The Canadian government has conducted a poll to see how “comfortable” Canadians would be aroung LGBTQ people, including questions asking whether Canadians would be “comfortable” having a doctor who was gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.
As Global News reported, the mid-summer poll was commissioned by the Privy Council Office; Global News explained that the Privy Council Office “is the federal department that supports the work of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and, at the time of the poll, housed the government’s LGBTQ2 Secretariat. That secretariat has since been transferred to the Department of Canadian Heritage and reports to Waterloo MP Bardish Chagger, tapped to be the minister of diversity and inclusion and youth.”
The poll asked:
How comfortable would you be in each of the following situations?
If you had a next-door neighbor who was gay, lesbian, or bisexual
If you had a next-door neighbor who is a transgender person
If you had a manager or supervisor who is gay, lesbian, or bisexual
If you had a manager or supervisor who was a transgender person
If you had a doctor who is gay, lesbian, or bisexual
If you had a doctor who was a transgender person
As far as having an LGBTQ next-door neighbor, the poll found 91.8% of respondents were “comfortable” if neighbor was gay, lesbian or bisexual and 87.6% felt the same way about a transgender next-door neighbor. 90.5% of respondents were “very comfortable” or “somewhat comfortable” with a gay, lesbian or bisexual boss; 88.2% were “comfortable” with a gay, lesbian or bisexual doctor, while almost 80% were comfortable with a transgender doctor.
Helen Kennedy, executive director of the LGBTQI2S advocacy group Egale Canada, was pleased, asserting, “It’s really good to see the attitude of Canadians changing and being more open and inclusive. We obviously have more work to do. But it’s definitely a step in the right direction.”
PCO spokesperson Stephane Shank stated, “The separate questions regarding gender identity were deliberate given experiences of discrimination faced by many transgender people in Canada. The Government of Canada is committed to better understanding the challenges faced by LGBTQ2 people — that is why the Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth has been given a mandate to consult civil society representatives of LGBTQ2 communities to lay the groundwork for an LGBTQ2 action plan that would guide the work of the federal government on issues important to LGBTQ2 Canadians.”
In mid-December, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a letter to Minister of Justice and Attorney General David Lametti in which Trudeau stated he wanted that ministry “to amend the Criminal Code to ban the practice of conversion therapy and take other steps required with the provinces and territories to end conversion therapy in Canada,” the Huffington Post reported.
In June 2017, the province of Ontario, Canada, passed a law that would enable the government to remove a child from their parent’s home if the families refused to accept their child’s chosen “gender identity” or “gender expression,” the Christian Post reported.
The Christian Post added:
The bill replaces the Child and Family Services Act, or Bill 28, which governs child protection, foster care and adoption services. Bill 28 stated that the parent of a child in care retains the right “to direct the child’s education and religious upbringing.” However, the new law amends it thus: “to direct the child or young person’s education and upbringing, in accordance with the child’s or young person’s creed, community identity and cultural identity.”