Will C-279 Ever Pass The Senate And Become Canadian Federal Law?

When we last checked in on Bill C-279's progress through the Conservative dominated Canadian Senate on its way to passage and Royal Assent it had come out of the Senate Committee on Human Rights and was at Third Stage before the Cons started showing their repressive behinds. 

The bill seeks to add gender identity as a prohibited grounds of discrimination in the Canadian Human Rights Act and amend the Criminal Code to forbid the promotion of hatred against trans people.

The Senate Conservatives stalled progress on C-279 long enough so they moved into the summer break that started on June 28 with it still at Third Stage status and an amendment to it proposed by Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth that if it passes will send the bill back to the House

And there's also the possibility that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will prorogue parliament when they return in the fall, which means that the entire Senate legislative process for C-279 would start at the beginning if that happens. 

It's this situation that has Liberal BC Senator Mobina Jaffer, the head of the Senate Committee on Human Rights expressing her concerns in a recent Straight.com interview that she's no longer confident that the bill can pass when the Canadian Senate returns to session on September 17 despite it getting through her committee with the support of Conservative senators.

“I can’t tell you that when it comes back to us that we will approve it,” Senator Jaffer said. “And this is a bill that we should approve; it’s unacceptable not to.”

If C-279 is sent back to the House, where it passed on a 149-137 vote with the help of 18 Con MP's with PM Harper voting against it and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau was a no show for the vote.  Jaffer is pessimistic about its chances of passage if that scenario happens.

NDP MP Randall Garrison, the sponsor of the private member's bill is still optimistic that C-279 will pass.  he noted that the Senate passes bills on First, Second and Third reading in one day if they wish to and see no reason why that can't happen for C-279.

“There’s no reason for the unelected Senate to block the bill,” Garrison told Straight.com “And nothing came up in the [Senate] committee that would suggest there was any reason for them to block the bill.”.  

We'll see who is correct when the calendar page turns to September.   But in the interim, I would suggest that you Canadian trans folks get busy becoming agents of you own liberation and lobbying and e-mailing your senators to defeat the Ruth amendment and pass C-279 on Third Reading.

You have a chance to have happen in your lifetimes with our gridlocked Congress your trans cousins south of the 49th Parallel won't see in terms of your national legislature passing a federal law that protects your human rights.