CP's Most Popular, Trending Stories of 2017

7. Ontario Passes Law Allowing Gov't to Seize Children From Parents Who Oppose Gender Transition 

A new law in Canada's Ontario province sparked controversy, with many conservative families concerned that it would allow the government to take children from families that do not accommodate their gender transition. 

Bill 89, or the Supporting Children, Youth and Families Act of 2017, revised the standards for analyzing the wellbeing of a child so that it "respect[s] their diversity and the principle of inclusion, consistent with the Human Rights Code."

The new law removes reference to a child's religion and requires child protection, foster, adoption service providers and judges to consider the "child's race, ancestry, place of origin, color, ethnic origin, citizenship, family diversity, disability, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression."

Minister of Child and Family Services Michael Coteau, who introduced the bill, said, "I would consider that a form of abuse, when a child identifies one way and a caregiver is saying no, you need to do this differently. If it's abuse, and if it's within the definition, a child can be removed from that environment and placed into protection where the abuse stops."

Later, Coteau clarified to BuzzFeed News that the new law "does not give the government power to seize children from families based on a parent that disagrees with a child's gender identification." 

There has to be a "pattern of abuse, neglect or serious emotional harm" for a child to be removed from a home, a spokesperson for the Ontario child advocate's office said.