From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968–69 (French: Loi de 1968–69 modifiant le droit pénal) was an omnibus bill that introduced major changes to the Canadian Criminal Code. An earlier version was first introduced as Bill C-195 by then-Minister of Justice Pierre Trudeau in the second session of the 27th Canadian Parliament on December 21, 1967. Bill C-195 was modified and re-introduced as Bill C-150 by then-Minister of Justice John Turner in the first session of the 28th Canadian Parliament on December 19, 1968. On May 14, 1969, after heated debates, 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 and criminal procedure of Canada.
The bill partially decriminalised homosexual acts and allowed abortion under certain conditions. A related bill, introduced and passed at the same time, decriminalised the sale of contraceptives. The Act also regulated lotteries, tightened the rules for gun possession, and introduced new offences relating to drinking and driving, harassing phone calls, misleading advertising, and cruelty to animals.
John Turner, Trudeau’s successor as Minister of Justice, described the bill 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“.
Comment: And this is where it should stay – in the nation’s bedrooms – in private. Not in schools, in the streets, and in other public places, including the prime minister’s office.
My Dundas Valley 