OK, kiddo! Here are all the fantastically amazing posts tagged with Federal Conservatives
Tories Cut Funding For Gay Festival
The Conservative government has denied funding for the world’s largest charity gay dance festival, Black & Blue, for the third consecutive year. The annual Montréal festival, which contains over 60 events and raises money for HIV/AIDS research and gay community groups, used to receive up to $50,000 annually from Canadian Heritage until the Conservatives took power. Since then, their funding has been consistently denied.
Robert Vezina, president of the non-profit group that organizes the festival, said he was frustrated by the unprofessional behaviour from the government since the Conservatives took power:
Ever since the Harper government was in power, we’ve got zero. The reasons are really nebulous—they’re really sneaky. They give us answers that contradict themselves from year to year, and then verbally, they tell us on the phone we’re not “family oriented enough,” and then of course when we ask them to put this in writing they don’t.
Mauril Bélanger, the former deputy chair of Canadian Heritage, said that he wasn’t surprised by the cuts, considering the government in power:
I think we’ve seen that time and again from this government—ideology trumps objectivity, trumps respect, trumps treating all of us equally. [This is] a government that makes decisions by ideology that is basically targetting some segments of our population unfairly, and that is not the country I know.
To compensate for their lost funding, Black & Blue will reportedly alter this year’s event schedule to contain fewer all-night dance parties and more family puppet square dancing afternoons.
Gay Conservative Candidate Resigns
Chris Reid, one of very, very few gay Conservatives, has resigned his candidacy in the riding of Toronto Centre over some pretty odd comments.
In a now defunct blog entitled Political Thoughts from a Gay Conservative, Reid said the gay community was intolerant and only capable of “promoting promiscuity, drug usage, and prostitution” and declared that Canadians had become “a castrated effeminate population” because they don’t carry concealed handguns:
[Concealed handguns are] the only proven way to reduce violent crime and murder. If women and gays really wanted to stop being victims of hate crimes, they’d be in support of this, but judging from discussions, they’d rather be helpless and rely on government.
Oh yeah, Toronto Centre would be so into this. The only proven way to reduce violent hate crimes: thousands upon thousands of handguns!
Tip o’ the hat goes to Montréal Simon for the story.
Research Shocker: Gays Don’t Vote Conservative!
The Laurier Institute for the Study of Public Opinion and Policy has released the shocking conclusion of a 36,000-person political study: Gay people don’t vote for the Conservative party!
I’ll… give you a moment to absorb that.
The report, made from data donated by Ipsos Reid, states that only 7.3% of gay men and 10.4% of lesbians voted for the Conservatives in the last federal election, compared to 40.7% of straight men and 32.4% of straight women. More interestingly, though, the study revealed who they did did vote for. Gay men were more likely to vote Liberal, at roughly 40%, while lesbians generally voted for the NDP in the same percentage.
The Tories, who have been completely shaken by these results, have vowed to win back the gay community by purchasing more fashionable and better-fitting sweater vests for all of Harper’s future anti-gay press releases.
- Gay community united in stance against PM: poll [National Post]
- Surprise! Gays don’t vote for Tories: study [Xtra]
Conservatives Run Gay Candidat—What?
Vancouver’s Lorne Mayencourt, a gay Liberal MLA with a strong record of supporting AIDS research and anti-bullying campaigns, is running for a seat in the federal election as a… Conservative candidate?
Yes, after vehemently opposing equal marriage rights, fighting against adding gays to protective hate crimes legislation, axing the minority protections in the court challenges program, appointing an anti-gay lobby member to an influential government job, appointing a Supreme Court Judge that had formerly called equal marriage unconstitutional, and even drafting a bill that would make it legal for public servants to discriminate against gay people, the Tories have welcomed an openly gay MLA from a provincial Liberal party.
While I don’t take this as evidence that the Conservatives are no longer hostile toward gays, I do think it would be nice to have a gay influence among the Tory seats. If it came down to it.
- Mayencourt announces he’ll run for Conservatives [Xtra West]
Court Challenges Program Returning, Almost
The Court Challenges Program, a means to ensure that unconstitutional laws could be challenged by those who otherwise couldn’t afford it, was scrapped by the Federal Tories in 2006. The program, which cost a pittance, was cut largely due to lobbying from anti-gay groups who were angry that the program was helping to strike down laws that illegally infringed upon gay rights.
Due to an out-of-court settlement with the Federation de Communautes Francophone et Acadienne du Canada, the program appears to be making a comeback. Sadly, it’s not without some major changes to fit in with the ideological reasons why the program was cut in the first place.
The first change is the name: It’s now called the Program to Support Linguistic Rights. The second change is exactly what the name implies: It’s exclusively to support linguistic rights, and not the rights of everyone. This means that there still will not be a way to challenge illegal laws that infringe upon minority rights without having deep pockets.
Helen Kennedy, a spokesperson for the gay rights group Egale, expressed disappointment in the replacement:
[The Tories] are ranking minorities. How do you place precedence of one group over another?
This is really a problem and I think that we’ve seen a slow, subtle erosion of LGBT rights since the Tories came to power. This is a very subtle way of denying us access to the justice system.
In 2007, opposition leader Stephen Dion vowed to ressurrect the Court Challenges Program as it existed before it was cut.
Sask MP Apologizes For Anti-Gay Slur
Tom Lukiwski, a Conservative MP from Saskatchewan, has apologized for homophobic slurs that he made on an unoffical 1991 campaign tape:
The only explanation I can give is that I was stupid, thoughtless and insensitive.
The comments I made should not be tolerated in any society. They should not be tolerated today, they should not have been tolerated in 1991, they should not have been tolerated the years previous to that.
The videotape, which was made during a Saskatchewan election campaign, showed a younger Lukiswki boasting about how he stands out as a nominee:
Let me put it to you this way: There’s As and there’s Bs. The As are guys like me; the Bs are homosexual faggots with dirt on their fingernails that transmit disease.
Wow.
While reaction to the initial comments has been near-universal condemnation, the apology’s reaction has been varied. Liberal MP, Scott Brison, is calling for Lukiswki to be fired, and NDP MP, Bill Siksay, says he thought the apology was sincere. (Both MPs are gay themselves.)
Personally, I think the comments were pretty awful, and their age is irrelevant. Lukiwski was a 40 year old man at the time, and an aspiring politician to boot. It was the right thing to do to apologize, and I think calling for his resignation is a little reactionary, but we really ought to be on the lookout for these attitudes in our policy makers.
It comes as no surprise that Lukiwski voted against civil marriage for same-sex couples each time it has come before parliament. It would be irresponsible, rather than just ignorant, to have voted that way based on the sort of homophobia that Lukiwski displayed. Actions speak louder than words; I think he really ought to do more than just apologise and show that he no longer believes what he said.
Right-Wing Lobby Group Blasts Museum
Gwen Landolt of REAL Women of Canada, an anti-gay lobby group, has sent out an action alert about a proposed Human Rights Museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
The Human Rights Museum, which is still in its planning stages, has been somewhat of a sore spot for many social conservatives who oppose the inclusion of gay and women’s rights among the exhibits. When the museum was proposed, LifeSite called it a “Temple of Propaganda,” saying that its supporters have “made a monster of the word tolerance, [have] raped the word gay, and [have] beheaded the term human rights.” Extreme social conservatives have been quietly steaming ever since.
An interesting thing happened last week, though. The Conservative government tabled a bill that would make the Human Rights Museum a Crown corporation. While the government had already invested one hundred million dollars in the project, this bill will put the museum alongside such institutes as the National Gallery of Canada and the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Gwen Landolt is furious:
The Advisory Committee for the Museum, selected by the former Liberal government, consisted mainly of feminist, homosexual and regular Liberal stand-bys [...]
[The] museum, with its left-wing Advisory Board, would be used as a powerful tool to champion the Liberal government’s interpretation of human rights, such as abortion rights, feminism, homosexuality, etc. with only some legitimate exhibits sprinkled here and there to give the museum the appearance of legitimacy.
With the museum’s transition to a Crown corporation, and with the Conservative government’s continued support of the project, Gwen demands that as many people as possible “with a conservative perspective” use the government’s public consultation form to oppose gay rights exhibits, and instead promote exhibits that showcase the “selfless dedication” of “those defending the family and traditional marriage.”
A bizarre request, considering that nine consecutive court rulings and two federal House votes sided with supporters of equal marriage for gay couples.
Gwen’s crankiness aside, she has actually highlighted a unique opportunity to give some input into our Human Rights Museum. Why not take this opportunity and let the museum planners know what’s important to you when it comes to human rights?
Hat tip to JJ at Unrepentant Old Hippie, who actually subjects herself to Gwen’s mailing list in order to get the inside scoop.
- Ottawa introduces bill on human-rights museum [Globe and Mail]
Churches And XBoxes And Tories, Oh My!
In my web travels, I often come across stories that I intend to share, but then become distracted by newer, shinier stories—or feel too lazy to illustrate them in any meaningful or interesting way. Well, no more! Today, I present to you the first-ever Pile o’ Slaps! (i.e., really old stories that I’d otherwise just delete out of my queue.)
Canadian Anglicans have appealed to the Archbishop of Canterbury to sternly lecture the runaway parishes that evacuated the country over same-sex blessings. It seems that some of these parishes are continuing to minister in Canada remotely from somewhat more exotic locations without all those pesky equal marriage rights.
Students across the country continue to protest Canadian Blood Services’ ban on gay blood donors. Wait… Haven’t I written something about this before?
U.S. Soldiers, presumably fatigued by the war in Iraq, are asking and telling a lot more these days, as army deserters are at their highest level since 1980. Unlike Canada and—well, pretty much every other well-off nation with a military—gays in the U.S. are forbidden to serve in the army openly. What’s that slogan, again? Repress All That You Can Be?
The federal Tories have refused to investigate homophobic abuse within the RCMP, despite calls from the opposition to do so. That’s pretty much in line with their stance of a tougher police force, mind you.
Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore has hinted that his next film may be about gay rights in the states. The film will purportedly outline all of the civil rights that gays have won in the U.S. since the Stonewall days, giving it a runtime of about one-and-a-half minutes.
Singapore has banned Mass Effect, an XBox 360 game, over lesbian intimacy between two aliens. Due to the ban, 14-year-old Singaporean boys will now have to use a different Microsoft product to access their intimacy depictions.
OK, enough of that. Until Friday, kiddos!
Tories Motion To Repeal Same-Sex Marriage
Today’s the big day! The day where gay people and anti-gay crazies unite in watching a mind-numbingly boring debate on CPAC. Ah, what fun we’ll all have! The debate, of course, is over this motion:
That this house call on government to introduce legislation to restore the traditional definition of marriage without affecting civil unions and while respecting existing same-sex marriages.
An interesting take on the word “respecting,” as I would figure declaring one’s marriage a mistake and ensuring it never happens again isn’t terrifically respectful. But, I digress.
The stakes are high; the effects, annoying. If one side loses, their well-fought rights will be rescinded with precident-setting legislation (then, uh, later re-instated by the courts over gross constitutional violations). If the other side loses… Well, they’re not affected in the slightest.
Either way, we’ll be treated to some highly entertaining copy from the anti-gay lobby. I guess that’s worth a little tax money, no?
- Tories under attack over same-sex marriage vote [Globe and Mail]
- Same-sex marriage debate to be short-lived [Canada.com]
Tories Cut Equality Funding
Well, that didn’t take long! The Conservative Government announced yesterday that they have cut funding for the gay-friendly Canadian Heritage Department and turfed the gay-friendly Court Challenges Program entirely. (The gay-friendliness is surely just a coincidence, don’t you think?)
The Canadian Heritage Fund was—probably coincidentally—attacked by the right wing lobby groups REAL Women of Canada and Focus on the Family Canada earlier this month for supporting the Vancouver Queer Film Festival. Almost certainly coincidentally, that’s the same lobby that was bleating about the Court Challenges Program days prior to that.
Speaking of amazing coincidences, The Court Challenges Program has been used repeatedly by gay groups to challenge horribly unconstitutional bans on same-sex marriage—the very thing that the new government is trying to re-introduce. Though, the timing is certainly also an amazingly improbable coincidence.
Anyway, these surely non-ideological budget cuts were made despite an over 13 billion dollar surplus inherited from the former Liberal government. If I didn’t know better, I’d say the new government is exercising an unconstitutional opposition to equal rights for gays. But, instead, I’m going to think it’s just Coincidence Month in Canada. I’m never told about Coincidence Month.
- Ottawa comes under fire for budget cuts [Globe and Mail]
- Liberal programs axed under Tory spending cuts [CTV News]
- Flaherty tries not to offend [Toronto Star]
Anti-Gay Marriage Vote Soon
Ah, mid-September. That time of year when all of our gleeful politicians return to that magical parliament building in Ottawa and discuss matters at the forefront of the Canadian consciousness. Now, what issue do you suppose will be one of the earliest priorities this autumn?
(OK, I’ll admit it; that’s totally a rhetorical lead-in.)
That’s right kids, our brand new prime minister, Stephen Bus—err, Stephen Harper, resumed work this week and promised to act swiftly on his campaign promise to revoke same-sex marriage!
Now, naturally, the vote to re-open the “big debate” is expected to fail spectacularly, but don’t let that thought make you too comfortable with your full equality! Justice Minister Vic Toews has announced that, failing a ban on gay nuptials, the government will also introduce some shiny new legislation to “enhance protections for those who oppose same-sex marriage on religious or moral grounds!”
Hmm… You know, that sounds a little familiar… Almost like a defeated Alberta bill that would have removed all punishment for those who wished to refuse public services to gays on grounds of “moral objections.” You know, the one that also almost forced teachers to send out parental warnings before even acknowledge the existence of same-sex marriage in Canada. Yes, yes, I’m quite certain that was the same language used to describe it.
Anyway, whatever becomes of this idea, it looks like it’s going to be a fun-filled autumn of family-protecting (i.e. alarmingly hateful) goodness ahead!
Well, back to work! I haven’t quite yet filled my quota of destroyed families today. The gay agenda requires at least 15.
- Same-sex motion eyed [Calgary SUN]
- Commons resumes to fall agenda littered with pitfalls [Canadian Press]
No One To Challange Anders… Again
OK, in your best “soup nazi” voice: No reason for you! Next!
Walter Wakula, former Tory riding president for Calgary West, will not be allowed to challenge incumbent wacko MP, Rob Anders, for nomination. Absolutely no reason was given for Wakula’s disqualification, leaving everyone to scratch their head noisily—an action that Tories seem to evoke quite easily these days.
Anders (who, incidentally, was my MP before I got the hell out of Calgary), is best known as the sole dissenter in giving Nelson Mandela honorary Canadian citizenship, calling the man a communist and a terrorist. I remember Anders more for his crafting of flyers that linked crystal meth usage to “homosexual sex marriage” and mailing them to the wrong constituency.
So, why wouldn’t the conservative party allow a less controversial MP to run alongside Anders for the nomination when a clearly qualified former riding president is available? My guess: Anders is an undercover alien involved in a large conspiracy to slightly warm the rightmost chairs in the House of Commons! This is top secret stuff, folks…
Tory MP Challanged For Not Being Tory-ey Enough
Looks like the crazies are at it again, attacking their own base! Tory MP Garth Turner is having his riding challenged by radical “Christian” fundamentalists for not supporting a ban on same-sex marriage. Garth is, of course, unfazed by the nonsense.
Am I supposed to change my mind and all of a sudden hate homosexual people because I’m facing a challenge in my riding? Of course not, I’m not going to change. I’m still the member of Parliament, and I’m still going to do what I said I’m going to do.
A conservative with actual sense? Party on, Garth!
- Tory MP Garth challanged for riding [CTV News]
- MP facing possible challange from anti-gay marriage candidate [Canada.com]
Breaking News! Stop The Presses!
Gee whiz, give a guy a microphone and you think you’d expect something different from time to time, no?
Justice minister Vic Toews (who doesn’t seem to have a firm grasp of justice) has once again re-stated his previous re-iteration that he will still not be supporting equal marriage when it comes before parliament in the fall… again.
After the vote to revoke same-sex marriage inevitably fails, I’m told he will simply re-run his hysterical world-has-been-thrust-into-chaos sound bytes to save energy. Can’t be too conscientious, after all—what with global warming and such.
- Toews firm on same-sex marriage [Canada.com]
Ou Est Harper?
The International AIDS Conference—the bi-annual event said to bring nearly 27,000 researchers, patients, journalists, and activists to the fine city of Toronto—kicked off yesterday with an evening of, well, really exciting stuff!
Celebrities, including Bill and Melinda Gates, Bill Clinton, Richard Gere, and Alicia Keys were in attendance. Even former prime minister Paul Martin said he’d be there to make a speech (before the conservatives triggered a snap election), as previous PMs have done (Yes, even Brian Mulroney). In fact, it seems like everyone who’s anyone was there to help put a stop to one of the world’s largest pandemics. Everyone except… Gee, who’s that guy again?
Ah, yes; silly me: Prime Minister Stephen Harper was notably absent, instead touring an arctic military base to “defend arctic sovereignty.”
Organisers and attendants of the AIDS conference are baffled, including Stephen Lewis, UN director for AIDS/HIV in Africa:
It’s a dreadful mistake in political judgment, and it’s not excusable. It’s a lost opportunity to tell the world how Canada feels about this pandemic. The Arctic sovereignty issue will still be there [when the conference ends]. Forty million people worldwide carry this virus, and most will die preventable deaths. What greater scourge is there than that?
I’ve asked time and again why he isn’t coming, and the answer I keep getting is that he doesn’t want to be booed.
Well, booing certainly seems to be a big problem for our prime minister and his MPs. But, hey, if he keeps this up—and with a little luck after the next election—maybe that won’t be a problem for him anymore.
- As AIDS activists, scientists, gather in Toronto, organisers ask: Where’s Harper? [Canada.com]
- Harper chooses Arctic over AIDS [Toronto Star]
Homosexual Sex Marriage!
Ah, Rob Anders. My former MP. Although he’s probably best known for being the sole dissenter in a vote to give Nelson Mandela, international hero, honorary Canadian citizenship (Anders said Mandela is a “communist and a terrorist”), I remember him for some equally baffling shenanigans.
Now how did it go again? Oh, yes! Anders used taxpayer money (rather than money from his party) to print flyers, emblazoned with a scary masked gunman, linking crystal meth usage and crime to—and I quote: “homosexual sex marriage.” Then he mailed them to constituents in another province!
Raymond Chan, the Liberal MP for that region, was confused why another MP was targeting his constituents with such a bizarre tactic.
They’re resorting to fear-mongering, if you look at the layout of this brochure. And also they’re so outrageous. [Sexual] orientation is not a crime since the ’70s.
Chan’s campaign office was just as confused.
It’s consistent with the concerns that some people have had with the social conservative agenda, coming out and talking about crime and throwing homosexuality into it.
Now, I can’t help but wonder what Anders thinks about heterosexual sex marriage? I wonder…
- Calgary MP wants your thoughts on homosexual sex marriage [Richmond News]
Visa Delays for Out Games Participants
The 1st World Out Games for gay athletes, to be held in Montreal from July 26th to August 5th, has run into a teensy little problem. Nearly 250 of the foreign athletes to compete, it appears, still have not yet been granted visas by the federal government.
Immigration minister, Monte Solberg (who, incidentally, voted against the marriage equality bill last year), issued a statement through his office saying that they are not discriminating based on sexual orientation, and that many visa applications are still in the review process. In fact, it turns out that several of the athletes have criminal records causing the government to go into a lengthy review.
The problem with this? Many of these criminal records are for athletes who were persecuted in their respective countries for being homosexual.
Hmm… This doesn’t bode well, Monte. You might want to speed the review process along here. After all, there’s no fury quite like that of a gay man deprived of throwing his men’s-diving-watching party!
- Visa delays plague games for gays [CBC News]
Justice: The Vic Toews Way!
Conservative Justice Minister Vic Toews has blamed “the controversy” over same-sex marriage directly on the Liberals, saying that the equal marriage law “was politically motivated.” This, instead of, say, the natural progression of equality confirmed by multiple previous court rulings… But, regardless, you know what this means!
That’s right, folks! Vicky, who has been oddly silent about his normally hysterical opposition to equal marriage, is finally speaking out! I missed his antics so.
So what’s Vic’s latest Crazy Message of Yesteryear™? Basically, same-sex marriage is “a mistake” that the new conservative government needs to fix.
Oh, but, of course, simply revoking the equal marriage law wouldn’t be enough for Vicky, as the Supreme Court would ultimately rule in favour of equality. So, he has also called for parliament to use the obscure notwithstanding clause to override the 9 consecutive lower court decisions and any future ruling that would inevitably find opposite-sex-marriage-only laws to be unconstitutional.
Yep, that’s our new justice minister!
Hey… If Vic can become justice minister with that sort of ideology… Maybe I, Mark, über gay news reporter, can become Super Pope! I’ll scribble it onto my “give it a shot” list.
