The fight against C-279

The Canada Family Action Coalition is targeting 15 Conservative MPs in a bid to defeat C-279, the transgendered rights bill, when it returns to the House this month.

The bill passed at second reading in June with those 15 Conservatives voting in favour, but committee hearings on the bill ended in acrimony (here is the transcript). As a result, the bill was reported back to the House without the amendments that Randall Garrison, the bill’s sponsor, had hoped to make. Mr. Garrison is now hoping to have those amendments moved and considered in the House, but it will be for the Speaker to decide if they are in order (see “selection of motions for debate” here).

The fate of those amendments could conceivably have some bearing on the bill’s ultimate passage. And in addition to those 15 Conservatives who voted in favour, there are another 16 Conservatives and a half dozen opposition MPs who didn’t vote at second reading.

Conservative MP Brent Rathgeber explained his concerns with the bill in November. Former NDP MP Bill Siksay, the sponsor of the original version of the bill, responded to some of the critics of the bill in an interview two years ago.