Conversion therapy ban

Canada is on course to outlaw LGBT ‘‘conversion therapy’’ after lower house legislators unanimously passed a bill that will make it illegal to subject a child or adult to the harmful practice, which is intended to change or suppress a person’s sexuality or gender identity. Conversion therapy has been discredited, and is opposed by health and human rights groups because of its long-term psychological effects. The bill must now be approved by the Senate. A poll in June by the BC research group found that one in 10 LGBT Canadians had experienced conversion therapy, 67 per cent of them in a religious or faith-based setting.