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In an almost invisible process, Kelowna city council refused a request to ban conversion therapy in the city.

The so-called therapy is used to try to convert people who are homosexual back to heterosexuality and mostly targets young people. But councillors decided on their own, behind closed doors, they wouldn't be taking it on.

“The overarching theme here is that I agree and city council agrees that it’s wrong,” Mayor Colin Basran told iNFOnews.ca. “It should be banned. It’s not right at all that it’s taking place. We think it should be banned and we think the federal government is the best avenue to do that.”

The federal government introduced a law criminalizing conversion therapy last spring but it died before getting through the Senate because of the election this fall.

Wilbur Turner, who leads the Kelowna Task Force to Ban Conversion Therapy, had asked council for the ban. Basran sent a letter earlier this month saying he would lobby the federal government.

Then, at an in camera council meeting on Oct. 18, the issue was discussed. The only mention that it had even happened was in the minutes of that meeting that were posted online, Oct. 21.

All the minutes said was that Coun. Luke Stack referred to correspondence on conversion therapy and Basran “confirmed the city’s inability to enforce such a ban.”

That, however, may be far from the truth.

Across the country, 18 cities have banned the practice but Vancouver is the only one in B.C. that has done so.

In 2019 Dr. Kristopher Wells, Canada Research Chair for the Public Understanding of Sexual and Gender Minority Youth and a professor at MacEwan University in Edmonton, wrote a guide for municipalities wanting to ban conversion therapy.

“There are many different ways that one can go about approaching this,” Wells told iNFOnews.ca. “In a lot of municipalities, what we see is them amending their business licencing or land use bylaws, for example. Those are the creative ways and those, clearly, are within municipal jurisdiction.

“The best approach is to have legislation at the federal, provincial and municipal levels because each has different powers and responsibilities.”

He pointed out that civic administrators typically will find the answers that provide the least amount of work for themselves.

“They (councils) have got to push back and simply say: “Why are you telling us that when other municipalities are doing it?’” he said. “It does a disservice to the LGBTQ community and it amounts to passing the buck, which is not acceptable.”

Kelowna city clerk Stephen Fleming argued that Vancouver has a separate charter so its powers are different from other B.C. cities covered by the Community Charter.

“The Charter will speak to certain specific types of businesses or land uses that you can regulate,” he said. “The Charter will identify certain types of businesses, pawn shops for example, that municipalities have specific authority over but those are named in the legislation that you have these provisions for. There’s a general provision about regulating business but in terms of banning it or forbidding a particular type of business, it’s much more complicated than that.”

In March, Nanaimo city council took a very different approach to a similar request from Nanaimo Pride to ban conversion therapy.

In an open meeting, they voted unanimously to direct staff to investigate the city’s ability to ban conversion therapy. That report is expected to go to council before the end of the year.

"From the work I have done so far, it is not within local government’s jurisdiction to do such a ban and the report going to our council may be similar to that of Kelowna’s," Natalie Sponaugle, legislative communications clerk for the City of Nanaimo, said in an email.

Turner thinks an open discussion is needed at the Kelowna city council level.

“This is absolutely something that should be talked about,” he said.

He’s launched an online petition campaign targeted narrowly at Kelowna residents calling on city council to ban conversion therapy.

He’s got 690 signature in the past two weeks and will be taking it to a Kelowna Task Force to Ban Conversion Therapy booth at Kelowna Pride events starting next week with the goal of collecting 1,000 signatures before presenting the petition to council.

Today, he received an email from Basran saying, in part, “municipalities do not possess the legal authority to enforce criminal law,” and that they will lobby the federal government.

“That (enforcing criminal law) is not what we’re asking them to do,” Turner said. “It’s really disappointing because we need all the tools we can get, especially for young people being exposed to this. There’s no mechanism in place locally where they can get support. No mechanism where it can be reported locally.”

Educating the public on the harms of conversion therapy is one of his key goals.

Coun. Loyal Wooldridge, who is gay, fully supports the city’s approach.

“I personally identify as a gay man but I truly believe, where we can have the best effect with it is at the federal level and I continue to advocate for that,” he said. “I had an extensive call with Tracy Gray after her vote back in June so that is where, personally, my efforts continue to be focused.”

Gray, the Conservative MP for Kelowna-Lake Country, voted against the bill to ban conversion therapy and was, herself, banned from Kelowna Pride events as a result.

READ MORE: MP Tracy Gray lashes out after being banned from Kelowna Pride events

“It’s great to have things like Pride flags raised and rainbow crosswalks painted but those are largely symbolic gestures,” Webb said. “Something like passing this bylaw gets at the root of the systemic discrimination that still exists against many LGBTQ2 people.”

One study he cited reported that 50,000 people in Canada had been exposed to conversion therapy.

Turner pointed out that study focused only on gay men and that number would be much higher if women were counted.

He also said that another survey found that 25 per cent of Canadians believed that conversion therapy works.

He has talked to Kelowna residents who have been targeted by conversion therapists but they are reluctant to speak out about who is doing this.

“For the most part, the stories that I’m hearing is that this is something that is done mostly by faith-based groups, usually through some type of counselling one-on-one with a clergy member or prayer groups and those kind of things,” Turner said. “I know one man who was exposed to this, to a very severe degree, through his church in Kelowna and he was actually trying it because he thought it would help. It just caused so much harm to him and his family. It’s definitely happening. It’s called so many different things. They’re not typically calling it conversion therapy but it falls under the definition.”

Kelowna council's refusal to ban conversion therapy may also have economic implications, Webb warned.

"It’s very disappointing to see Kelowna, which is striving to be a welcoming and inclusive community and heart of tourism in Canada, not to take action." he said. "LGBTQ people come to Kelowna to spend their dollars. I’ve been to Kelowna many times and actions like this make you think twice about whether you should return if they’re not willing to actively support the LGBTQ community. There are many places where they can spend their money and maybe not Kelowna."

READ MORE: Kelowna's Tracy Gray only MP in region to vote against ban on conversion therapy

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