REAL Women of Canada
November 17, 2010

Bill C-389 – Proposed update to prohibit discrimination
in regard to “gender identity” and “gender expression” (transgendered)

The Minister of Justice, Honourable Rob Nicholson advised REAL Women, in a letter dated November 15, 2010 that he would be recommending to his caucus colleagues that Bill C-389 not be supported.

It is understood that the subject of this bill is to be raised in caucus possibly today, although not necessarily, if there are other more pressing matters to discuss at the regular Wednesday morning caucus meeting.

REAL Women has also learned that many if not most members of the Conservative party are not aware of this bill.

Bill C-389 easily proceeded through second reading and the Justice Committee took only a few minutes to vote and to return it to the House of Commons without the usual clause-by-clause examination and without hearing any witnesses. The bill therefore is now at the final report stage, and is expected to be on the Notice Paper for December 2, 2010.

Parliamentary Procedures

Parliamentary procedures are complex. It usually takes years to acquire a mastery of them. However, a review of the procedures prepared by the House of Commons Legislative Services Section indicates the following:

* If no amendments are made at the report stage, the House of Commons proceeds immediately with third and final reading of the bill.

* Even if amendments are made to the bill, such amendments cannot change the general principles of the bill since the principle and scope of the bill are fixed at second reading. That is, any amendments to the bill at this stage cannot change the substance of the bill. Debates on any amendments, however, can delay the third and final reading of the bill.

* The Speaker of the House has the authority to determine which bills at the report stage will go forward for debate in the House of Commons. For a number of reasons, we cannot rely on Bill C-389 being delayed – but it is also possible.

Third Reading of Bill C-389

At third reading, even if all the Conservatives MPs vote against the bill, this will not be sufficient to defeat it, since all the NDP, Bloc Quebecois and most of the Liberals will be voting for it. Consequently, this bill is very likely to pass third reading in the House of Commons.

REAL Women has done what it could to stop this bill. We have sent letters to all the Liberal and Conservative MPs requesting that they vote against the bill.

It is important that we continue to urge the MP’s to vote against the bill. That is all we can do at this point in time.

Moreover, as stated above, Parliamentary procedure is complex so that there may be procedures available about which we are not aware that may alter the situation.

In any case, if the bill does pass the House of Commons, the next stage is the Senate – but that is another chapter.

Please write to the following, if you have not already done so, raising your strong objections to the Conservative government’s apparent support of this controversial bill.

The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A2
Fax: 613-941-6900

The Honourable Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Fax: 613-992-7910

Your MP
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6