Remember the Lil Rascals and their He-man Women Haters Club? Well they grew up and helped to launch the conservative movement.
In the United States, in the 21st century, GOP presidential hopefuls, are now arguing over the legality of contraception. Can you imagine?
Contraception?
It's being labelled a womens issue, but how many men out there support a ban on contraception?
If this was a decade ago, living in Canada, I would laugh and laugh and laugh. But given that our own government has the same regressive ideas, I have little to laugh about.
In fact, in the United States, people are fighting back against the Religious Right. Planned Parenthood is standing their ground, while in Canada, it is being knocked to the ground.
Prop 8, the California law banning same-sex marriage has been overturned as unconstitutional, and other states are slowly granting the right to equal marriage. In Canada Harper is playing games through the back door.
He has been working hard and often secretly, to roll back gains made by Canadians in terms of social issues. And while claiming not to have plans to reopen several debates, he is doing just that. He hates to lose and he has lost on so many fronts.
Now another pawn has made a move forward, in an attempt to move us backward. Stephen Woodworth, Conservative MP for Waterloo. We've seen them all from Brad Trost to Rod Bruinooge, pretending to be acting alone, when in fact they can't even choose their own tie in the morning, without risking the ire of the exalted one, if it clashes with the planned mood of the day. (Thank you Dean Del Mastro for that bit of info)
He wants to declare that a fetus is a human being. If this is passed then I hope that all mothers and pregnant women take the government to court, demanding retroactive benefits to cover the time from the date of conception to birth. Nine extra months of universal child benefit and child tax credit.
And since it's womens reproductive rights that are being tampered with, why not extend the courtesy to men? All males, once they reach the age of 18, must have a sperm test. Anyone with a low sperm count would then have the letter "L" stamped on their forehead.
If women can get an extra nine months of benefits, why should they risk hooking up with a loser?
Santorum wants to wage war on Iran, killing innocent children, while claiming to be "pro-life". He opposes gay rights, equal marriage and wants to legalize peeping into the bedrooms of Americans, but only by government.
And how exactly is he any different from our current government?
If you think this will stop at abortion, think again, and again and again.
They will not stop until we are a nation of gun totin', women hating, gay bashing, war mongering, narrow-minded Neanderthals.
They go after the competence of the "newly elected baby-faced NDP", especially those like Ruth Ellen Brosseau who did little to win their seats.
"It would be almost comical, if it weren't for the fact MPs are paid $157,000 a year to serve ridings of 100,000 people and deal with issues like helping constituents to find employment or bring family members into Canada, or decide whether Canada should send soldiers to Afghanistan,"
I guess the Herald forgets 1993, when a new crop of Reform MPs hit the Hill.
People like Darrel Stinson who challenged political opponents to fistfights, called the women of the NDP fem-Nazis and wanted us to tap into NAFTA, and send all our prisoners to Mexico.
And what does Brad Trost or Maurice Vellacott do to earn their pay? Jason Kenney, the worst immigration minister in history. Does he earn more than $200,000 a year?
Or Cheryl Gallant who reads passport applications and Diane Finley who loses them?
Maybe it's not right that these people are moving into high paying jobs when they didn't properly interview, but this is a democracy, so when people like Stinson and Brosseau get elected, their constituents believe they are worth it.
With Harper lying through Dimitri Soudas' teeth, about not reopening the abortion issue, Bev Oda has confirmed that if Canadians are stupid enough to re-elect her government, she will restore funding if they promise to take away a woman's right to choose.
How noble.
International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda issued a statement Thursday suggesting that if Planned Parenthood applied for funding and did not request cash for abortions, it would receive money. “If Planned Parenthood submits an application that falls within the government’s parameters for the G8 Muskoka Initiative, there will be funding,” she said in the statement.
But Paul Bell, a spokesman with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), said for the organization did ask for funding that did not including money for abortion and still hasn’t heard anything. For the first time in 40 years, it looked like Canada will not help fund the organization’s work, Bell told Postmedia News from London.
"These proposals included cries for billions of new money for social assistance in the name of “child poverty” and for more business subsidies in the name of “cultural identity”. In both cases I was sought out as a rare public figure to oppose such projects.” (Stephen Harper, The Bulldog, National Citizens Coalition, February 1997)
Gloria Steinem was on Bill Maher this week and they were discussing rightwing/Tea Party ideology.
Their latest protests centre on the abortion issue, and the recent drive to force those considering abortion to have a sonogram first. The idea of course is the belief that once a pregnant woman or girl hears her baby's heartbeat, she will change her mind.
The Tea Party/conservative movement is nothing if not a lesson in paradox, because while they demand that the government stays out of their lives, they are forcing government intervention on the lives of women.
They are even holding public rallies with a pregnant woman on stage hooked up to a sonogram, and a voice over of the baby talking to the crowd.
But Steinem made a very compelling statement, when it comes to the rightwing and the abortion issue. She said that for them "life begins at conception and ends at birth". That's it in a nutshell. Because the new 'right' philosophy is all about ending social programs. They don't care about poverty. In their judgement if you're poor it's because you're lazy.
They just want those babies born.
In 2006 Michael Ignatieff wrote a piece for MacLeans magazine in which he said, in part:
Canadians have created a distinctly progressive political culture in North America. We believe in universal rights of access to publicly funded health care; we believe in the protection of group rights to language; in group rights to self-determination for Aboriginal peoples; we believe in the equality rights of all citizens, regardless of sexual orientation, including rights to marriage. Strong majorities of Canadians believe that while abortion should be rare, it should be a protected right for all women. (1)
Few challenged his statements because they were a fair representation of who we are as Canadians. And our views have not really changed, as a recent survey suggests. What has changed is a politicians ability to express those views.
When Ignatieff suggested that Canada's maternal health initiative should include safe abortions, he was accused of promoting eugenics, suggesting that he was trying to decrease the black African population, forgetting that unsafe abortions are doing just that. It has been established that 36,000 women die annually from unsafe abortions in Africa. Good child bearing women, something tea party logic should be fighting against happening.
Make no mistake, these semantic changes represent fundamental shifts to Canadian foreign policy. Each of the banned or altered terms carry with it significant policy implications, most related to the international human rights agenda. For example, when speaking of the war in the DRC, where upwards of 3 million people have been killed, and rape is widely used as a tool of war, the terms "impunity" and "justice" can no longer be used when calling for an end to, and punishment for, sexual violence.
And the Harper government has also reduced foreign aid to Africa, so again, their interest in a woman's reproductive rights, end at birth.
The abortion issue discussed on Bill Maher, included the Tea Party/conservatives attack on Planned Parenthood. And while only 2% of PP's mandate includes abortion, it is estimated that if it is dismantled, abortions would actually increase by about 40,00 a year.
In Canada, Stephen Harper and Stockwell Day have already eliminated funding to this organization. In 2006, they received $1,285,674 in federal grants, while in 2009, only $9,381.
Furthermore, Conservative Brad Trost circulated a petition to go after the International Planned Parenthood Federation in November of 2009 and in 2010:
One of the world’s biggest health-care providers for vulnerable women appears to have fallen victim to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s zero tolerance policy on abortion. In London, International Planned Parenthood Federation is waiting for a call from Canada that will preserve life-saving programs that help 31 million women and children.
Again this is very short sighted, and yet another case where ideology trumps factual information.
So if the Tea Party/conservative movement was serious about tackling the abortion issue, they would promote safe sex, the eradication of child poverty and income disparity.
And if you think that in 2006, Michael Ignatieff was only saying what he thought we wanted to hear to get elected, this is what he wrote of poverty in 2000, just three years after Stephen Harper boasted that he was a rare public figure who wasn't afraid to speak out against public money going to fight child poverty.
.... abundant societies that could actually solve the problem of poverty seem to care less about doing so than societies of scarcity that can't. This paradox may help to explain why the rights revolution of the past forty years has made inequalities of gender, race, and sexual orientation visible, while the older inequalities of class and income have dropped out of the registers of indignation. Abundance has awakened us to denials of self while blinding us to poverty. We idly suppose that the poor have disappeared. They haven't. They've merely become invisible. (2)
Another fundamental difference between Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff.
Sources:
1. Michael Ignatieff: what I would do if I were the Prime Minister: From Afghanistan to Quebec, education to the environment, Ignatieff lays out his bold, progressive vision for Canada. A Maclean's exclusive, September 01, 2006
2. The Rights Revolution: CBC Massey Lectures, By Michael Ignatieff, Anansi Books, 2000, ISBN: 978-0-88784-762-2, Pg. 92
A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada
In November of 2009, Reform-Conservative MP for Humboldt, Saskatchewan, Brad Trost; circulated a petition calling for a stop to federal funding of the International Planned Parenthood Federation.
According to Kevin Blevins with the Leader Post:
Brad Trost is going after International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), an agency that not only is trying to prevent unwanted pregnancies in this overcrowded world, but also diseases like AIDs ... Thankfully, Canadian governments, both Conservative and Liberal, have supported the good work of IPPF, realizing the overall good of the agency outweighs any political agendas. Trost, it appears, is not so sophisticated. He and other ignorant Tories like him in this province should be ashamed. Their small-mindedness feeds the stereotype that Saskatchewan is a social backwater... (1)
Where Blevins went wrong was in assuming that the Conservatives have supported the good work of IPPF. Maybe the original Conservative party, but not the hybrid of the Reform-Alliance:
One of the world’s biggest health-care providers for vulnerable women appears to have fallen victim to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s zero tolerance policy on abortion. In London, International Planned Parenthood Federation is waiting for a call from Canada that will preserve life-saving programs that help 31 million women and children.
But nearly a year after the U.K.-based organization tried to renew its $18 million grant – and on the eve of a G20 summit Harper has focused on maternal health — the line from Ottawa is silent. And, said Human Rights Watch women’s advocate Marianne Mollmann, “the Canadian government’s stance to block support for safe abortions is demonstrably deadly. And announced as part of a maternal health initiative it is also, frankly, absurd.” (2)
No Protection From Sexual Abuse
While the Harper government has remained firm on it's anti-abortion stance, they have also been consistent in denying protection for women and even children, against sexual abuse.
They vehemently opposed a motion by Liberal MP John McKay to go after Canadian mining companies operating overseas, who have been accused of gang-raping protesters according to a United Nations report. (3) In fact, Brent Popplewell reported in the Star that : "The word "Canada" is so reviled in some places that travelling Canadians mask their citizenship by wearing American flags on their caps and backpacks." (4) This because of the horrendous human rights violations.
Les Whittington wrote: "Numerous accounts of rapes show a similar pattern," testified lawyer Sarah Knuckey, who was recounting information gathered at the Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) mine in Papua New Guinea, partly owned by Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp. "The guards, usually in a group of five or more, find a woman while they are patrolling on or near mine property. They take turns threatening, beating and raping her. "In a number of cases, women reported to me being forced to chew and swallow condoms used by guards during the rape," Knuckey continued." (5)
The Harper government chose to turn a blind eye and instead supported the mining companies.
They have also abandoned initiatives to protect women and children from sexual abuse, used as a weapon of war. As Adrian Bradbury reported in The Mark:
For example, when speaking of the war in the DRC, where upwards of 3 million people have been killed, and rape is widely used as a tool of war, the terms "impunity" and "justice" can no longer be used when calling for an end to, and punishment for, sexual violence. The shift from the term International Humanitarian Law (IHL) to simply International Law, not only blurs two entirely different concepts, but abandons the legal mechanisms developed to protect the rights of civilians, women, and children. (6)
Harper Government Fights on Side of Aids
In 2004, as foreign affairs critic, Stockwell Day refused to send condolences to the people of Palestine over the death of Yassir Arafit, and why? Because he thought he had died of Aids:
In a November 16 email to his Conservative colleagues Mr. Day stated: "Some of you have asked why I have not released a statement of condolence or sympathy. As you know, there are two sides to the Arafat story. You pick...." He then included in the email an article by David Frum, former speech writer for George W. Bush, indulging in unfounded speculation about the cause of Arafat’s death. Frum suggested that Arafat’s symptoms “sounded AIDS-like.” (7)
In 2006 Harper refused to attend an International Aids Conference:
One of the world's leading voices on the AIDS crisis, U.N. Special Envoy for AIDS/HIV Stephen Lewis, said Harper's decision not to attend the important conference is a "dreadful decision" and an "inexcusable" mistake in political judgment. Conference co-chair Mark Wainberg echoed that sentiment and said by not showing up, Harper is sending a message that AIDS is not a priority for his government. (8)
Former Conservative candidate Mark Warner was dropped because he had attended that conference:
But the 43-year-old Warner said the Conservatives party's national office informed him he was no longer their pick because of continued differences of opinion and strategy, as well his penchant for speaking out about subjects that didn't receive party authorization, such as education, affordable housing and HIV/AIDS issues. "Frankly, I felt there was a lot of micromanagement … and I don't think it was legitimate," Warner, an international trade lawyer, told the CBC on Wednesday. "I was going off-message." Warner said references to his attendance at an international AIDS conference in Toronto in 2006 were removed from his bio when he sent it to Ottawa for approval. "It does seem to be something that bothers people and I don't exactly know why," he said. (9)
Plans for an HIV vaccine plant were quietly shelved, despite a 110 million dollar from the Gates Foundation:
Researchers at Winnipeg's International Centre for Infectious Diseases were confident just a few months ago that they would soon play a key role in the global fight against HIV, and in the development of vaccines to combat other diseases. They had good reason. They had privately been told by many sources - including a Manitoba cabinet minister - that the centre was the favoured site of a new $88-million vaccine manufacturing facility to be funded by the federal government and Bill Gates's foundation ... "We started to realize something had gone terribly wrong," said Heather Medwick, the centre's leader. Last week, her fears were confirmed, first by an entry that appeared briefly on a government website stating that Ottawa and the Gates Foundation had "decided not to move forward" with the facility ... The facility, announced with fanfare three years ago by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, with Mr. Gates at his side, was quietly being put aside. So far, the federal government has offered no explanation for the change of heart .... (10)
Again this year Harper turns his back on the Aids Conference:
“My country’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, was invited to be a plenary speaker and he refused,” Julio Montaner, president of the International AIDS Society, told reporters Sunday at a press conference before the opening of the International AIDS Conference in Vienna. “He’s not here because he’s afraid to confront the deficit the G8 left on the table,” he said. (11)
And:
In the worldwide fight against deadly HIV/AIDS, many Canadians are punching above their weight. Sadly, the Canadian government is not. While world-ranking advocates and scientists like Stephen Lewis and Dr. Julio Montaner will be among those attending the international AIDS conference that opens today in Vienna, the Harper government will have a much lower profile. (12)
So should we be surprised that Canada has received a failing grade for our Aids prevention and cure?
In the report presented by HIV-positive activists, researchers, AIDS organizations and human rights and HIV/AIDS lawyers, Canada received a failing grade in recognizing the needs of women and girls to protect themselves from HIV and to manage HIV infection. In Canada, the number of infected women continues to rise from just over 11 per cent of new infections prior to 1999 to over 26 per cent in 2008, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. By the end of 2008, the most recent year with data, there were an estimated 14,300 women living with HIV (including AIDS) in Canada, accounting for about 22 per cent of the national total. (13)
Prior to the 2006 election, Stephen Harper went on the Drew Marshall Christian radio program.
In Harper’s interview with Drew Marshall, he recalled that his father “became quite an expert in theological matters as he grew older,” and after years as an ardent United Church–goer and elder, suddenly decamped to the Presbyterians. Harper sidestepped the question of why Joseph Harper had jumped ship but he pointedly noted that Marshall’s evangelical audience would get his drift. What he seemed to be referring to was the charged 1988 decision by the United Church General Council to approve the ordination of homosexuals—a decision that provoked thousands of defections. (14)
I think we all get "your drift" Steve. No need to explain.
3. The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada, By: Marci McDonald, Random House Canada, 2010, ISBN: 978-0-307-35646-8 3, Pg. 358
4. Canadian mining firms face abuse allegations: A private member's bill aims to impose controls on powerful Canadian mining companies that operate overseas, By Brett Popplewell, Toronto Star, November 22, 2009
7. The Man Who Walks with Dinosaurs: The return of Stockwell Day, who now implies that people with AIDS deserve no sympathy, By Murray Dobbin, The Tyee, December 1, 2004
A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada
"God caused Hurricane Katrina to wipe out New Orleans because it had a gay pride parade the week before and was filled with sexual sin ... All hurricanes are acts of God, because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that." Pastor John Hagee
Reading a statement like that made by Charles McVety's business partner, John Hagee, would certainly not adhere you to his God. If he is that vengeful, maybe we don't need to eradicate homosexuals, as the Religious Rights suggests, but simply get rid of their God. He sounds down right nasty.
Fortunately, most Christians follow a loving God who would never destroy an entire city, killing more than 1800 people, and uprooting thousands more, just to exact revenge for a gay pride parade. They believe that God made gays too.
However, this isn't really about the Christian Extremists, and their twisted version of the faith. Others have been warning about the dangers associated with this growing group of radical fundamentalists, many of whom have close ties to many members of our current government, but I decided to also expose the rampant hypocrisy that is also often associated with the Religious Right.
An excellent example of this are two 'ministries', actually linked financially, Desert Stream, part of the Exodus group, in the United States, and Living Waters ministry under the umbrella of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.
Both of these groups claim to be able to "cure" homosexuality, but the two videos (the one above and below) show how they really operate.
Desert Stream
This organization was established by an ex-gay (?) minister, Adam Comisky, who offered "healing" to those who were "sexually broken".
On March 8, Comiskey wrote a blog post entitled “Falling Mercies” where he says DSM had been, “cast out of our home church”, Vineyard Anaheim, as a result of “a darker strain of sin in our own ranks.” He goes onto reveal that this sin was, “a longstanding staff person from Desert Stream had sexually abused at least one teenager who had sought help from us.”
Comiskey alleges that he was a victim of seven-figure blackmail from the relative of one of the abused boys. This led to, “a scourging of our entire ministry through police interrogations, the naked bulb of insurance agents and their lawyers, and Vineyard elders who for good reason wanted to know what was really going on in Desert Stream Ministries.”
As a result of the investigation, Comiskey says DSM was “torn in two” and that “we the righteous became the scum of the earth–not only the defender of victims, but the predators.” (1)
This was not the first time this group was charged with sexual misconduct, and many people refer to them as a cult. In 1998, The Los Angeles Times reported that one family had sued Desert Stream, alleging that a minister had sexually abused a teenager while the youth was undergoing 'therapy' to turn him heterosexual.
It would appear that this ex-gay minister is using his hideaway as a dating service and yet Exodus is still standing behind him. The cult has not closed up shop but just moved to another state.
Now lets go to Canada.
Living Waters Ministry
According the the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, who have quite an array of groups all promising to "fix broken sexuality"
Living Waters is Canada’s most widely used Christian program for those who battle with sexual and relational problems. The intensive 30-week course originated in California in 1980, when Andy and Annette Comiskey started a Bible-based support group for people struggling with same-sex attractions ..
Canadian national directors Toni and Mardi Dolfo-Smith have overseen Living Waters programs from their headquarters in Vancouver for the past six years. The program is currently used in 22 cities across Canada and 20 countries around the globe. “We’ve seen Christians from all walks of life benefit from this interdenominational program,” says Toni.
“Jesus is committed to healing people so that individuals are free to love again. When we’re confused or broken in our sexual and relational identities, it limits our capacity to love others according to the will of Christ,” adds Mardi.
“People who join our program are willing to face their present state while delving into a painful past,” states Toni. “In an age when pornography is okay, same-sex relationships are accepted and abuse is rampant, it is God’s grace that heals and restores our sexuality. Living Waters aims to minister that healing.”
But while Jesus may be committed to healing people, Living Waters has a different goal. MONEY!
Ottawa, Ontario, June 8, 2009... The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has revoked the charitable registration of Living Waters Ministry Trust, a London-area charity. This revocation was effective June 6, 2009.
On April 24, 2009, the CRA issued a notice of intention to revoke the charitable registration of Living Waters Ministry Trust, in accordance with subsection 168(1) of the Income Tax Act. The letter stated, in part, that:
Our audit has concluded that from August 11, 2004 to December 31, 2006, Living Waters Ministry Trust issued in excess of $41.6 million in receipts for cash received through a tax shelter arrangement. The Charity, in turn, directed $40.7 million of the cash to another registered charity also participating in this arrangement. Our audit revealed that the vast majority of the cash sent to the other participating charity was subsequently paid to the promoters of the tax shelter arrangement. Of the remainder, the Charity itself paid $443,000 in fundraising fees to the tax shelter promoters and retained $416,000 for use in their own activities.
It is our position that the Charity has operated for the non-charitable purpose of promoting a tax shelter arrangement and for the private benefit of the tax shelter promoters
So Living Waters Ministry is simply a tax shelter that has taken in million of tax free dollars. And their parent company, Desert Stream, has preyed on and exploited minors for their own sexual gratification.
And yet both of these groups appear to still be operating. In Canada they are part of what is now called 'Jason Ministries', billed as 'International Christian ex-gay ministries' and their contacts in Canada are none other than Toni & Mardi Dolfo-Smith.
And they are part of an international group that all claim to be friends of Desert Stream. Other friends of this organization that has been referred to as a cult and charged with sexual misconduct, include Focus on the Family.
The Canadian founder of Focus on Family, who received seed money from their American counterpart, is Darrel Reid, who is now Stephen Harper's deputy chief of staff, and many members of Harper's caucus, including Rob Anders, Maurice Vellacott and Brad Trost, also belong.
Reid once compared those who support gay rights to Nazis, and Anders, Vellacott and Trost are vocal homophobics.
Sources:
1. Desert Scream: Exodus Leader’s Shocking Admissions of Ministry’s Sexual Abuse, By Wayne Besen, TWO, March 13, 2010
Brad Trost is the Reform-Conservative MP for Saskatoon-Humboldt. During his two and a half month vacation at taxpayers expense, he took a few hours off to do a very important job for King Stephen.
Obviously accepting that a government has the right to operate in complete secrecy, Brad stormed past the Canadian people, where he could enjoy a lovely luncheon with the boys at the Delta Bessborough Hotel in Saskatoon.
Keeping his government's secrets has been a nice pastime for Bradley, though many people believe that in his case, it's simply that he really has no clue what the inner circle are doing.
If he did, he might warn his constituents about the traitorous trade deal his boss cooked up, allowing them to pay their taxes directly to foreign corporations.
Or he might see the warning signs of a fascist regime, that is clearly taking over the Canadian Parliament.
As Muriel Wien reminds us: former public servants, academics, retired diplomats and other people of integrity have sounded the alarm; and are warning us that our democracy is in grave danger.
Now that Stephen Harper has a dictatorship, there is a lot of concern about him pushing through his neo-conservative agenda of dismantling Canada's social safety net.
This includes all of the things he campaigned against for decades; like public health care, Canada Pension and Old Age Security.
It had been put on the back burner when he was trying to fool Canadians into thinking he was moving to the centre, but it no longer matters now.
And if in fact, if he does plan on forcing an election in the spring, as many anticipate (before the Liberals thinker's conference, which would probably get a lot of media attention), will he still try to silence the extremists in his party, or allow them to focus on social conservative issues again?
When you look at his actions in the past few months, there is definitely something going on. He's brought on an awful lot of Christian fundamentalists, who are now writing his speeches and directing policy.
This will guarantee that the Religious Right will bleed money for him, but what will it mean for a once progressive country like Canada?
Jason Kenney's new citizenship booklet, pretty much erased women's roles in the country's development. In fact, if you didn't know better you'd think it was written in the 1950's. I'm sensing something here that I don't really like.
I thought I'd revisit a posting on Buckdog's blog, written soon after the homophobic Nigel Hannaford was hired to write Stephen Harper's speeches. He shared an article from The Sasquatch, Briarpatch.
Harper's New Speechwriter Is A Strong Social Conservative And Gay Rights Opponent Jenn Ruddy
It probably won’t come as much of a shock that the Prime Minister’s Office has hired a gay rights opponent to write speeches for Stephen Harper.
Former Calgary Herald columnist Nigel Hannaford is the latest — but certainly not the first, and probably not the last — social conservative to join the upper echelons of Harper’s government.
Hannaford, who was a member of the Calgary Herald’s editorial board until recently, has argued against gay rights in his column Slings & Arrows and scoffed at the legitimacy of human rights commissions. He once referred to human rights tribunals as “communist show trials, not courts” and implied that human rights advocates are “whiners.”
If you think that’s bad, here’s what he had to say about gay rights: Referring to former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s 1969 decision to decriminalize homosexuality, Hannaford wrote in 2005, “Fine, said lots of people. Leave gays alone? Fair enough. But, let ’em be Boy Scout leaders? Have each other’s benefits? Adopt kids? Marry each other? Ridiculous.
Anybody seeking political office who suggested it would have been laughed off the hustings. Yet, the Liberals are ready to legalize gay marriage. How did we get to this point?”
Of the 1998 Delwin Vriend Supreme Court ruling, which required that Alberta add sexual orientation to its human rights legislation, Hannaford wrote in 2003, “So much for democracy.”
And when Elsie Wayne, former deputy leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, was excoriated for saying in 2003 that gays should “shut up” about marriage and that Canadians shouldn’t have to “tolerate” gay pride parades, Hannaford wrote in her defence: “Wayne gets my vote. ... Canadian society has been turned upside down in the past 35 years and things regarded as sin in 1965 have special status in 2003.”
As recently, as his May 8, 2009 column, Harper’s new speechwriter lamented that Section 3 of Alberta’s Human Rights Act makes it difficult to prevent Albertans from bringing the same kind of “creepy curriculum” to the province that B.C. has allowed, “in which gay advocates design class material promoting their persuasion right down to kindergarten.”
Hannaford’s appointment troubles longtime gay activist and former Edmonton city councillor Michael Phair.“
Much of what Mr. Hannaford writes and has indicated in his work as a journalist, I suspect, reflects Prime Minister Harper’s and his party’s position on what they would like for Canadian society to be, and I think it harks back to a 1950s approach,” says Phair.
He worries that the Harper government will continue to look for back-door ways to reduce equality for the queer and other marginalized communities, as well as women.
Hannaford’s hiring is the latest in a string of appointments that place social conservatives in high-ranking positions of the Harper government. In July 2008, one of Canada’s most prominent Christian conservatives, Darrel Reid, was appointed director of policy for the Prime Minister’s Office and later moved to one of the top political posts in the country when he was promoted to deputy chief of staff in February. Another Christian evangelical, Paul Wilson, replaced Reid as director of policy.
NDP critic for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual and Transgender Issues Bill Siksay says he’s not surprised to learn of Hannaford’s appointment.“We know that there’s still — within the Conservative Party and within the Conservative caucus — lots of folks who don’t support the full human rights of gay and lesbian Canadians, who are not friends of the queer community, and so in a sense it’s not surprising,” says Siksay.Some of those folks Siksay refers to within the Conservative caucus can be found right here in Saskatchewan.
In July, Saskatoon-Humboldt Conservative MP Brad Trost was critical of his government’s decision to fund Toronto’s gay pride week and pandered to anti-gay sentiment. Speaking to the right-wing website LifeSiteNews.com, Trost reassured the pro-life community, “The tourism funding money that went to the gay pride parade in Toronto was not government policy, was not supported by — I think it’s safe to say by a large majority — of the MPs.”
Shortly thereafter, Saskatoon-Wanuskewin Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott wrote a letter to his constituents supporting Trost’s comments and reassured them that their tax dollars would be used for more “suitable purposes.”
In 2003, the then MP for Regina-Lumsden-Lake Centre Larry Spencer was suspended from the Canadian Alliance caucus for saying that homosexuality is a conspiracy theory to seduce and recruit young boys. Spencer said he would support any initiative to criminalize homosexuality.
And who could forget the media scandal last year in which Regina-Lumsden-Lake Centre Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski was caught on videotape saying in 1991: “There’s A’s and there’s B’s. The A’s are guys like me, the B’s are homosexual faggots with dirt under their fingernails that transmit diseases.”
“There is a very one-sided message coming from the Conservative Party,” says Nathan Seckinger, executive director of the GBLUR Centre for Sexuality and Gender Diversity in Regina. “What we hear are a lot of anti-queer statements being made by individual politicians under a conservative banner. What we don’t hear are any pro-queer statements.”
Statistics Canada revealed in 2004 that gays and lesbians are nearly twice as likely to be the victim of a violent crime, including sexual assault, robbery and physical assault, and bisexuals are four-and-a-half times as likely, compared to heterosexuals.
In 2007, 10 per cent of police-reported hate crimes in Canada were motivated by sexual orientation.“What we’re really talking about is a sin of omission,” says Seckinger. “The concern for me isn’t so much the fact that Conservatives are shooting their mouths off about having anti-queer positions, because politicians say dumb things once in a while. My concern is more that they say them frequently and that they don’t have anybody saying anything else [about queer issues], and that’s what tells me that there’s a problem.”
When the Lukiwski scandal broke out last year, GBLUR, under the leadership of Seckinger, took the high road: it accepted Lukiwski’s apology and called for co-operation across political divides. GBLUR’s goal was to shift the debate toward the health and safety crisis facing queer people in Canada and away from the media’s sensationalized coverage of the scandal.
“The reality of it is that Mr. Lukiwski had been campaigning against same-sex marriage for years and nobody gave a damn,” says Seckinger. “The reason everybody got angry about that issue is because he used a dirty word. He got caught on tape using the word ‘faggot’ and it got put on TV and so, really, what people were upset about wasn’t the fact that the man is homophobic, because that should have been common knowledge already. What people were concerned about is the fact that he was being impolite about his homophobia.”
Seckinger says there’s no doubt that the Conservative Party panders to homophobic voting bases. But when the media lend coverage to, say, Harper’s new homophobic speechwriter or to the blatantly homophobic remarks of an individual politician, the pressing health and safety concerns of the queer community get ignored.
And the general homophobic discourse in government, which cuts across party lines, sneaks under the radar.“A question to ask yourself is, ‘how often do queer specific concerns get put forward in the form of bills?’” says Seckinger. “The mental health problems for the GLBT community are epidemic in Canada. Why is that not being dealt with? ---------------------------------------
And let's not forget Stockwell Day: Press reports revealed recently that Mr. Day, who is the Conservative Party’s foreign affairs critic, refused to send condolences to the Palestinian people on the death of President Yassir Arafat. Why? Because of Mr. Arafat’s support for armed struggle against Israel? No. Because he might have died of AIDS. In a November 16 email to his Conservative colleagues Mr. Day stated: "Some of you have asked why I have not released a statement of condolence or sympathy. As you know, there are two sides to the Arafat story. You pick...." He then included in the email an article by David Frum, former speech writer for George W. Bush, indulging in unfounded speculation about the cause of Arafat’s death. Frum suggested that Arafat’s symptoms “sounded AIDS-like.” (BTW: David Frum is a Harper insider and former speech writer of George W. Bush. He was the one who coined the term 'Axis of Evil')
Or Jason Kenney recently appointing an anti-gay activist to the Refugee Board, who will determine which of those claiming refugee status on the grounds of sexual orientation, will be given safe haven.
Or Pierre Poilievre and his shot about sex changes, declaring that the federal government should hold back any health fund transfers used for this purpose, ignoring health concerns.
And we know how many of them are anti-abortion. Will a woman's right to choose be abolished, as suggested by Dean Del Mastro?
But sadly, that's not to be, so for any of you right wingers, don't despair. According to backbencher, Brad Trost, it was a mistake and Ms Ablonczy has been fired.
SASKATOON, July 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The revelation of $400,000 in funding from the federal Conservatives for the recent Toronto Gay Pride parade, which is notorious for its inclusion of full frontal nudity and public sex acts by homosexuals, came as a shock to most social conservatives in the nation. According to Conservative MP Brad Trost, however, the decision to fund the event also came a shock to most of the Conservative caucus, even those inside the Prime Minister's office. Speaking to LifeSiteNews.com from his riding office in Saskatoon today, the 36-year-old Conservative said, "The pro-life and the pro-family community should know and understand that the tourism funding money that went to the gay pride parade in Toronto was not government policy, was not supported by - I think it's safe to say by a large majority - of the MPs. This was a very isolated decision."
Trost also hinted that Minister Diane Ablonczy, who was responsible for the funding, lost the file as a consequence of the embarrassment to the Party. Protesting more than once that there was no "official connection," he said, however, "it should be noted that the file has been reassigned to a different Cabinet Minister since that announcement was made." He added, "The whole tourism program and funding for major tourism events is being reviewed."
Trost claimed that "almost the entire Conservative caucus" including "most of the Prime Minister's Office were taken by surprise at this announcement."
"It shouldn't be deemed to have been a change in Party policy," he said, adding, "Most of the caucus is still strongly pro-traditional marriage."
The MP attributed the move to "sloppiness."
"Canadian taxpayers, even non-social-conservative ones, don't want their tax dollars to go to events that are polarizing or events that are more political than touristic in nature," he said.
"I'm glad they're owning up to a very grave error here," said Mary Ellen Douglas, national coordinator for Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), in response to Trost's remarks. CLC had originally protested the decision to fund Gay Pride as soon as it was made public. At the time, CLC's Jeff Gunnarson had told LSN, "Given the fact that the Conservative government supports marriage as a union of one man and one woman in Section 68 iii of their Policy Declaration, I am concerned that they find it prudent to give nearly half a million dollars to a group that diametrically opposes that very section of the policy." Mary Ellen Douglas told LSN today, "Hopefully such mistakes won't happen again, especially at a time when the economy is so bad."
