Retired judge: ‘Don’t ban help for gender-confused children’

A retired Canadian judge has criticised his Government’s plans to make it illegal to help children who are experiencing gender confusion to accept their biological sex.

Writing in The Epoch Times, Judge Brian Giesbrecht said: “It is truly frightening that if this legislation is passed, any counselling that is not deemed to be ‘affirming’ will become illegal.”

Under Bills C8 and S-202, a person could be imprisoned for up to five years for causing an adult or child to undergo so-called “conversion therapy”.

‘Aggressive assault’

Giesbrecht said that the legislation would ban parents from employing a counsellor who may be able to help a child come to terms with their biological sex, but not one who advocates a change in gender.

probably the most aggressive assault on parental rights that a federal government has ever attempted

He added: “Similarly, a religious adviser, medical doctor, or anyone else consulted by a parent would be committing a jailable criminal offence if they gave their honest advice about transition that a government official did not approve of.”

The former judge called the legislation “probably the most aggressive assault on parental rights that a federal government has ever attempted. If it passes, it risks destroying the bond between parent and child when a parent’s philosophy or religion conflicts with that of the state”.

Compelled speech

In 2018, free speech advocate Dr Jordan Peterson condemned a Canadian law which could be used to compel citizens to use the terms ‘ze’ and ‘zir’, instead of ‘he’ and ‘she’.

Dr Peterson addressed the issue during a presentation on “The Rising Tide of Compelled Speech in Canada” at Queen’s University, Ontario.

After the law was introduced in 2017, Dr Peterson, Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, tweeted:

Senate passes Bill C16 without amendment 67 for 11 against. Compelled speech has come to Canada. We will seriously regret this.

— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) June 15, 2017

The Bill added “gender expression” and “gender identity” to Canada’s Human Rights Code and to existing hate crime legislation.