If it's self-evident to you that such treatments ought to be banned, you should be far angrier at Justin Trudeau than at Andrew Scheer

If we ever doubted the power of headlines, or of the Liberal Party of Canada’s ability to engineer favourable ones, let’s thank Global News for setting us straight. On July 10 the network ran an online story headlined “Andrew Scheer will ‘wait and see’ before taking stance on Liberal plan for conversion therapy ban​.” For no good reason, it’s serving them very well in trying to discredit the Conservative leader as an abortion-banning, Bible-thumping homophobe, and in making Prime Minister Justin Trudeau look good to progressives by comparison.

It was a perfectly executed set play of bottomless cynicism that far too many people fell for, and always fall for, and should stop falling for. Here’s how it worked:

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The day before Global ran its story, CBC reported it had “obtained” a letter the feds sent to the provinces in June asking them to ramp up efforts to outlaw preposterous and potentially dangerous so-called treatments designed to turn homosexual people into heterosexual people. “The provincial, territorial, municipal and federal governments all have roles to play to protect Canadians from the harms associated with this practice,” read the letter, signed by federal Justice Minister David Lametti among others. “The federal government is committed to doing everything within its jurisdiction to combat conversion therapy” — including, supposedly, amendments to the Criminal Code.

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Global took that to Scheer, who had nothing nice to say about conversion therapy: “We will always … stand up for the rights of LGBTQ individuals and protect their rights and … we’re opposed to any type of practice that would forcibly attempt to change someone’s sexual orientation.”

Asked whether he would support a “ban,” Scheer responded precisely as opposition leaders always do in the absence of legislation: “We will wait and see exactly what is being contemplated.” After all, Scheer trenchantly noted, “this is something that this Liberal government is only now recently proposing.”

This entirely reasonable position begat the above-noted headline, and the above-noted headline begat mass outrage — including among commentators who know very well how the game is played. “Why would you allow any ambiguity about where you stand?” Global radio host Charles Adler fumed on Twitter, addressing Scheer. “Why can’t you just say this so-called therapy is peddled by charlatans. It exploits vulnerable people including children. Voluntary or coercive, it’s bogus.”

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Now, if you think it’s self-evident that conversion therapy ought to be illegal in Canada, and you hold anyone who doesn’t share and proselytize that opinion in contempt, then Scheer has given you your answer. But if that’s what you think, you should be just as furious with the Liberals — probably more.

Not only is the “plan for (a) conversion therapy ban” referred to in the Global headline nothing of the sort, bur rather a hitherto private and suddenly, conveniently, public letter that explicitly leaves open the question of federal jurisdiction. But the letter was sent just a few weeks after the Liberals ruled out exactly what the headline would have us believe they are now proposing!

In March, responding to a petition calling for a nationwide ban on conversion therapy, the government noted that while “conversion therapies are immoral, painful and do not reflect the values of our government or those of Canadians,” and while “various medical and psychological associations have identified the practice as unethical … this issue primarily implicates the regulation of the health profession, which is a provincial and territorial responsibility.” It observed that many elements of involuntary conversion therapy, not least kidnapping, are already illegal — in effect distinguishing between forced and voluntary treatment, which is what critics like Adler have so deplored in Scheer’s response.

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With that record, it’s completely ridiculous that the Liberals should be trying to make political hay out of the issue, let alone succeeding. Party apparats retweeting the Global headline with remarks like “I have no words” ought to burst into flame. Yet the only reason we are discussing it is because the Liberals want us to, and they could hardly be more pleased with the result.

They do this all the bloody time. They propose a progressive measure; the Conservatives refuse to support it, either at all or with sufficient enthusiasm; the Liberals cluck their tongues, cast the Conservative leader of the day as a monster and surf the backlash to victory; we in the media lap it all up. And then, safely reinstalled in government, at some point the Liberals might actually get around to enacting the policy that played the MacGuffin in this particular sequel. More often not.

It’s the political equivalent of stealing a toddler’s nose, and it’s alarming how susceptible so many Canadians — including far too many Canadian journalists — are to it. If Scheer intended to draw a policy line between voluntary and involuntary conversion therapy, it would be perfectly defensible: Canada generally lets consenting adults pursue all manner of potentially dangerous quackery. When it comes to involuntary conversion therapy, however, there is no distance between the Liberals and the Conservatives except that the former had four years to do something about it and didn’t bother. Trudeau should be answering for that, not Scheer.