The Senate has passed an amendment to the transgender rights bill that would effectively bar transgender people from public washrooms.

The Senate on Wednesday passed Bill C-279, which seeks to add gender identity to the Canadian Human Rights Act, with additional amendments. Transgender advocates say the bill is essential to protect transgender Canadians from discrimination.

But the bill has been stuck in the Senate after passing its second reading in the House almost two years ago.

The bill’s sponsor in the House, New Democrat MP Randall Garrison, said he believes the amendments are a stalling tactic to kick the bill back down to the Commons. With the 2015 election looming, any delay is likely to kill the bill.

“I think the amendments were designed to provide additional delay to defeat the bill,” he said.

Sen. Donald Plett, a Conservative member of the standing committee, proposed during the meeting on Wednesday that the legislation be amended to exclude federal “sex-specific” facilities like crisis facilities, washrooms, changing rooms and correctional facilities.

“This act will no longer allow biological males to identify as female and gain access to vulnerable persons,” he said during the meeting.

Throughout the bill’s debate in the Senate, Plett, who is a former president of the Conservative Party, has repeatedly opposed allowing transgender people to use the bathrooms that corresponds to their gender identity.

“I have no problem with people that identify as women when they’re biological male in housing and employment. They need to be treated absolutely equally,” Plett said during committee on Oct. 2.

“The issue I have is that many elements of society are separated based on sex and not on gender — shelters, change rooms, bathrooms, even sports teams. They are not separated based on internal feelings but on sex, physiological and anatomical differences. Whether or not we like the fact that men and women are biologically different is irrelevant.”

Liberal Sen. Grant Mitchell, the Senate sponsor of the bill, said he’s wary of any changes that lessen the protection of transgender people in public washrooms or other public spaces.

“The very act that is designed to prohibit discrimination is being amended to allow discrimination,” he said during the meeting.

Plett has resisted criticisms that excluding transgender people is discriminatory, and instead has insisted it is a public safety issue.

“Whether or not it is called ‘the bathroom bill,’ it allows for pedophiles to take advantage of legislation that we have in place,” he said Feb. 4, 2014 during a Senate debate, referring to the bill’s nickname.

Plett also proposed two other amendments, which Mitchell did not oppose. One would be to add “sex” to the list of protected identities under the Criminal Code, the other would be to remove the definition of gender identity.

Amanda Ryan, from the Ottawa transgender support organization Gender Mosaic, said any amendment that restricts transgender rights in public restrooms or locker rooms is “totally unpalatable.”

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Gender Mosaic, along with other human rights organizations like Amnesty International, is part of the Trans Equality in Canada coalition. The coalition said there is no way it could support the bill if the amendment is passes.

“We would put all our effort into having that amendment deleted (in the House),” Ryan said.