Juno News - Has an MP finally stepped up to take on Bill C-16？

00:00:00.000 Hi everyone, last week I brought you the story of a renewed grassroots effort to get Bill C-16

00:00:10.940 modified or repealed. Bill C-16 is a law that passed in 2017 adding the terms gender identity

00:00:17.800 and gender expression to the Canadian Human Rights Act and to the Criminal Code. However,

00:00:22.660 some women were concerned from the get-go that this means any biological male who self-identifies

00:00:28.500 as a woman becomes entitled to enter female changing rooms, washrooms, prisons, and shelters.

00:00:35.040 So if you watched my previous video, the name Jennifer Anne will be familiar to you. She's

00:00:40.260 the activist who has been trying to get an MP to sponsor her petition to release a gender-based

00:00:46.520 analysis or GBA on Bill C-16. Back in 1995, the government of Canada had committed to performing

00:00:54.020 a GBA, now it's known as GBA+, on all future legislation and policies in order to eliminate

00:01:02.240 gender inequality. However, a GBA on Bill C-16 is nowhere to be found and that's kind of suspicious.

00:01:09.660 In fall 2019, Jennifer Anne launched a House of Commons e-petition to demand that the Liberal

00:01:15.440 government release this GBA. But as the next step, Jennifer Anne had to find an MP willing to sponsor

00:01:21.580 and present the petition. And her first choice, MP Candice Bergen, did not respond in 30 days,

00:01:29.160 so the opportunity expired. So Jennifer Anne asked the next MP, Diane Finley, who declined the petition.

00:01:36.180 Her third choice, Alain Reyes, sent her an email saying he would not take it on.

00:01:40.840 Gérard Delthel then refused. Liberal Marwan Tabara refused, as did New Democrat Rachel Blaney.

00:01:47.960 Liberal Yasmin Ratassi also refused, saying she is taking the position of other MPs and not

00:01:55.020 supporting the petition. And that kind of response is quite indicative of a herd mindset. And Ratassi's

00:02:01.920 biography outlines how one of her accomplishments as an MP over the past several years has been

00:02:08.140 championing gender-balanced budget and gender-based analysis plus to alleviate poverty and enhance

00:02:14.940 equality. So gender-based analysis plus. Apparently, Yasmin Ratassi is a champion of gender-based

00:02:22.020 analyses. However, she does not support any kind of efforts to release the GBA that was done on Bill

00:02:29.260 C-16. However, the tides have turned because True North received confirmation yesterday that

00:02:35.820 Conservative MP Derek Sloan has agreed to sponsor the e-petition. Sloan is currently a Conservative

00:02:42.760 Leadership Race contender, and he said that after he expressed concerns about Bill C-16 on CTV's

00:02:49.300 Power Play, he was contacted by dozens of women's groups across the country, and he believes sponsoring

00:02:55.580 the petition is the right thing to do. Sloan just has to wait until February 11th to formally sponsor the

00:03:01.260 e-petition, because at that time it will be released from the previous MP who didn't want it. Sloan says he

00:03:08.020 will be bringing up this issue more and more throughout his leadership campaign, which he

00:03:12.880 suspects will not make him a friend of the mainstream media.

00:03:16.560 I'm Lindsay Shepard for True North.

00:03:20.100 Thanks for watching.

Juno News - February 09, 2020