Most Canadians Now Support Bill to Punish Anti-Transgender Speech With 2 Years in Prison?

BY STOYAN ZAIMOV , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
September 9, 2016|3:05 pm

The majority of Canadians now support the expansion of the country's non-discrimination laws to include gender identity, according to a new poll released just four months after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party introduced a bill that would punish transgender discrimination with up to two years in prison for violators.

The Angus Reid Institute survey conducted from July 26 to Aug. 2 that questioned a sample size of 1,416 people found that more than eight-in-10 Canadians, or 84 percent of the respondents to the survey, support expanding non-discrimination laws to include gender identity, with only 16 percent opposed.

Over 48 percent of those who responded to the poll said they would describe themselves as "trans allies," 15 percent said they are "trans opponents," while 38 percent said they are "sympathetic but uncertain."

According The Huffington Post and TeleSur, the poll's results mean that the majority of Canadians support the controversial Bill C-16 introduced in May by Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould of Trudeau's Liberal Party.

If passed, the bill would amend the Canadian Criminal Code to expand existing "hate speech" prohibitions to include any public speech or communication that "promotes hatred" on the basis of "gender identity" or "gender expression," and also the Canadian Human Rights Act, to cover transgender people, The Christian Post reported earlier this year.


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