Bill Siksay reflects on the end of the 40th parliament
March 25, 2011 By admin
http://www.ottawaupdate.com/bill-siksay-reflects-on-the-end-of-the-40th-parliament/As our final roundup of the 40th parliament continues, I spoke to Bill Siksay about his final days in Parliament yesterday after Question Period.
Q: In terms of unfinished business, I guess C-389 would be your biggest one?
A: That's a pretty key one, and it's been a long project. It would have been nice to see it make it all the way through both Houses, but unfortunately it looks like that's not going to happen. But it's still significant that it passed in the House. That has real value to people in the community who know there are a majority of elected representatives who appreciate their circumstances and agree that explicit protection under human rights law is necessary for transsexual and transgendered Canadians. Hopefully that will be of use in other places; hopefully it'll be of use in commissions and tribunals and maybe in the court system, that the House of Commons did support that change. I'm hopeful that in a new Parliament, maybe with a different government, a government will sponsor that change and get it through both places. I have to say as a New Democrat, it does raise feelings for me about an unelected House of Parliament having the ability to stop the process. It didn't get through there, but it should be law because it was passed by the elected representatives of the Canadian people.
