For Immediate Release
June 11, 2018
For more information:
Gary Kinsman – gkinsman@laurentian.ca or 647 385-4221
Tom Hooper – thooper@yorku.ca
Another Flawed Bill: Gay and Lesbian Historians on C-75.
Today the House of Commons sent Bill C-75 to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights for study. This is the bill that is supposed to get rid of antiquated and unjust sections of the Criminal Code and to repeal offenses that have historically been used to unjustly target non-conforming sexualities as an important part of the apology process announced on Nov. 28th, 2017 to the LGBTQ2S+ communities.
However, four gay and lesbian historians who study sexual regulation in Canada have stated that Bill C-75 fails to adequately address the various provisions used to criminalize consensual same-gender sexual activities in Canada. While the offense of anal intercourse is finally fully repealed, the bawdy house law, indecent act, and vagrancy are merely altered, and remain intact. As in C-66, the reforms in Bill C-75 are based on a narrow interpretation of offenses that have been ruled contrary to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Several offenses are not even covered in the bill, including indecent exhibition, obscenity, nudity, and laws used against sex workers. Finally, C-75 does not address the Criminal Code provisions unjustly used in cases of HIV nondisclosure.
See the full submission below from historians Patrizia Gentile, Tom Hooper, Gary Kinsman, and Steven Maynard.
Click here to download the PDF.
C-75 Another Flawed Bill