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OTTAWA, Ontario, February 4, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The controversial Canadian bill seeking to enshrine protections for “transsexuals” in law has been bumped up and is now set for a final vote in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

Bill C-389, which seeks to add “gender identity” and “gender expression” to the Canada Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code’s hate crimes section, will get a final hour of debate at third reading on Monday, February 7th, with a vote around 6 pm. on Wednesday February 9th.

The bill, sponsored by NDP MP Bill Siksay, won support from a majority of MPs at report stage in December, in a vote of 143-131.  If passed on Wednesday it will move to the Senate.

The final vote was originally expected in March, but Siksay traded this week with NDP MP Olivia Chow.  “With all the election speculation, it’s important to get the trans bill voted on at third reading and have it done just in case there’s an election,” Chow told Xtra. “There might not be, but you never know. Also, Bill is not running again, and I want to make sure that the trans bill becomes law, and that will be part of his legacy.”

The bill has been dubbed a ‘bathroom bill’ by pro-family leaders who warn that it would allow men who say they are women to use women’s washrooms, with a danger of increasing bathroom attacks against women.

They say the bill promotes the notion that gender is fluid and a question of social construct, and will have wide social ramifications for government, businesses, and single-sex groups, who will be forced to accommodate those who feel they were “assigned” the wrong gender at birth.