Kitchener city council denounces conversion therapy

Robert Adams, 53, was a young student at an Ontario religious college when his secret got out on campus: that he was struggling with his sexual identity. 

What followed were years of conversion therapy — a discredited practice of trying to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. In Adams' case, the therapies ranged from regular "counselling" sessions to retreats involving periods of isolation, sleep deprivation and fasting. 

"There were a lot of accusations that I must have done something very depraved as a child to have these feelings, there were a lot of suggestions that my parents didn't do an appropriate job parenting," said Adams, of Kitchener, Ont., who is now out as a gay man. 

"A lot of pressure to … self-humiliate in front of the group, talking about the struggle with everything you think and feel and so forth surrounding your sexuality."

Adams wants to make sure no one else has to go through the same thing. 

That position was echoed by Kitchener city council Monday night, when councillors unanimously passed a motion to denounce the practice and to urge the federal government to ban conversion therapy altogether. 

Ontario prohibited conversion therapy for minors in 2015, but Ward 9 Coun. Debbie Chapman, who brought the Kitchener council motion forward, says the practice is still happening. 

"If [that legislation] had solved the problem, then there'd be no need for further action, but clearly it's still an issue," Chapman told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo ahead of Monday's meeting. 

Mark Hartburg, who heads the Waterloo region chapter of No Conversion Canada, agrees. Hartburg said he often hears from survivors of conversion therapy, and is aware of local religious organizations that still encourage queer members to seek "treatment" for their sexual orientation or gender identity. 

"I know people that have been pushed into therapy, even drug therapy, because their families don't want them to be gay or trans," Hartburg said. 

Hartburg and Chapman both hope the Kitchener council motion will encourage the federal Liberal government to follow through on its commitment to introduce a new, tougher version of an earlier bill to ban conversion therapy at a federal level. 

The Liberals promised to reintroduce a version of the bill within the first 100 days of a new mandate, which began when cabinet ministers were sworn in last month.

Hartburg also hopes to see the City of Kitchener, and other nearby municipalities, pass bylaws that prohibit conversion therapy at a local level. 

While Chapman's motion didn't directly propose such a bylaw, it did direct city staff to research "further legislative and/or policy actions which may be contemplated by the municipality to further prohibit conversion practices."