Dear Mr. Falk:

Thank you for your letter of August 11, 1999 regarding the issue of male and female circumcision.

As you indicate in your letter, female genital mutilation is prohibited by the Criminal Code of Canada. Human Rights and Citizenship Commission policy regarding this matter would be redundant, as this practice is already a criminal offence.

I would suggest that if your intention is to have the practice of male circumcision eliminated, you should contact your local Member of Parliament and lobby to have the Criminal Code amended.

I am enclosing an information sheet, which details the protection that, the Human Rights, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Act provides. [No enclosure was included.]

Thank you again for writing to bring this matter to my attention.

Yours truly,
 
[signed]
 
Charlach Mackintosh
Chief Commissioner

Dear Mr. Mackintosh:

Thank you for your letter of September 9, 1999. In your letter you refer to an enclosed information sheet, detailing the protection offered by the Human Rights, Citizenship, and Multiculturalism Act. Unfortunately, this information sheet was missing. Could you please forward me a copy?

You suggest that infant male circumcision could be ended through amendments to the Criminal Code. However, such action may be redundant. Experts have expressed the view that insofar as it is an unnecessary surgical intervention done without patient consent, infant male circumcision already contravenes the Criminal Code.

In any case, I would like to focus more on the human rights aspects of infant male circumcision. As the Chief Commissioner of the Human Rights and Citizenship Commission, you are an acknowledged expert in the field of human rights.

There is no doubt that an infant male comes into the world with a foreskin, and that in the vast majority of cases there is no medical need to remove this part of the anatomy. Does removing part of a child’s genitals without medical need not constitute a human rights violation? I seek your assistance in answering this question.

For your information, I enclose a copy of an article on male circumcision that appeared recently in SIM Special 21, a publication of the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM).

Yours sincerely,
 
[signed]
 
Geoffrey T. Falk

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