The Speaker ruled last night that the amendments Randall Garrison had hoped to make to C-279, the transgendered rights bill, at committee could be submitted to the House. Mr. Garrison promptly did just that and it seems to be his hope that those amendments will improve the bill’s chances of passing at report stage.

As we have just heard, the package of amendments is quite complex, but it really only does two things. Nine amendments are required because of the complexity of legal drafting, but again, only two things are happening here.

The first is that the bill adds the definition of “gender identity”, which we just heard the Speaker read out in the House. The second is that the term “gender expression” is removed from the bill.

I hope this reassures those members who wanted a somewhat narrower bill, a bill that was somewhat easier to explain in public, and a bill that might rule out some of the more extreme concerns or fears that some people had. I believe that if we approve these amendments, we will have that bill in front of us.