![\"\"](\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/28087096325_81274d64af_o_810_500_75_s_c1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Lianne Laurence
\nLifeNet<\/p>\n
OTTAWA, December 17, 2019 (LifeSiteNews<\/a>) \u2014 A bill that will criminalize \u201cconversion therapy\u201d in Canada is a \u201cdespicable\u201d attack on religious liberty that could lead to Christians going to jail for proclaiming that homosexual individuals can change, warns Canada\u2019s pro-life, pro-family organization Campaign Life Coalition.<\/p>\n Introduced last week by Independent Senator Serge Joyal,\u00a0Bill S-202<\/a>\u00a0will make it an indictable offense punishable by up to five years in jail to benefit materially or financially indirectly or directly from the provision of \u201cconversion therapy\u201d to anyone under 18 years of age.<\/p>\n The bill further amends the Criminal Code to make advertising \u201cconversion therapy\u201d a crime punishable by up to five years in jail.<\/p>\n Not only that, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau\u2019s Liberal government plans to introduce a similar bill in the House of Commons when Parliament reconvenes in January.<\/p>\n In his mandate letters to ministers setting out the Liberals\u2019 legislative objectives, Trudeau instructed\u00a0justice minister<\/a>\u00a0David Lametti to \u201camend the Criminal Code to ban the practice of conversion therapy and take other steps required with the provinces and territories to end conversion therapy in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n Given that this is the case, it\u2019s expected that Senate Bill S-202 will \u201cmove forward very quickly,\u201d says Campaign Life Coalition campaigns manager\u00a0David Cooke<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bill S-202 defines \u201cconversion therapy\u201d as \u201cany practice, treatment or service designed to change an individual\u2019s sexual orientation or gender identity or to eliminate or reduce sexual attraction or sexual behaviour between persons of the same sex. For greater certainty, this definition does not include a surgical sex change or any related service.\u201d<\/p>\n This sweeping definition includes \u201cChristian counselling, prayer, and evangelism directed at the LGBT community\u201d as well as \u201cmedical or psychological practices,\u201d Cooke said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn other words, if you publicly proclaim (\u2018advertise\u2019) the message that homosexuals can be saved and changed, you will go to prison,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd if a young homosexual (under age 18) is converted at your church and starts contributing to the offering (providing a financial \u2018benefit\u2019), your church leadership will go to prison.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cChristians could actually become criminalized for just being Christian. The Canadian government intends to make conversion efforts illegal if they are in any way directed at those who identify as LGBT,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n Campaign Life has launched a\u00a0petition<\/a>\u00a0against the bill, stating it is \u201cabsurd and totalitarian for any government\u201d to jail people for \u201chelping someone overcome unwanted same-sex attractions or gender dysphoria,\u201d as well as \u201ca violation of the fundamental human rights of those who want to change.\u201d<\/p>\n A problem in opposing this law is that the \u201cLGBT lobby and its political allies\u201d are using the public\u2019s misperception of conversion therapy as leverage to pass it, Cooke noted.<\/p>\n Some 50 years ago, a \u201csmall number of doctors\u201d used \u201cvery questionable psychological techniques\u201d such as \u201celectroshock therapy or vomit-inducing chemicals to create a mental aversion to homosexual impulses,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n \u201cThese were heinous, non-Christian practices that have been rightfully discontinued \u2014 and we heartily denounce them.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s echoed by Jack Fonseca, director of political operations at Campaign Life.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mainstream media has been flat out lying about conversion therapy\u201d in the past few years to \u201cwhip up the public to support a ban on this important treatment option that many people want and should have available if they desire it,\u201d he told LifeSiteNews.<\/p>\n The fear-mongering by liberal journalists \u201cabout forcible electroshock therapy on homosexuals is total rubbish. It does not happen at all. And it probably has not happened for half a century,\u201d Fonseca said.<\/p>\n What the \u201ccaring professionals in the field of psychology and psychiatry\u201d use today to overcome unwanted same-sex attraction \u201cis simply standard, clinical \u2018talk therapy\u2019, in which patients who want help talk to a counsellor or therapist about the significant moments in their life, especially childhood trauma which may be contributing to the unwanted homosexual or transgender feelings,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n This process, which is also referred to as \u201creparative therapy,\u201d is \u201cvery effective,\u201d added Fonseca.<\/p>\n Pioneer and foremost authority on reparative therapy Dr. Joseph Nicolosi \u201cconsistently found\u201d that a third of his same-sex attracted patients \u201crecovered their heterosexual nature and were able to move on to get married to a person of the opposite sex and to have a family,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Another third \u201cmade significant progress but still struggled with same-sex attraction,\u201d while \u201cone-third experienced no change,\u201d Fonseca noted. \u201cIn terms of efficacy in comparison to other forms of the psychiatric or counselling treatments, this is actually a very good success ratio.\u201d<\/p>\n Cooke noted that Kristopher Wells, Canada research chair for the public understanding of sexual and gender minority youth at Edmonton\u2019s MacEwan University, and adviser to the government on the conversion therapy ban, was clear that churches are under threat over conversion therapy.<\/p>\n Wells told a roundtable in Edmonton in\u00a0August<\/a>\u00a0that Lametti was considering \u201crevoking charitable status,\u201d of \u201cchurches [and] faith communities that continue to use or promote conversion therapy,\u201d Global News reported at that time.<\/p>\n Openly homosexual M.P. Randy Boissonnault, special adviser to Trudeau on LGBT issues, told the same roundtable Lametti is committed to the cause.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason you criminalize conversion therapy is so that we stamp it out\u2026 so that people know that if you\u2019re trying to change somebody\u2019s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, you\u2019re breaking the law and you should go to jail,\u201d Boissenault said.<\/p>\n Fonseca blasted criminalizing of reparative therapy as a violation of religious freedom and parental rights.<\/p>\n Individuals have the right to seek help for unwanted same-sex attraction, and parents have the right and obligation \u201cto seek out a psychotherapist who can get to the bottom of the underlying psychological or emotional problem (or sexual abuse as is often the case)\u201d for a child suffering gender dysphoria, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cFor Trudeau to insert himself between a parent and their child in this manner is despicable and disgusting,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Campaign Life is urging all Canadians to contact their M.P.s and their senators to oppose Bill S-202, and to sign CLC\u2019s\u00a0petition<\/a>, which Campaign Life will be presenting to the Senate and Trudeau government, Fonseca told LifeSiteNews.<\/p>\n He also asked concerned Canadians to talk to their priest or pastor and \u201curge them to speak out against this law, and to promote our petition in their church.\u201d<\/p>\n