Juno News - February 09, 2020Has an MP finally stepped up to take on Bill C-16？
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Misogyny
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Summary
Bill C-16 is a law that passed in 2017 adding the terms gender identity and gender expression to the Canadian Human Rights Act and to the Criminal Code. However, some women were concerned from the get-go that this means that any biological male who self-identifies as a woman becomes entitled to enter female changing rooms, washrooms, and shelters.
Transcript
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Hi everyone, last week I brought you the story of a renewed grassroots effort to get Bill C-16
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modified or repealed. Bill C-16 is a law that passed in 2017 adding the terms gender identity
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and gender expression to the Canadian Human Rights Act and to the Criminal Code. However,
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some women were concerned from the get-go that this means any biological male who self-identifies
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as a woman becomes entitled to enter female changing rooms, washrooms, prisons, and shelters.
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So if you watched my previous video, the name Jennifer Anne will be familiar to you. She's
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the activist who has been trying to get an MP to sponsor her petition to release a gender-based
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analysis or GBA on Bill C-16. Back in 1995, the government of Canada had committed to performing
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a GBA, now it's known as GBA+, on all future legislation and policies in order to eliminate
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gender inequality. However, a GBA on Bill C-16 is nowhere to be found and that's kind of suspicious.
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In fall 2019, Jennifer Anne launched a House of Commons e-petition to demand that the Liberal
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government release this GBA. But as the next step, Jennifer Anne had to find an MP willing to sponsor
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and present the petition. And her first choice, MP Candice Bergen, did not respond in 30 days,
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so the opportunity expired. So Jennifer Anne asked the next MP, Diane Finley, who declined the petition.
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Her third choice, Alain Reyes, sent her an email saying he would not take it on.
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Gérard Delthel then refused. Liberal Marwan Tabara refused, as did New Democrat Rachel Blaney.
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Liberal Yasmin Ratassi also refused, saying she is taking the position of other MPs and not
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supporting the petition. And that kind of response is quite indicative of a herd mindset. And Ratassi's
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biography outlines how one of her accomplishments as an MP over the past several years has been
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championing gender-balanced budget and gender-based analysis plus to alleviate poverty and enhance
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equality. So gender-based analysis plus. Apparently, Yasmin Ratassi is a champion of gender-based
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analyses. However, she does not support any kind of efforts to release the GBA that was done on Bill
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C-16. However, the tides have turned because True North received confirmation yesterday that
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Conservative MP Derek Sloan has agreed to sponsor the e-petition. Sloan is currently a Conservative
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Leadership Race contender, and he said that after he expressed concerns about Bill C-16 on CTV's
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Power Play, he was contacted by dozens of women's groups across the country, and he believes sponsoring
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the petition is the right thing to do. Sloan just has to wait until February 11th to formally sponsor the
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e-petition, because at that time it will be released from the previous MP who didn't want it. Sloan says he
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will be bringing up this issue more and more throughout his leadership campaign, which he
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suspects will not make him a friend of the mainstream media.