, and these usual fears about religious freedoms rear their heads. And it’s not like the Liberals came up with this specifically to cause O’Toole headaches – it was introduced in the previous session, and got derailed by the pandemic.

I also feel the need to point out that during the leadership, there were a lot of profiles in the mainstream media that kept repeating that O’Toole had pledged to march in Pride parades without mentioning that he made that pledge conditional on uniformed police also marching, which eliminates all of the major Pride parades in this country owing to the current climate and conversation about policing. It also shows that his support is transactional, much like his insistence that he’s pro-choice but voted for a bill that would open a backdoor to criminalising abortion was shrugged off in the mainstream media rather than called out for the bullshit weaselling that it was. O’Toole is going to try to play both sides on this bill, and I suspect that he’s going to concern troll his way out of it – that his “concerns” about this “criminalization” will carry the day and he’ll insist that he’s being principled and weasel out of standing up to the social conservatives that he is beholden to.

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau and Catherine McKenna announced that the Canada Infrastructure Bank would reprofile $10 billion for pandemic economic recovery projects.
• The federal government is also offering Red Cross support to COVID hotspots.
• Bernadette Jordan says she’s open to a First Nations fishing authority that interfaces with the Crown, but Mi’kmaq leaders need to decide on the path forward.
• Bardish Chagger says that the pandemic has slowed the research that is backing the plan to remove the blood donor ban for men who have sex with men.
• The RCMP has backtracked and changed their “beard” policy around respirator masks that had sidelined Sikh and Muslim Mounties to desk duty.
• The RCMP’s Civilian Review and Complaints Commission says that the force has a problem with the way it justifies strip searches.
• Here is a longread about the outgoing chair of the CHMC trying to discourage the mania about home ownership in the country, and proposes tools to shift the market.
• There is a push to move the Senate toward hybrid sittings, and no, you guys – have you learned nothing about how poorly it’s going in the Other Place?
• Here’s an interview with Jim Carr, who is now on the mend and back to work as an MP after aggressive cancer treatments.
• The Green Party leadership process is laying bare some of the anti-Semitism that exists within its ranks, including statements made by one leadership candidate.
• A member of a First Nation near Calgary gave a scathing speech and cut off his braids in protest of a ring road that opened on his family land yesterday.
• Heather Scoffield delves into the government pinning its hopes on Michael Sabia at the head of the Canada Infrastructure Bank to deliver for them.
• Paul Wells, however, remains thoroughly unsold on the whole notion of the Infrastructure Bank, and tells you exactly why he considers it to be a big sham.
• Colby Cosh looks at an Irish Supreme Court decision that states that Subway bread isn’t bread for tax purposes, and relates it to Canadian Tax Court decisions.

Odds and ends:

WATCH: A new #HeritageMinute for #WomensHistoryMonth focuses on Elsie MacGill, feminist, polio survivor, and the world’s first female aeronautical engineer. MacGill was the chief engineer overseeing Canada’s production of Hawker Hurricane aircrafts during the Second World War. pic.twitter.com/nitAdBLxYf

— Historica Canada (@HistoricaCanada) October 1, 2020

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