Disappointment and disheartened is how Rainbow Collective of Thunder Bay President Jason Veltri feels to a proposed amendment to a report looking at banning conversion therapy.
The amendment Monday was put forward by McKellar Ward Councillor Brian Hamilton, and would have seen the report not go through the bylaw office.
“We call on him to acknowledge it was a mistake,” stressed Veltri. “To continue to be better for our community, listen and talk to us, and continually improve to be the best ally you can be. We’re still very disappointed in his actions to essentially kill the motion, and have no actionable items from it to work on building a report to provide options to our community to ban conversion therapy.”
Veltri added despite this Rainbow Collective is ready to move forward and ban conversion therapy in the city.
Related: Council Looking At Banning Conversion Therapy
“We’re having capacity issues at both divisions that would be affected by that amendment, mainly bylaw and legal,” said Hamilton. “Both bylaw and legal are working on two very big files for McKellar Ward currently, and these are top priority files that have been waiting, in the case of the nuisance bylaw, for two years now.”
Hamilton still says he stands by his actions.
Hamilton went onto say: “Even if it didn’t get that support, I work with administration and I have to go with my ethics and my heart. My position is not some crazy position, I’m very much taking the position of the city of Ottawa. You know, let’s wait and see what our federal government has to say.”
The amendment received no support from other councillors.
Bill C-6 is currently before the Senate after it passed its second reading in June, with 62 Conservative MPs voting against it.
In Ontario there is an amending Bill to the Health Insurance Act that protects a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity, but only until the age of 18.
