Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69
Encyclopedia
The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69 (S.C.
1968-69, c. 38) was an omnibus bill
that introduced major changes to the Criminal Code of Canada
. It was introduced as Bill C-150 by then Minister of Justice
Pierre Trudeau
in the second session of the 27th Canadian Parliament
on December 21, 1967. On May 14, 1969, after heated debates, Omnibus Bill C-150 passed third reading in the House of Commons
by a vote of 149 (119 Liberals
, 18 New Democrats
, 12 Progressive Conservatives
) to 55 (43 Progressive Conservatives
, 11 Créditistes
, 1 Liberal
). The bill was a massive 126-page, 120-clause amendment to the criminal law of Canada.
It proposed, among other things, to decriminalize homosexuality
, allow abortion
and contraception
, and regulate lotteries, gun possession, drinking and driving offences, harassing phone calls, misleading advertising and cruelty to animals
. The bill was described by John Turner
, Trudeau's successor as Minister of Justice, as "the most important and all-embracing reform of the criminal and penal law ever attempted at one time in this country". Trudeau famously defended the bill by telling reporters that "there's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation", adding that "what's done in private between adults doesn't concern the Criminal Code". The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69 is known in French
under the title Loi de 1968-69 modifiant le droit pénal.
, which decriminalized homosexual acts in England
and Wales
. Another important factor was the prosecution of George Klippert
and the dismissal of his appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada
. This led to intense media and political interest, which influenced Trudeau's decision to include amendments to the Criminal Code concerning homosexuality in Bill C-150. Although the bill contained many other controversial proposals, it was the decriminalization of homosexuality that raised the most objections from Members of Parliament.
E
Opposition to homosexuality was so intense that the Catholic Créditistes of Quebec
held up debate for three weeks. The Créditistes suggested that communism
, socialism
and atheism
were behind the proposed changes relating to homosexuality and abortion; they demanded that a public referendum
be held on these issues and staged a filibuster
of Parliament over the amendments concerning abortion. An anti-gay smear campaign
was directed against Pierre Trudeau (who was labelled a "beast of Sodom
") and the Liberal Party
in the weeks leading up to the Canadian federal election of 1968.
Among the bill's most adamant opponents were the far-right Edmund Burke Society
and the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada
. On the other end of the spectrum, the Canadian Bar Association
called for a further relaxation of gross indecency
law, and criticized the bill's unequal age of consent (21 for anal sex, as opposed to the provincial age limits of 16 and 18 for vaginal sex). A study conducted by a research group at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry
also complained about the vague definition of "gross indecency" in Bill C-150 and its use to prosecute widely differing offences. The bill eventually kept the homosexual age of consent at 21; although it was later lowered to 18, Canada's age of consent for anal sex still remains higher than the age of consent for vaginal sex (16).
and therapeutic abortion
under certain conditions. Both were previously illegal in Canada, which was still largely influenced by the Catholic Church's moral positions on these issues. Bill C-150 made it legal for women to get an abortion if a committee of three doctors felt the pregnancy endangered the mental, emotional or physical well-being of the mother. In a 1999 speech celebrating the 30th anniversary of the bill's passage, Senator Lucie Pépin
argued that the new freedom provided by Bill C-150 "proved to be a stepping stone for many other freedoms and options that have altered women's place in [Canadian] society — self-esteem, education, jobs, a voice and empowerment". Abortion legislation in Canada was further liberalized in 1988 with the R. v. Morgentaler
ruling, which left Canada without any laws regulating abortion other than the Canada Health Act, which governs safe medical procedures in general, and provincial regulations regarding medical procures, and health insurance regulations.
the opportunity to use lotteries to fund worthwhile activities (e.g. 1976 Montreal Olympics).
were also affected by Bill C-150, which for the first time made it illegal to provide firearms to persons of "unsound mind" or criminals under prohibition
orders. The law also expanded the definition of a "firearm", which, prior to 1969, included only handguns and automatic firearms, and introduced non-restricted, restricted, and prohibited firearm categories.
(BAC) in excess of 80 mg/100 ml of blood. Refusal of a police officer's demand to provide a breath sample was made an offence at the same time and both began as summary conviction offences, with a mandatory minimum C$50 fine.
Statutes of Canada
The Statutes of Canada consists of the compilation of all the federal laws of Canada passed by the Parliament of Canada since Confederation in 1867. The Revised Statutes of Canada is the consolidation of the Statutes of Canada incorporating amendments and Acts that have been added since the last...
1968-69, c. 38) was an omnibus bill
Omnibus bill
An omnibus bill is a proposed law that covers a number of diverse or unrelated topics. Omnibus is derived from Latin and means "for everything"...
that introduced major changes to the Criminal Code of Canada
Criminal Code of Canada
The Criminal Code or Code criminel is a law that codifies most criminal offences and procedures in Canada. Its official long title is "An Act respecting the criminal law"...
. It was introduced as Bill C-150 by then Minister of Justice
Minister of Justice (Canada)
The Minister of Justice is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for the Department of Justice and is also Attorney General of Canada .This cabinet position is usually reserved for someone with formal legal training...
Pierre Trudeau
Pierre Trudeau
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, , usually known as Pierre Trudeau or Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968 to June 4, 1979, and again from March 3, 1980 to June 30, 1984.Trudeau began his political career campaigning for socialist ideals,...
in the second session of the 27th Canadian Parliament
27th Canadian Parliament
The 27th Canadian Parliament was in session from January 18, 1966 until April 23, 1968. The membership was set by the 1965 federal election on November 8, 1965, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections until it was dissolved prior to the 1968 election.It was controlled by a...
on December 21, 1967. On May 14, 1969, after heated debates, Omnibus Bill C-150 passed third reading in the House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
by a vote of 149 (119 Liberals
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
, 18 New Democrats
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...
, 12 Progressive Conservatives
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
) to 55 (43 Progressive Conservatives
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
, 11 Créditistes
Ralliement créditiste
Historically in Quebec, Canada, there was a number of political parties that were part of the Canadian social credit movement. There were various parties at different times with different names at the provincial level, all broadly following the social credit philosophy; at various times they had...
, 1 Liberal
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
). The bill was a massive 126-page, 120-clause amendment to the criminal law of Canada.
It proposed, among other things, to decriminalize homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
, allow abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
and contraception
Contraception
Contraception is the prevention of the fusion of gametes during or after sexual activity. The term contraception is a contraction of contra, which means against, and the word conception, meaning fertilization...
, and regulate lotteries, gun possession, drinking and driving offences, harassing phone calls, misleading advertising and cruelty to animals
Cruelty to animals
Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse or animal neglect, is the infliction of suffering or harm upon non-human animals, for purposes other than self-defense. More narrowly, it can be harm for specific gain, such as killing animals for food or for their fur, although opinions differ with...
. The bill was described by John Turner
John Turner
John Napier Wyndham Turner, PC, CC, QC is an English Canadian lawyer and retired politician, who served as the 17th Prime Minister of Canada from June 30 to September 17, 1984....
, Trudeau's successor as Minister of Justice, as "the most important and all-embracing reform of the criminal and penal law ever attempted at one time in this country". Trudeau famously defended the bill by telling reporters that "there's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation", adding that "what's done in private between adults doesn't concern the Criminal Code". The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69 is known in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
under the title Loi de 1968-69 modifiant le droit pénal.
Homosexuality
The climate for legislative change in Canada with regard to homosexuality was influenced in the late 1960s by the British Parliament's adoption of the Sexual Offences Act 1967Sexual Offences Act 1967
The Sexual Offences Act 1967 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom . It decriminalised homosexual acts in private between two men, both of whom had to have attained the age of 21. The Act applied only to England and Wales and did not cover the Merchant Navy or the Armed Forces...
, which decriminalized homosexual acts in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. Another important factor was the prosecution of George Klippert
George Klippert
Everett George Klippert was the last person in Canada to be arrested, charged, prosecuted, convicted, and imprisoned for homosexuality before its legalization in 1969; the reforms which led to Canadian legalization of homosexuality were a direct result of the Klippert case.Klippert, a mechanic in...
and the dismissal of his appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
. This led to intense media and political interest, which influenced Trudeau's decision to include amendments to the Criminal Code concerning homosexuality in Bill C-150. Although the bill contained many other controversial proposals, it was the decriminalization of homosexuality that raised the most objections from Members of Parliament.
E
Opposition to homosexuality was so intense that the Catholic Créditistes of Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
held up debate for three weeks. The Créditistes suggested that communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
and atheism
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
were behind the proposed changes relating to homosexuality and abortion; they demanded that a public referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
be held on these issues and staged a filibuster
Filibuster
A filibuster is a type of parliamentary procedure. Specifically, it is the right of an individual to extend debate, allowing a lone member to delay or entirely prevent a vote on a given proposal...
of Parliament over the amendments concerning abortion. An anti-gay smear campaign
Smear campaign
A smear campaign, smear tactic or simply smear is a metaphor for activity that can harm an individual or group's reputation by conflation with a stigmatized group...
was directed against Pierre Trudeau (who was labelled a "beast of Sodom
Sodom and Gomorrah
Sodom and Gomorrah were cities mentioned in the Book of Genesis and later expounded upon throughout the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and Deuterocanonical sources....
") and the Liberal Party
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
in the weeks leading up to the Canadian federal election of 1968.
Among the bill's most adamant opponents were the far-right Edmund Burke Society
Edmund Burke Society
The Edmund Burke Society was a far right organization formed by Paul Fromm, Don Andrews, Al Overfield and Leigh Smith in 1967 at the University of Toronto. The group was anti-communist and promoted conservative values...
and the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada
Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada
The Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada, often known simply as The Fellowship is a conservative Baptist denomination in Canada. It was formed in 1953 as a result of a merger of the Union of Regular Baptist Churches of Ontario and Quebec and the Fellowship of Independent Baptist...
. On the other end of the spectrum, the Canadian Bar Association
Canadian Bar Association
The Canadian Bar Association represents over 37,000 lawyers, judges, notaries, law teachers, and law students from across Canada.-History:The Association's first Annual Meeting was held in Montreal in 1896. However, the CBA has been in continuous existence in its present form since 1914...
called for a further relaxation of gross indecency
Gross indecency
Gross indecency is a UK and Canadian legal term of art which was used in the definition of the following criminal offences:*Gross indecency between men, contrary to section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 and later contrary to section 13 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956.*Indecency with a...
law, and criticized the bill's unequal age of consent (21 for anal sex, as opposed to the provincial age limits of 16 and 18 for vaginal sex). A study conducted by a research group at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry
Clarke Institute of Psychiatry
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health is a psychiatric hospital in Toronto, Ontario. Much of their work focuses on forensic psychology, sex addiction, drug addiction, and research designed to shape public policy....
also complained about the vague definition of "gross indecency" in Bill C-150 and its use to prosecute widely differing offences. The bill eventually kept the homosexual age of consent at 21; although it was later lowered to 18, Canada's age of consent for anal sex still remains higher than the age of consent for vaginal sex (16).
Abortion and contraception
Bill C-150 legalized contraceptionContraception
Contraception is the prevention of the fusion of gametes during or after sexual activity. The term contraception is a contraction of contra, which means against, and the word conception, meaning fertilization...
and therapeutic abortion
Therapeutic abortion
Therapeutic abortion is abortion induced following a medical diagnosis. Many therapeutic abortions are performed today, with some degree of controversy regarding the quality of life, if there is a genetic condition in the embryo or fetus which is incompatible with life Therapeutic abortion is...
under certain conditions. Both were previously illegal in Canada, which was still largely influenced by the Catholic Church's moral positions on these issues. Bill C-150 made it legal for women to get an abortion if a committee of three doctors felt the pregnancy endangered the mental, emotional or physical well-being of the mother. In a 1999 speech celebrating the 30th anniversary of the bill's passage, Senator Lucie Pépin
Lucie Pépin
Lucie Pépin is a former Canadian politician, who served in both the House of Commons and Senate.-Career:A Registered Nurse by profession, in the 1960s, Pépin served as head nurse in the gynecology department and then at the family planning clinic of Notre-Dame Hospital in Montreal, and was...
argued that the new freedom provided by Bill C-150 "proved to be a stepping stone for many other freedoms and options that have altered women's place in [Canadian] society — self-esteem, education, jobs, a voice and empowerment". Abortion legislation in Canada was further liberalized in 1988 with the R. v. Morgentaler
R. v. Morgentaler
R. v. Morgentaler [1988] 1 S.C.R. 30 was a decision of the Supreme Court of Canada wherein the abortion provision in the Criminal Code of Canada was found to be unconstitutional, as it violated a woman's right under section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to "security of person"...
ruling, which left Canada without any laws regulating abortion other than the Canada Health Act, which governs safe medical procedures in general, and provincial regulations regarding medical procures, and health insurance regulations.
Gambling
Prior to Bill C-150, Criminal Code exemptions that permitted small scale gambling on behalf of charities were introduced. Between 1892 and 1969, Canadians could wager on horse races or gamble at summer fair midways. These charitable experiences with gambling eventually led Bill C-150 to give the provincial and federal governmentsCanadian federalism
Canada is a federation with two distinct jurisdictions of political authority: the country-wide federal government and the ten regionally-based provincial governments. It also has three territorial governments in the far north, though these are subject to the federal government...
the opportunity to use lotteries to fund worthwhile activities (e.g. 1976 Montreal Olympics).
Gun control
Gun politics in CanadaGun politics in Canada
Gun politics in Canada is largely polarized between two groups with opposing views. One group includes those who object to the registration of personal firearms...
were also affected by Bill C-150, which for the first time made it illegal to provide firearms to persons of "unsound mind" or criminals under prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
orders. The law also expanded the definition of a "firearm", which, prior to 1969, included only handguns and automatic firearms, and introduced non-restricted, restricted, and prohibited firearm categories.
Driving under the influence
Bill C-150 also addressed the issue of drunk driving. The bill made it a "per se" offence to drive with a blood alcohol contentBlood alcohol content
Blood alcohol content , also called blood alcohol concentration, blood ethanol concentration, or blood alcohol level is most commonly used as a metric of alcohol intoxication for legal or medical purposes....
(BAC) in excess of 80 mg/100 ml of blood. Refusal of a police officer's demand to provide a breath sample was made an offence at the same time and both began as summary conviction offences, with a mandatory minimum C$50 fine.