Lookout Everyone. Stockwell Day Has an Axe and He Knows How to Use IT!

Jason Kenney might be the most dangerous man in Harper's arsenal, but if you're looking for the most sadistic SOB to ever roam free, that prize would go to Stockwell Day.

A man with a high school education and a mean streak, rivalled only by Stephen Harper's, has just been named head of the treasury. Now stand back and watch the victims as this man is let loose. Just don't get in his way.

If you think what happened to KAIROS and the Canadian Council for Learning was horrendous, that's just the tip of the iceberg. And he won't blink!

Stockwell Day may be criminally insane.
When he was teaching at Bentley Bible Schools, in one reading lesson, junior high students were asked: "The Jewish leaders were children of their father, the devil - true or false?" There is no right answer because the question itself says it all.

In his social studies classes he warned students that democratic governments "represent the ultimate deification of man, which is the very essence of humanism and totally alien to God's word." Science lessons were pure creationism, and he claimed that all evolutionists were guilty of "depravity and sinfulness."

In 2000 author and journalist Gordon Laird, interviewed the pastor who took over when Stockwell Day left Bently:

The current pastor at Day's church, doesn't spare much sympathy for the former Alberta treasurer. Gregory Rathjen says that when Day left in 1985 to pursue a political career, the assistant pastor left behind a community that was deeply divided. Rathjen arrived in 1986 to a disaster: a demoralized congregation had shrunk almost by half, allegations of fraud were afoot, and the church owed $12,000 to creditors. Factions were warring.

It was a dark time in Bentley. "The church leaders had risen to unquestioned authority," explains Rathjen. "They had moved away from the congregational government with the assumption "You're here to serve and not ask questions." Rathjen reports that, before its collapse, the former Bentley Christian Centre was a renegade Pentecostal church that instituted a divine mandate to replace grassroots congregational representation.

Throughout this period, Stockwell Day was assistant pastor and school administrator. "They changed their by-laws so that the people would have no say - leaders to be appointed by other leader, as determined by scripture," explains Rathjen. "It was a haughty, arrogant, pride-filled success story that led to disaster."

Fuelled by American-style revivalism, the church emphasized radical gospel practices - such as speaking-in-tongues - that whipped worshippers into a frenzy. "They have emotional experiences and then try to build a doctrine around it," explains Rathjen. The intensity of the church and constant stream of visiting American pastors gave Bentley an international profile within fundamentalist circles. But the church eventually succumbed to its own extremes. "I would say that it was as close to a cult as you can get," says pastor Rathjen. "They were still holding on to the Christian teaching - but with manipulation and control.

Very few people knew. It's not acceptable," says the pastor who outright rejected Stockwell Day's old ACE curriculum after a trip down to ACE's Texas headquarters. And Stockwell Day? "Stock wrote me a letter saying he had nothing to do with it but he lived off of it and enjoyed it," says Rathjen, frankly.

"That's what this church was - a bully. They bullied people and won."

He also hung out with some of the most notorious neo-Nazis of the day, including Doug Christie (a close personal friend of his father's) and James Keegstra.

His views were pretty narrow:

From early on, Stockwell Day had big aspirations. "As a Christian, I acknowledge the lordship of Jesus Christ over the whole universe," explained Day in 1998, in response to a gaffe made against single-parent families. "I believe that the Bible is the infallible word of God and every word in it, cover to cover, is true." With this literalist belief in the Bible comes some unusual ideas that rarely gather press.

As one educator made notes in an informal presentation Day made in Red Deer during 1997, the Treasurer claimed the following things to be true: 1) The earth is 6,000 years old; 2) Adam and Eve were real people; 3) Humans and dinosaurs co-existed; and 4) There's as much evidence for creation as evolution. The educator declines to be named because he believes Day to be vengeful and worries that a public comment could affect local school funding.

Murray Dobbin is also sounding the alarms, as we can expect science funding to completely disappear, and funding to any religious groups who don't conform to his radical fundamentalism will be history. Also, science, humanitarian organizations, social programs will all be victims of his wrath.

I'm so damned angry with people who didn't vote last election. They did this. Unleashed an absolute horror on this country.

Dinosaur man gets his hands on the money
January 19, 2010
by Murray Dobbin

Someone could have made a bundle five years ago betting that Stockwell Day, alias “Doris”, and a man who believes that humans and dinosaurs cavorted together way back when, would be where he is today.

Harper’s cabinet shuffle has elevated Day to the position of President of the Treasury Board. While the Finance Minister is the more prominent economic minister, the head of Treasury Board is the guy that actually wields the knife when it comes to serious budget slashing. And as I warned last week, Harper is set to start hacking away at the country’s core nature in the March budget. Of course, Harper will make all the major decisions but this move is a clear message to his core Christian fundamentalist constituency. Harper’s going to let one of their own heroes symbolically wield the knife ....