Stockwell Day's Prejudice Goes Beyond Simple Homophobia

I read Clair Hoy's book; Stockwell Day: His Life and Politics and in it he mentions that Day's parents were always actively involved in politics, but provides little detail. We know from other sources that they belonged to the Social Credit Party and in fact Day Sr. once ran unsuccessfully as a So-Cred candidate. (also a supporter of Doug Christie and member of the Western Canada Concept.)

This Party had early on earned a reputation as being anti-Semitic, but when Preston Manning's father became the (Social Credit) Premier of Alberta, he tried to tone down the rhetoric and purge the Party of those with radical views.

Mind you in 1983, they overturned their decision to expel Jim Keegstra, and he was allowed back in; so underneath not much had changed.

In 2000, journalist Gordon Laird wrote a piece for Toronto's NOW magazine, entitled Bentley, Alberta: Hellfire, Neo-Nazis and Stockwell Day; just as Day's star was beginning to rise in federal politics. He had won the leadership of the Alliance Party and would be running for the job of Prime Minister; so Mr. Laird thought that Canadians deserved to know just what kind of a man this leader was.

The Alliance Party had emerged from the Reform Party, which had seemingly emerged from the Social Credit Party.

From 'The Prairie Roots of Canada's Political "Third Parties"', Department of Political Science, Simon Fraser University: "In many ways, the Reform party resembled the Social Credit party. It obtained its strongest support in Alberta, opposed an extensive and redistributive welfare state, and was disproportionately supported by older, middle class men.

We saw that in the 1991 video of Stephen Harper, when he was trying to take his Reformers nationwide. You just have to look at the crowd, and while there are several women present, it is as described above; 'disproportionately middle class men', but also disproportionately middle class WHITE.

In 1995, Stephen Harper wrote an op-ed piece in which he suggested that the Reform Party was "based on three issues, to be more specific, he defined it as being based on three "g-issues"- guns, gays, and government grants."

But it was more than just being anti-gay. There were several in the Party, including Stockwell Day, who believed there was some kind of homosexual conspiracy, in the same way that they had once believed that there was a Jewish conspiracy.

The Bethune Institute for Anti-Fascist Studies, in San Francisco, California; published an article in 1999; entitled "Jew-haters and red-baiters: The Canadian League of Rights", which dealt mostly with anti-semitism and the infiltrating of unions; but the author also speaks of the natural progression toward homophobia.

The first issue of CLR's magazine "Family Values", "... was taken up entirely by a reprint of Paul Cameron's vicious homophobic and anti-homosexual propaganda. A later issue claimed that noted 1940s sex researcher, Alfred Kinsey, trained pedophiles to perform experiments on infants "a few months old." The Kinsey reported is then spuriously tied to the rise of pornography, which is then further linked to sex education in schools. Given the nature of fascism as a totality, it is hardly a surprise that the antisemitic and racist politics of the CLR would be extended to anti-homosexualism."

Stockwell Day actively protested against sex education being taught in schools, saying "There is a growing body of literature suggesting that, as sex education becomes more comprehensive, there is a corresponding increase in sexual activity." He also once got himself into hot water by erroneously accusing a lawyer of supporting pedophilia and child pornography. Taxpayers footed the bill.

In fact, when he first ran in the Alberta provincial election in 1985, he declared his campaign a "moral crusade," and railed against homosexuality and pornography. He would later refuse to send condolences to the Palestinian people on the death of President Yassir Arafat because a speechwriter of George Bush claimed that he had died of AIDS.

But if Day has done a reasonable job of hiding his radical evangelism, former Alliance MP Larry Spencer, who once held the riding of Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, Saskatchewan, could not.

In November 2003 he gave an interview to Vancouver Sun reporter Peter O'Neil, in which he claimed that "... he would support any initiative to outlaw homosexuality. He stated that in the 1960s, a "well-orchestrated" conspiracy began and led to recent successes in the gay rights movement. This conspiracy, he further said, included seducing and recruiting young boys in playgrounds and locker rooms, and deliberately infiltrating North America's schools, judiciaries, entertainment industries, and religious communities. (sound familiar?)

According to him, this conspiracy started with a speech given by a U.S. gay rights activist in the 1960s whose name he could not remember. Spencer stated: His quote went something like this ... "We will seduce your sons in the locker rooms, in the gymnasiums, in the hallways, in the playgrounds, and on and on, in this land." It was quite a long quote stating what was going to happen to the young boys of North America.

Spencer further blamed former Canadian prime-minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau for the "movement" gaining public acceptance since he legalized homosexuality in Canada in 1969. He mentioned that although no government would have the courage to strike down these laws, and that he would support any initiative that advocated such a move.

Stephen Harper, then Alliance leader, fired Spencer and replaced him as candidate for the next election, with Tom Lukiwski. Most of us know how that turned out, but if you haven't seen the video, here it is:

These are not isolated incidents, and there are many anti-gay quotes available from Reform/Alliance MPs, including a press release from Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton-Melville), in which he claims that "in the 1950s, buggery was a criminal offence, but it has now become a requirement to receive benefits from the federal government.”

And let's not forget Jason Kenney, the man who was beside Stockwell Day during his rise to the top. Not only is he creating a 'whites only' immigration policy, but he recently appointed 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 returned to their homeland to face persecution and perhaps even death; and who will be allowed to stay.

He's kind of a nut so I'm guessing he'll try to 'cure' them or ship them back.

The gay community has a right to fear a Harper majority, because his ideology runs much deeper than just homophobic remarks, and for the extremists in the party, they really believe that homosexuality is an evil that must be stopped.

And on that note, one more video to watch.