For PAFE, much of the first part of 2021 (just prior to the 2021 election) was spent fighting the Trudeau Liberals’ Bill C-6, the notorious “Conversion Therapy Ban” that proposed to, among other things, criminalize efforts by parents to seek treatment for their underage children’s gender-dysphoria, either in Canada or abroad, with several financial penalties and even possible jail time for parents who defied the law.

For a summary on C-6, including detailed breakdown on how MPs, including Pierre Poillievre voted, CLICK HERE. 

On September 20, 2021, the Canadian federal election was held, and once again Justin Trudeau’s Liberals won a minority government. The Erin O’Toole CPCs ran a terrible progressive “Red Tory” campaign, and finished second, with 119 seats, 2 fewer seats than the 121 won by the Andrew Scheer CPCs in 2019.

On November 29, 2021, the Liberals resurrected the now infamous Bill C-6, with substantially the same wording as the previous bill, and this time it was numbered “Bill C-4”. That same day, CPC leader O’Toole named New Brunswick CPC MP Rob Moore as the new “Shadow Minister for Justice and Attorney-General for Canada.

Two days later, on December 1^st, in a closed-door CPC caucus meeting, Erin O’Toole and  Rob Moore  outlined an underhanded plan to stifle the opposition to the new Bill C-4.  According to O’Toole (who did indeed allow a free vote on the earlier Bill C-6 the preceding June) the House of Commons already had had enough debate on this issue, and a “redo” of the previous June 2021 debate would only expose, again, the deep divisions among CPC MPs.

O’Toole then revealed his plan: Immediately following that private CPC caucus meeting, that MP Rob Moore, would return to the House of Commons to make a motion in Parliament for the House of Commons to adopt Bill C-4 “with unanimous consent.” If adopted “unanimously” – that is, with not one MP voting "Nay" to oppose the bill, there would be no debate on the bill, no committee hearings, and the bill could be passed by the House of Commons in a single day, as opposed to a multi-month, open process, a process that would have allowed for public input and another public debate.

PAFE has it on good authority that, in the closed-door caucus meeting, O’Toole and Moore made it very clear to the Conservative MPs that Moore would only make the “unanimous consent” motion on Bill C-4 on behalf of a united CPC caucus. If even one of the CPC MPs planned to vote NAY on C-4, O’Toole demanded that such an MP speak up, there and then, at the secret caucus meeting. If O’Toole couldn’t change their mind, then Moore would not make the motion for “unanimous consent.”  After all, without a promise of unanimity from the CPC MPs, Moore (and O’Toole) would be horribly embarrassed if they could not deliver a unanimous CPC vote.

O’Toole’s special plea to the CPC MPs was for every CPC MP to either vote “YEA” (or “yes”). If a particular CPC MP did not entirely agree with this strategy, but was nonetheless unwilling to stand in O’Toole’s way, O’Toole asked them to either abstain nor simply not show up for the vote.  But the key thing was for there not to be even a single MP who would show up and call out “NAY” in opposition to Bill C-4.

According to testimony from inside the room, not a single CPC MP indicated opposition to the carefully outlined plan, and O’Toole, confident that none of his MPs would dissent, proceeded with MP Rob Moore into the House of Commons, where Moore made the motion for unanimous consent for the notorious Bill C-4. PAFEs sources on this must surely be accurate because O’Toole and Moore would not have proceeded to make the motion for unanimous consent unless they were very confident that none of the CPC MPs were prepared to vote NAY and thus scuttle the O’Toole / Moore plan.

To read the very brief account of the motion and the unanimous vote, read the official record: https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/house/sitting-8/journals or read below:

At 2 p.m.  On Wednesday, December 1, 2021, the fifth item of business, under MOTIONS:

“By unanimous consent, it was ordered, — That, notwithstanding any standing order or usual practice of the House, Bill C-4, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (conversion therapy), be deemed read a second time and referred to a committee of the whole, deemed considered in committee of the whole, deemed reported without amendment, deemed concurred in at report stage and deemed read a third time and passed.”

With no debate, the motion was indeed passed, unanimously, and C-4 sailed through the House of Commons that very day.

Here is a list of the Conservative Members of Parliament as of December 1, 2021, not one of whom stood up to opposed Bill C-4.

(Source: https://www.ourcommons.ca/Members/en/votes/43/2/175?view=member)

Note: there was no “recorded vote” as to who voted in favour of C-4, and who was absent at that very minute. But, considering that the vote of MPs PRESENT that the vote was UNANIMOUS, it is a 100% absolute certainty that NO MPS voted AGAINST C-4 that day, and thus Bill C-4 was allowed to be passed in a single day.

It is nonetheless mildly unfortunate that there was no “recorded” vote on C-4, but, as mentioned above, we know that none of the MPs elected in September 2021 voted against it.  We know of only one CPC MP – Garnett Genuis – who was not in Ottawa that day. Allegedly he was in Europe at the time of the vote.  We can assume that every single MP – including every CPC MP, minus Mr. Genius, was in Ottawa on December 1, 2021 and chose to either vote FOR C-4, or somehow abstain.  SHAME ON THEM.

Going back a bit – to the

Between the June 2021 vote and the December 2021 there was the intervening September 2021 Federal election.  Of the 50 CPC MPs who voted in favour of C-6, 6 of them either retired or were defeated.  Of the 58 CPC MPs who voted AGAINST C-6 in June 2021, 8 either retired or were defeated in the 2021 election.   This means that there were at least 50 CPC MPs who were known and committed OPPONENTS of Bill C-6 who COULD HAVE VOTED against Bill -4, but chose not to do so. If even ONE of those 50 had chosen to say NAY, the process would have continued for many months and there could have been another public debate.

In addition to these 50 MPs who showed themselves to be complete COWARDS on Decemeber 1, 2021, there were 17 new CPC MPs who had not been a part of the June 2021 debate because there were not MPs at the time. Most prominent among them was Dr. Leslyn Lewis. Neither Dr. Lewis nor any of the other 16 MPs chose to stand up against Bill C-4 when they had the chance.

Please note, the following MPs were elected for the first time to the House of Commons AFTER the December 2021 C-4 CPC betrayal:

Jamil Jivani, Arpan Khanna, Brandon Leslie, Shuv Majumdar, Don Stewart.

https://www.ourcommons.ca/procedure/procedure-and-practice-3/ch_12_4-e.html

The same pro C-4, anti-democratic sham occurred a few days later, on December 7, 2021, in the Senate.

In the Senate, a few days later, on December 7, 2021, here was the only speech delivered by a Conservative.

Hon. Leo Housakos (Acting Leader of the Opposition): Honourable senators, Bill C-4 is a bill that has been turned into a controversial political football, unfortunately. I want to rise, colleagues, to point out that in the last Parliament we received the predecessor to Bill C-4, of course, on the eve of the government adjourning for an unnecessary election. The government, on a number of occasions, has said that the LGBTQ2 community is very important to them. So important that, of course, six years went by and, of course, this bill was not initiated until it was tabled in the House, again at quarter to midnight before Parliament rose for the general election.

I want to say this: No community — not the LGBTQ community, not any Canadians — deserves to be treated as a political prop or for political expediency. That’s not the Canadian way.

I can say this: The community has been heard. It was heard by the House of Commons. And, of course, we saw the House of Commons do the right thing a number of days ago and pass this piece of legislation unanimously. They did so because they thought it was in the national interest to do so.

Colleagues, we already have government business before committees in this place. We only have a week left before we traditionally rise for the break. We have Bill C-3 that’s already in pre-study before the Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs. There is a series of private members’ bills, as I mentioned earlier, and motions that many parliamentarians in this chamber want to get to.

I think we have to develop the reflex in this institution that, when something is in the universal interest and public interest, we not create unnecessary duplication and engage in unnecessary debates. Furthermore, I don’t think we should be using any issue as a political prop or make it divisive. We should be, as an institution, working to bring all Canadians together.

Therefore, honourable senators, with the consent of the chamber, I ask for leave that the bill be read a second time. Thank you, colleagues.

Hon. Peter Harder (The Hon. the Acting Speaker): Is leave granted, honourable senators?

Hon. Senators: Agreed.

(Bill read second time.)

Bill to Amend—Third Reading

Hon. Leo Housakos (Acting Leader of the Opposition): Honourable senators, I ask for leave that the bill be deemed read a third time and passed by this chamber.

The Hon. the Acting Speaker: Is leave granted, honourable senators?

Hon. Senators: Agreed.

Some Hon. Senators: Hear, hear!

(Bill deemed read third time and passed.)

This is how Bill C-4 became law over the course of a single week or so in December, 2021 with the active connivance of the EVERY SINGLE CPC MP, including Pierre Poilievre. Including Melissa Lantsman. Including Dr. Leslyn Lewis. This is why there were no public hearings or public debate of any kind on the bill.  And this is how the parents of Canada were betrayed by the Conservative Party of Canada.