Last week, with Canada's elections safely behind him, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent a letter to the country's justice secretary outlining many of his legislative priorities.
Among them was one which has some conservative Christian groups up in arms: he intends to ban conversion therapy throughout all of Canada.
Conversion therapy, the christianity-driven practice of attempting to convert homosexual children. Experts believe the process to be "pseudo-scientific and ineffective." A recent study has shown that it doubles the risk of suicide in transgender people who attend.
However, after David Cooke of the anti-abortion Campaign Life Coalition heard of Trudeau's desire to ban conversion therapy, he was scared for the fate of christianity in the country. He told LifeSiteNews:
"Christians could actually become criminalized for just being Christian."
A man who works alongside Cooke, Jack Fonseca, said, without evidence:
"The mainstream media has been flat out lying about conversion therapy [to] to whip up the public to support a ban on this important treatment option that many people want."
A pro-conversion therapy spokesman from the Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA), Andre Schutten, said without evidence that banning conversion therapy might lead to the end of many other Christian practices.
"Charitable status I think is next on the table. Then, perhaps, labelling Christian groups as hate groups. Quite probably attempting to shut down church-run schools (where the church or the school is reported to do 'spiritual prayer'). Also, the aggressive push to stop stable Christian families from being able to help children in need in the foster system. This is already happening, but might become more aggressive. Once again, it's the kids who suffer."
While Christians on the far-right were making many baseless claims, LGBTQ advocates in Canada were rejoicing over the news.
No matter what some Christians are saying, however, it seems Prime Minister Trudeau's mind is made up.
The book from a conversion therapy survivor, Hiding from Myself: A Memoir, is available here.
