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The Hon. David Lametti Minister of Justice 284 Wellington Street Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H8 Dear Minister Lametti, Many people who have experienced conversion therapy describe despair and suicidal ideation as a consequence. We recognize that initiatives to ban conversion therapy arise from a desire to protect Canadians from such damaging effects. Coercive and involuntary efforts to change sexual orientation have no place within our communities. Our community, however, has sign

Senator Miville-Dechêne Senate of Canada Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A4 Dear Senator, The EFC is pleased to support Bill S-203 An Act to restrict young persons’ online access to sexually explicit materials. This bill will require commercial pornography sites to verify that consumers are adults in order to access their content. Such accountability is urgently needed. Mainstream pornography frequently depicts violent, degrading and dehumanizing sexual content. This content is freel

UPDATE MARCH 2021: Parliament passed Bill C-7 into law March 18, 2021. This bill expands euthanasia to allow people who are not dying to be considered eligible for hastened death. Bill C-7 also removes some key safeguards for people who are at the end of life, such as the 10-day reflection period. This new law also means that, starting March 2023, MAID will become available for people with mental illness alone. Issue summary Bill C-7 is now law. It allows assisted death for C

Bill S-211 is a private member’s bill in the Senate that would require large corporations to report on what they are doing to make sure their supply chains are free of slavery, forced labour or child labour. The EFC supports this effort to reduce forced and child labour and to raise awareness about human trafficking. This bill, originally introduced in the previous parliament, has been re-introduced in the current parliament. EFC letter of support to Senator sponsoring Bill S

The EFC was an intervener in a Supreme Court of Canada case about whether ecclesiastical decisions about membership and discipline are outside of the scope of judicial review. Hearings started Dec. 9, 2020 and a ruling was announced May 21, 2021. The EFC co-intervened with the Catholic Civil Rights League. The EFC welcomed the ruling in a statement. The May 2021 decision overruled an Ontario Court of Appeal decision released in January 2020 which would have permitted courts t

Bill C-219 is a private member’s bill that would increase the penalty for sexual exploitation of a young person in a relationship of dependency or a person with a disability. It would also amend the Criminal Code to consider it an aggravating circumstance at sentencing if a victim of sexual exploitation had a mental or physical disability. Bill C-219 was introduced by MP John Nater on February 25, 2020. It was reintroduced in 2021 and made it to second reading in April. It wa

UPDATE: Bill C-233 was defeated by a vote of 248-82 on June 2, 2021 Bill C-233 is a private member’s bill that would ban sex-selective abortion. It was introduced by MP Cathay Wagantall on February 26, 2020, and reintroduced Sept. 23, 2020. The bill would make changes to the Criminal Code to prohibit medical practitioners from performing an abortion knowing that the abortion is solely due to the child’s genetic sex. Sample letter for sending to your MP: pdf or docx EFC letter

A Calgary City Council committee held hearings on a proposed bylaw to ban conversion therapy in May 2020. The EFC’s written submission to the committee noted that “coercive and involuntary efforts to change sexual orientation have no place in our communities” but expressed concern that the bylaw’s definition of conversion therapy is so broadly worded that it infringes on freedom of expression. The EFC urged the committee to amend the definition of conversion therapy and to cl

In this submission to the parliamentary Finance Committee studying the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the EFC recommends (download PDF): additional flexibility in the Canada Emergency Wage subsidy, to allow charitable organizations to use a six or twelve-month period to calculate the decrease in their revenue exploring matching funds for charitable donations to a particular amount or for a certain period of time, excluding donations for capital projects. inc