Over the weekend, The Canadian Press had an interview with out gay Conservative MP Eric Duncan, talking about his fight against the blood donation deferral period for men who have sex with men, while at the same time members of his own party have been fighting the bill to ban conversion therapy. And while it’s great that the Conservatives finally have an out gay MP (previously, their only out member was Senator Nancy Ruth, though they had ministers like John Baird were out in their private lives, but simply refused to acknowledge it in the media), and that their new leader professes to want to be more inclusive (apparently in spite of his own members), there is nevertheless something a bit off with the way this has all played out.

The thing about Duncan’s apparent “bravery” with talking about the blood donor policy as a result of his own history with being rejected is that this is not something the government can actually do anything about because Canadian Blood Services and Héma Québec are arm’s length, and Health Canada’s regulatory role is outside of the minister’s purview. Yes, we can ask questions as to why the Liberals promised to end the ban if they couldn’t actually fulfil their promise, but for Duncan (and for that matter, the NDP) to try and hold the government to account for something that they can’t actually do is a problem. Likewise, they too would be making promises that either they can’t keep, or they are proposing a massive and troubling overreach where the government would wind up asserting jurisdiction, bigfooting those arm’s-length agencies, and setting precedents for bigfooting other arm’s-length bodies in the future, which is a very bad thing that we should be very concerned about.

As for the conversion therapy bill, there were no “common sense amendments” that would make it acceptable to the Conservatives without gutting the bill. The bill would not criminalize conversations between parents and children, or with pastors, and this constant fear that social conservatives have had for decades as LGBT+ rights have progressed has never come true, and yet they will keep banging on that drum. As for the refrain that certain senators are pushing that “the government had six years to do this” is disingenuous. There is only so much time in parliament and only so much capacity in government to get everything accomplished, and it’s not like we didn’t have anything else happening over these past six years (such as a crash in oil prices, the Donald Trump years, getting climate legislation passed, advancing the cause of Indigenous reconciliation, of when it comes to LGBT+ issues, getting trans rights enshrined in law – again to these same social conservative fears of criminalization). Governments can’t do everything at once, and these people know that. Don’t fall for the rhetoric.

Good reads:

• Days after panning the acting Chief of Defence Staff’s decision to keep on the head of the Navy, Justin Trudeau now says he has confidence in said acting CDS.
• Border restrictions are starting to loosen for fully-vaccinated Canadians.
• Here is a deeper dive into the inherent issues with the Federal Court challenge of the House of Commons’ demand for the classified Winnipeg Lab documents.
• Ahmed Hussen says the government is keeping a close eye on the rapid housing initiative in order to tweak it for future tranches of funding.
• A Federal Court judge struck down the government rejecting a Christian university’s summer student grant applications because of their sexual morality policies.
• Here is a look into the growing problem of court delays related to the pandemic.
• After the outcry over the Senate rising before their work was done, the Government Leader is proposing they recall to deal with the conversion therapy bill.
• The pandemic has doubled the waiting list for dental surgery in Nunavut, and there are now around 1000 cases waiting while people are in pain.
• Susan Delacourt talks to outgoing AFN national chief Perry Bellegarde about what more non-Indigenous people can do at this moment of reconciliation.
• My Xtra column explains why no party has clean hands when it comes to the presumed death of the bill to ban conversion therapy.
• My weekend column looks into the dangers that the Senate has exposed itself to by deciding to rise for the summer before their work was done.

Odds and ends:

So…do you plan to either subsidize the pharma industry in Canada to do so, or offer them some other government incentives, thus picking winners and losers? Not sure how that squares with your claims to be the party of the free market. https://t.co/eJZoUCyFqn

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) July 4, 2021

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