(Ottawa) The Conservatives prefer to “attack children” instead of managing the cost of living crisis that many Canadians are facing, said New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh on Monday. He was reacting to a non-binding resolution adopted over the weekend at the Conservative Party of Canada convention to regulate gender transition for those under 18.
It’s “a very slippery and very dangerous slope” when politicians start deciding what treatments are acceptable or not, he said. Decisions surrounding gender transition among minors must instead be based on science and “best practices to ensure the safety of our children.”
“As a politician, I don’t know what the right medical intervention is for children,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. I would leave it to medical professionals. »
Politicians instead approach this issue “with blind ideology,” he denounced.
His comments echo those published the day before by the Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and People with Disabilities, Kamal Khera. “Poilievre prefers to focus on American-style culture war politics rather than the real issues facing Canadians,” she wrote on the social network X.
The Bloc Québécois did not want to comment on the resolution, believing that it is an internal debate specific to the Conservatives.
The delegates who gathered in Quebec on Friday and Saturday at the convention of the Conservative Party of Canada adopted with a strong majority of 69.2% a resolution to prohibit medical or surgical interventions “that change the lives of minors to treat confusion or gender dysphoria.
However, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre recalled last Wednesday that “the leaders are never bound by the resolutions of a congress, but that we take them into consideration”.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESS
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre
“I respect parents and their right to raise their children,” he also reiterated regarding policy 713 on gender identity in New Brunswick. Under this policy, teachers cannot use a student’s chosen first and pronoun without first obtaining parental consent.
“As we currently face a cost of living crisis, when people cannot afford groceries, when they cannot find affordable housing, the Conservative Party is more interested in toilets where people go,” he asked, referring to another resolution adopted by the conservatives during the convention. Delegates voted to make certain spaces, such as restrooms and locker rooms, reserved for women and exclude transgender people.
“They want to attack children and the care they receive rather than deal with the real crisis that awaits us? »
In his speech to his activists on Friday, Pierre Poilievre attacked the rise in the cost of living that he attributes to Justin Trudeau’s government. He is banking on a return to balanced budgets and promises that he would pass a law requiring one dollar of savings to be found for each dollar of new spending.
Jagmeet Singh was in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Monday morning to meet students affected by the housing crisis. The cost of a 3 1/2 there is more than $1,800 a month, according to the NDP, and the vacancy rate is just 1 percent.
Jagmeet Singh suggests reserving the granting of study permits to academic institutions that prove they have affordable housing. He also advocates the construction of a greater number of units, the cost of which would be shared between the federal government, the provinces and the territories. It also suggests a financial incentive for transforming empty offices into lower-cost housing.
With Joël-Denis Bellavance
Calling all: your questions for our experts
Politics buffs, do you smell the scent of the resumption of hostilities in our two capitals?
With the resumption of parliamentary work in the National Assembly and the House of Commons, our Carnet des collines section is also back in service every Saturday.
Do you have questions about the government’s directions, the opposition’s strategies, the bills under study? Ask your questions to our experts!
