OTTAWA -- Conservative MP Ted Falk is questioning the need to protect transgender Canadians from discrimination, arguing there are larger groups in need of human rights protection.

Falk is one of the MPs on the House justice committee, which on Thursday started its study of Bill C-16, which would make it illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender identity and gender expression.

"I'm against discrimination as well. But there's many minority groups with a much larger representation than the trans group [of] people that don't have that [explicit] in legislation today. And why would you offer one group [explicit protection] like you're offering people on the basis of sexual orientation and expression when there's many other minority groups which maybe perhaps also could benefit?" Falk asked Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, mixing up sexual orientation with gender identity.

Wilson-Raybould asked Falk to tell her which other group isn't recognized for protection, and took issue with the idea a group's size should determine its priority in receiving protection.

"Human rights are human rights and we need to ensure, whether it's a small group of people or a large group of people, that we need to provide the necessary protection for those individuals," she said.

Falk didn't immediately respond to a request to clarify to which group he was referring.

Falk later asked Wilson-Raybould to cite studies she had consulted regarding the need for protection for trans Canadians. She referred to one study by its partial name and the committee's chair supplied the full name of the study, which led Falk to complain the Liberal chair was helping the minister with her response.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Falk, but I actually did indicate that I spoke to a study in my second reading speech. I'm answering your question and I would ask for the respect to hear a response from it," Wilson-Raybould said.

"I don't understand where this acrimony is coming from. I was answering your question. I'm sorry that I didn't remember the name of the study off the top of my head."

Bill necessary because of Conservative changes

Wilson-Raybould also said she's reviewing changes made under previous governments to see what the current government will propose amending.

The country's top justice official said the bill to protect transgender Canadians from discrimination and violence is necessary, in part, because of changes the Conservatives made to the Canadian Human Rights Act.

In 2013, the Conservative government voted in favour of a private member's bill to remove Section 13 from the Canadian Human Rights Act over concerns it limited freedom of expression. The measure prohibited hate speech over the phone or internet. That left a gap in the Criminal Code when it came to hate speech, William Pentney, deputy minister at the Department of Justice, told MPs.

"One of the rationales for deleting Section 13 was that the hate provisions in the Criminal Code were the more appropriate way of dealing with extreme speech," Pentney said.

"As it stands now, without Section 13 and without those provisions in the Criminal Code, hate speech promotion or advocacy of hatred and violence towards these groups is not in and of itself a criminal offence."

Pentney said that change to the Human Rights Act left a gap in legislation, so it's important the Criminal Code is clear about exactly which groups are protected from discrimination under the law.

"In this interim period adding gender identity and gender expression to the list of identifiable grounds in the Criminal Code would therefore be even more important," Pentney said.

Wilson-Raybould praised New Democrat MP Randall Garrison for his work advocating for legislation like Bill C-16. Garrison's private member's bill, C-279, made it through the House and into the Senate in 2013, but died when the 2015 election was called.