Is Jason Kenney "Just Visiting"? Will He Go Back to San Francisco to Raise Hell?

I've written often about Jason Kenney and his days at St. Ignatius highschool in San Francisco, where he opposed both gay rights and family planning.

After speaking with a Jesuit priest, I learned that in his attempt to demand that family planning literature was kept out of the main university, he used law students from the school, and threatened to take the issue right to Rome if need be.

A blogger has posted an old video from a newscast c1989, where Kenney is being interviewed. He claims to have more info but is waiting for the Anglo-media to pick up the story, before releasing it. Tease.

This is important because it speaks to the lengths this man will go to deny our rights and challenge the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Author Trevor Harrison spoke of Kenney and how he had come under the influence of the Neoconservatives while at the school, and came back to Canada with a purpose. He later started a Christian Coalition here, modeled after Ralph Reed's in the United States. His Canadian Taxpayers Federation was a spin off of Grover Norquist's anti-tax campaign.

Some of my old postings on the issue:

Educating Jason Kenney: St. Ignatius Institute

Jason Kenney Helps to Unite Reformers and Republicans

Jason Kenney Broadens the Tent

Jason Kenney and Absolute Truths

Hero or Villain: Understanding Jason Kenney

Jason Kenney Finds His Calling Through Incarnation

Educating Jason Kenney: Between Life and Death

Jason Kenney and the NGO Monitor on a Rampage to Destroy Humanitarian Organizations

John Hagee, Menachem Begin, Benjamin Netanyahu and Jimmy Carter

National Post Columnist Weighs in on Rod Bruinooge's Convoluted Anti-Abortion Logic

Now that Winnipeg Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge's secret anti-abortion group, is no longer secret, and he can openly oppose a woman's right to choose, we are able to listen to his arguments and decide for ourselves.

I've decided that Rod Bruinooge is an idiot.

His convoluted logic that somehow the desire to sell our kidneys on Ebay, is the same as the desire to have an an abortion, is either drug induced or just insane.

He may have even trumped Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant, who when hearing the horrible news of the beheading of Iraq war hostage Nick Berg, claimed that we shouldn't feel sympathy because it was no different than abortion. Huh?

She's an Afghanistan War cheerleader, so what if I said that the killing of innocent children in senseless wars was no different than what Clifford Olsen did? I would never say that because it would be stupid. As stupid as her ridiculous comments and as stupid as kidneys for sale.

Sadly these social Conservative nuts also don't believe in providing teens with condoms, because abstinence is the only option they allow their children. This leaves them vulnerable to STDs and unwanted pregnancies, and not wanting to disappoint mom and dad may also mean only one choice. Destroying the evidence.

Colby Cosh: Rod Bruinooge and the pro-life absurdity
January 01, 2009,

National Post
Colby Cosh

For once, a pro-lifer has it exactly right. Rod Bruinooge, who claims to have been elected the new head of the multi-party Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus — the group’s membership is secret, but no one has come forward to contradict him on the matter — told the Canadian Press on Tuesday: “In Canada you can’t remove your kidney, and put it on eBay and auction it off. That is illegal. Whereas you actually can end a beating heart of an unborn child the second before it’s delivered. Most Canadians would agree that is truly a poor bioethical position for our country to be in.”

I don’t claim to know what most Canadians think about kidney donation; my guess is they don’t think about it at all.

But the situation Mr. Bruinooge describes really is somewhat anomalous. Of course we should be able to have our kidneys removed and sell them on eBay. It is outrageous that the state claims the power to interfere in such a transaction; ownership of our own bodies is the paramount principle of bioethics.

Permitting donors to be compensated for human tissue would encourage sincere efforts to defray the costs incurred by those making gifts of it, and would give dialysis patients dying on waiting lists alternatives to black-market organ purchases in countries less-well-equipped to handle transplant surgeries.

The argument against it boils down to this: “Ew.”

It’s the same argument that was presented against transplant surgeries in the first place by people like Malcolm Muggeridge (One of Stephen Harper's favourite's), which may or may not rhyme with Bruinooge. It is also the chief basis for the ban that was imposed on compensation for sperm and egg donations and surrogate motherhood by the Liberal government of Paul Martin, which was proudly in favour of “reproductive choice” only so long as it was a code word for Henry Morgentaler’s business model.

There was no great public clamour to outlaw gamete traffic, which was already subject to safety controls, and its proscription has made life noticeably more difficult for childless couples pursuing in vitro fertilization. But this bit of bioethical nonsense is rarely if ever protested.

Of course, one of the key problems for Bruinooge is that no one actually makes a practice of performing abortions the “second before” the fetus is delivered. In the individual judgment of most doctors, including abortionists, such a procedure would be ethically questionable unless it were necessary to save the life of the mother — and if it were, few of them would hesitate. One presumes Mr. Bruinooge is prepared to acknowledge that most nominal pro-lifers are willing to make a “life of the mother” exception to otherwise total bans on abortion. This involves them in the same kind of supposed absurdity he is denouncing: putting one life above another.

Then again, it is equally absurd for pro-life mothers who suffer miscarriages not to go through full-blown funerals for their dead babies, complete with expensive coffins, a nice spread of sandwiches for the guests and the oversight of paid clergy. Do the victims of abortion by God, who is quite as busy with the job as Doc Morgentaler, deserve any less?

Funny thing: When it comes down to revealed preferences involving real-world costs, what we find is that the life of a fetus really does count for less than that of a paid-up member of the human race.

But then, that’s how everybody has always acted throughout all of human history. It has only been in the last 40 years that there has been any real controversy about the ethical status of abortion. Medieval thinkers generally considered that it did not become homicide until (at least) the first exterior signs of activity in the womb; England common law refused to punish even positive infanticide as a species of murder; and in Victorian accounts of abortion prosecutions, it is clear that the chief concern of the authorities was not with the fate of a child, but with unwed mothers using risky means, ones inimical to the family structure, to conceal evidence of personal misconduct.

I am amazed a hundred times a year that pro-life Christians get away with claiming that they stand on eternal principles when it comes to abortion, even though, if you prod them, they will start talking rot about DNA (whose existence and nature somehow went undisclosed through centuries of religious revelation) and will admit that it was the progress of scientific understanding which obligated them to suddenly promote abortion in the panoply of sins, circa 1968.

They faced a choice concerning which principles they chose to modify under the pressure of technological change, and opted for the direction that allowed them to signal resistance to modernity. Their stance is about as deserving of deference as the Western Church’s 12th-century ban on crossbows, and no more tenable.

Conservative Rod Bruinooge Heads Secret Anti-Abortion Group

While Parliament was prorogued in December, there was a group working behind the scenes to draft legislation that would make abortion a crime.

This group, headed by Winnipeg MP Rod Bruinooge, was attempting to fulfill this Conservative priority that came out during their last convention.

The abortion issue is a contentious one at best, but is not as black and white as those on both sides of the issue believe. It is also not confined to Conservative MPs though they clearly have the most members who are anti-choice.

First off the arguments from the so-called pro-life groups, are supposedly based on the Bible, but that's not true. The Bible clearly states that life begins at birth, and prior to that only a woman can decide the fate of her unborn. People like Cheryl Gallant will pull out "Thou shalt not kill', and yet she is very pro-war, so again that it not a legitimate argument.

What they don't understand is that pro-choice does not mean pro-abortion. It just means that only the woman can decide whether to carry the fetus to full term or terminate her pregnancy, within reason (not late term unless a threat to the mother). If pro-lifers want to work to offer her more choices, that's fine; but it can't be arbitrary.

Canada had decided two decades ago that this was the way it should be, yet the Conservatives are determined that they will reverse those decisions come hell or high water. By mandating that life begins at conception, abortion would then have the legal definition of murder.

Prudently, Stephen Harper put an end to the abortion debate, because while he tells his followers that abortion is wrong, it's all about keeping his job, and he knew that opening this up now, would be political suicide. If he ever got a majority though, it would be a different matter.

Abortion debate must wait
The Winnipeg Sun
By PAUL RUTHERFORD
December 31, 2008

The year 2009 is already shaping up as hot one in Ottawa.

Nobody can deny we all feel more engaged in federal politics thanks to December's turn of events. Now, on the eve of the new year, comments by Winnipeg Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge threaten to resurrect the divisive and explosive abortion issue. He and others are vowing to rekindle the issue and bring "more value" to the lives of unborn children.

"Very few Canadians appreciate the fact that essentially until a child takes its first breath, it has less value than a kidney," Bruinooge told The Canadian Press this week. (how ridiculous)

Bruinooge chairs a secretive pro-life all-party Parliamentary caucus determined to get abortion on to the political agenda.

This after Conservatives voted at their Winnipeg convention to bring in proposals which would see criminal charges against suspects who kill or injure a fetus during a crime -- that bill died when October's election was called.

Bruinooge says Canadians need to be better educated about Canada's position on abortion which he says puts Canada in a "class of its own." Pro-choice advocates say they are ready to fight if the Conservatives do take the risky step of opening the abortion can of worms.

So both sides seem to be taking their respective corners, prepping for a major bout. But it's likely a lot of talk resulting in little action.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants no part of this debate -- and this time Harper is doing exactly what we need. With a minority government in place and the economy the major issue everyone should care about, we need to forget about a debate on abortion.

"It's working well," says Joyce Arthur of the Abortion Rights Coaltion of Canada, referring to the now 20-year-old Supreme Court decision.

Maybe. But there are millions of Canadians re-energized by Bruinooge's call to arms.

This issue can't lay dormant forever, but in 2009 there's way too much on our plates. Nice try but it's a bad idea.

Ironically, Conservative oppose social programs, and have a very poor record on helping the poor. They want these fetuses brought to full term but then just wash their hands of them. Get killed in war, starve to death. They don't care. Just don't raise their taxes.

Rob Merrifield Wins Award for Putting Women in Their Place

During the 2004 election campaign,

former Alliance, now Conservative, member Rob Merrifield dropped a bomb shell.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, he said he thought mandatory counselling would be "valuable" for women who are considering terminating their pregnancies.

Mandatory??!!

At the time Stephen Harper was trying to distance himself from the abortion issue but clearly did not have control of his caucus, as many expressed their anti-abortion views publicly.

Harper drawn into hot-button abortion issue
CTV.ca News Staff

June 1, 2004

In an interview with CTV's Canada AM on Tuesday morning, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper was keen to downplay his health critic's comments.

Individuals are entitled to their opinion, Harper said, recognizing that pro-choice advocates oppose mandatory counselling as an unnecessary obstacle.

Views held by party members, he added, do not necessarily reflect Conservative policy.

"I've been very clear," he said. "A Conservative government in its first term led by me will not be bringing in abortion legislation or sponsoring an abortion referendum." (notice how carefully he said 'first term')

With the newly-merged Conservative Party desperate to make inroads with moderate voters, Harper was keen to minimize the potentially alienating effect of Merrifield's comments.

But Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan says the Opposition leader's attempt at damage control fell short. Blasting Merrifield for the "demeaning" nature of his remarks, the former health minister said Harper must fire him.

Merrifield's remarks may not have won him brownie points with his boss, but the Campaign Life Coalition sung his praises:

June 1, 2004

Conservative Merrifield Suggests Counseling Before Abortion;

Campaign Life Coalition Agrees

Conservative Health Critic Rob Merrifield, MP said yesterday that he supports third party counseling for women considering abortion. Campaign Life Coalition supports this suggestion because women have a “Right to Know” what is involved in a procedure that kills their baby and could adversely affect their body as well.

Jim Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) said, “This would be a very positive initiative for women, because, as we know most women are not given full information about abortion before they go through the procedure. After they find out the truth they are burdened for the rest of their lives with what they have done.”

“Henry Morgentaler and others who claim to be pro-choice seem to be against women having a truly informed choice,” Hughes continued. “We rightly call the abortion lobby “pro-abortion,” because the only choice they offer is a dead baby.”

Karen Murawsky, Public Affairs Director of Campaign Life Coalition in Ottawa, said, “Of course it’s important to require third party counseling. In the absence of a law protecting the unborn, women need to realize that they are terminating the life of their child.

Campaign Life Coalition supports Rob Merrifield and any other politician who takes a stand in support of human life. Campaign Life Coalition does not endorse any single particular political party, but urges voters to support only those candidates who acknowledge the fundamental right to life of all human beings from the time of conception.

The following year CLC:

"presented Conservative MP Rob Merrifield with its Joseph P. Borowski Award, given annually to the politician who most prominently upholds life and family in the public square."

He also strongly opposed the 'Morning after' pill.

The abortion issue is not confined to just the Reform-Conservatives, but politicians from all parties have a problem with the legality of the practice. However, any politician who is pro-war, is not pro-life.

Since Rob Merrifield is actually drafting a report for the Canadian Council of Executives that says in part, Canada will support a new 'North American Defense' strategy, meaning we fight where the U.S. tells us fight, he has no credibility of any 'life' issues.

My Other Postings on Rob Merrifield:

1. Rob Merrifield and Jay Hill Stick it to Canadian Taxpayers

2. Conservative Rob Merrifield Loses His Golden Egg

3. Poll: Canadians Say Rob Merrifield Broke the Rules

4. Conservative Rob Merrifield Spouts Republican Rhetoric

5. Conservative Rob Merrifield Has Us Chokin' on the Cokin'

6. Rob Merrifield Lets Special Interests Trump National Interest