Dear Editor:
RE: Giving up freedoms? (Dec. 16).
It was unsettling reading Henry Brunsveld’s letter regarding all the personal freedoms that are under attack by our government.
I’m not going to waste my time responding to his beliefs regarding the impact of COVID-19 on those who have lost their jobs because frankly reading the same uneducated, reactionary rhetoric every week is getting tiresome and I’m sure there are many who agree.
I’m more concerned with the second half of his letter in which he states the “erosion of our freedoms” has been most recently demonstrated by bill C-4 which has made providing, promoting and/or advertising conversion therapy a criminal offence.
Sadly for Mr. Brunsveld, he has been cursed to live out the rest of his life in the 21st century during a time when members of the LGBTQ+ community are finally being treated as human beings. I’m afraid your opinions are a few decades, perhaps even a century, too late; People are people, regardless of their sexual orientation.
I think its very safe to say that, despite his claims, Mr. Brunsveld did not read bill C-4 and that it is more than likely he gathered his information from Facebook; a habit I had addressed when I responded to him back in the summer regarding global warming misinformation.
The definition of conversion therapy is not “vague and confusing” as Henry states, it is very clearly defined in the “Definition of conversion therapy” section of the bill which took me less than 30 seconds to find online. If there’s any other confusion regarding the definition, one can consult the extensive Wikipedia page on conversion therapy. I read a bit of the wiki page and associated sources while writing this letter, turns out conversion therapy in Canada has already been banned in multiple provinces prior to bill C-4, who knew! It’s crazy how you can actually learn something by spending five minutes reading credible sources.
The passing of this bill was a very interesting point for Mr. Brunsveld to bring up as an example of an “erosion of freedoms.” Do you really think the best example of an attack on personal freedoms is a bill that bans a twisted practice that prevents a marginalized group from freely expressing themselves? Don’t you see the problem here? I really hope it doesn’t need to be spelled out.
It’s disgusting that a gross opinion like Henry’s has been shared and scary knowing there are people who share this opinion that live just a few houses away.
Darby Smyth,
Orton