Media Advisory, for Immediate Release, Sept. 21, 2018.
Bill C-75: A continuing flaw in the Apology to the LGBTQ2S+ communities that must be fixed.
Media Conference hosted by the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity and four gay and lesbian historians (Patrizia Gentile, Tom Hooper, Gary Kinsman, and Steven Maynard).
For further information: contact Gary Kinsman at 647 385-4221, gkinsman@laurentian.ca; Tom Hooper at 647 309-7956, thooper@yorku.ca; Calla Barnett at 613-293-4457, calla@ccgsd-ccdgs.org.: or Patrizia Gentile at 613 266- 2048, patriziagentile@cunet.carleton.ca
Tuesday Sept. 25th, 1pm sharp. Ottawa Press Gallery-Charles Lynch Room (Centreblock)
This month the Justice and Human Rights Committee of the House of Commons is examining Bill C-75. While this is a broad piece of legislation, it forms part of the federal government’s apology to LGBTQ2S+ communities, delivered by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the House of Commons on November 28, 2017. The problem is that Bill C-75 falls far short of the apology.
This bill presents an opportunity to finally repeal several archaic criminal offences historically used to criminalize the consensual activities of LGBTQ2S+ people, all of which stem from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These include provisions against bawdy houses, indecent acts, obscenity, and vagrancy. In our view the criminal law should not be used to enforce notions of sexual morality but should instead be used in cases of violence and abuse, which are covered under other more appropriate sections of the Criminal Code. Bill C-75 also fails to address the continued criminalization of sex workers and people living with HIV.
As many historians, researchers, and activists point out, Bill C-75 has numerous limitations that must be addressed. This bill repeals the prohibition against anal intercourse, but this does not sufficiently address the historic use of the Code to criminalize consensual LGBTQ2S+ sexual activities. This fact was acknowledged by the Prime Minister in his apology, he explicitly mentioned the use of the bawdy house law in the mass police raids on gay bathhouses. From 1968-2004, more than 1,300 men were charged with this offense in raids across Canada.
The provision against indecent act remains, which is used to criminalize consensual sex between men. Charges of vagrancy have been used against trans and gender non-conforming people as well as sex workers, this provision is also maintained in the bill. C-75 specifically reforms these laws, it does not repeal them. Other offences used to criminalize consensual LGBTQ2S+ activities, including obscenity, immoral theatrical performance, indecent exhibition, and nudity are not addressed, nor is the criminalization of cases involving HIV nondisclosure.
There is much in common between the policing of sex workers and LGBTQ2S+ people, including through the bawdy house law and other sections of the Criminal Code. We fully support the repeal of laws criminalizing sex workers and the recommendations of the Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform. Since Bill C-75 mentions the material benefits and advertising offences, both of which expose sex workers to violence, we call for these sections to be repealed. This is only the first step to sex work law reform.
Speakers will address these limitations and outline amendments that are required in Bill C-75. Speakers include:
Gary Kinsman, author of The Regulation of Desire and co-author of The Canadian War on Queers.
Tom Hooper, historian of the bathhouse raids in Toronto.
Calla Barnett, President of the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity.
Murray Rankin, M.P. for Victoria and NDP Justice Critic
Ron Rosenes, convicted in the 1981 bath raids under the bawdy house laws in Toronto, given a discharge, but whose information is still in police files in 2018.