Anti-Gay "Institute" Plays Poll-Twister!
Oh, this ought to be good! The anti-gay lobby group, Institute for Canadian Values, unveiled their latest poll this week, concluding that the majority of Canadians want to revisit same-sex marriage in light of religious freedoms.
The poll’s “big result” is, of course, that a whopping 72% of Canadians do not want clergy to be forced to marry same-sex couples. A very odd thing to include in a poll, considering that the same-sex marriage law already includes redundant preamble stating that clergy can’t be forced to marry anyone. The Supreme Court of Canada has also ruled that the Charter guarantees this right, in the same capacity that clergy do not have to wed interfaith or divorced couples.
Where the poll gets especially interesting, though, is in the choice of questions relating to matters which are presently illegal. The pollsters were very quick to state, for example, that 61% of Canadians think a publisher should be able to refuse business to gays.
Really? 61% of Canadians said that?
Luckily, I’m somewhat literate (bear with me), so I was able to read the poll questions myself. Here’s the actual phrasing presented to respondents:
Should a religious person who prints brochures for a living have the freedom to recommend another printer to a homosexual group wanting some brochures printed?
Should a printer have the “freedom to recommend another printer?” What?
The other questions were equally hypothetical and deliberate in not having anything to do with same-sex marriage whatsoever. Not that it matters, of course, as—no matter what the majority thinks—the Charter guarantees, irrevocably, that clergy are protected and that Joe Public can’t refuse squat to nobody.
