Canadian Conservatives Battle Liberal Moral Gag Law

Human Events Online ^ | 21 June 2004 | J.L. Jackson

[MegaSilver]

While Canada's newly merged Conservative Party's upward thrust in the general election polls is tied to Liberal scandal after scandal being exposed, as well as the Conservatives own moderate platform of middle class tax cuts, according to the mail bags of senators and members of Parliament, (thousands and thousands of letters) a moral backlash could also be building. Topics that average Canadians are beginning to notice in spite of there being little to no mainstream media coverage include the definition of marriage as being one man and one woman and Bill C-250 that now protects "sexual orientation" in the criminal code.

Bill C-250, the "moral gag law," represses moral opinion by adding the undefined term "sexual orientation," to existing hate crime legislation, passed through the Senate's third reading, April 28, 2004, a few weeks prior to Paul Martin's calling the general election. Bill C-250, an important part of the social-liberal agenda in order to stifle debate on the marriage issue, means that pastors, who are already being prosecuted for speaking out against homosexuality by Human Rights Tribunals in Canada, could also now be criminally charged. Canada has in fact now made "sin" a hate crime.

According to Brian Rushfeldt, the Canadian Family Action Coalition's executive director, Bill C-250 is "a draconian piece of legislation that will criminalize people who express an opinion contrary to homosexual behaviour, including views based on religion, conscience, morality, and even medical or humanitarian concerns."

Bill C-250 was originally a private members bill brought forward by Member of Parliament Svend Robinson, a member of the socialist New Democrat Party. The bill died before Christmas but was reborn again this spring. Robinson has been involved in various radical stunts such as posing nude on the Internet for an environmental group and has been in favor of such things as lowering the age of consent in Canada (the age of consent is now only 14 years of age). Robinson graced the front pages of Canada's newspapers after he was caught on videotape stealing a diamond ring for his lover, but has yet to be charged.

Far from being a partisan issue, concern over the future implications of Bill C-250 has been raised by both Conservative and Liberal senators. Senator Anne Cools, Liberal at the time, remains very much the exception in senatorial circles. Cools led the charge to prevent Bill C-250 passing in the Senate. Cools, was a Liberal with traditional views (in many ways a parallel can be made with the Democratic U.S. Sen. Zell Miller). Cools feels the Liberals have left the mainstream traditional views of average Canadians and actually came over to the Conservative Party only last week while on a talk show debating a Liberal colleague.

It was Senator Cools who immediately understood the "mischief and potential abuse of power" that Bill C-250 represents. The bill is presented in the media as a "rights" issue, but Cools strongly disagrees with this perspective. As a Liberal, Senator Cools went much further in defining homosexual lobby group's agenda than the Conservative Party was willing to go. In the Senate, Oct. 27, 2003, Senator Anne Cools described Bill C-250 as:

"Directed at those Canadians whose moral opinions are unwanted by an elite group of homosexual rights activists, a group that is well connected to the government and that seeks to overwhelm their opponents and to impose their moral views on them. This elite group disagrees morally with millions of Canadians. Not content merely to disagree with them and to co-exist with them, this elite, by Bill C-250, seeks to persecute and to prosecute them criminally."

According to Senator Cools, the "natural human disposition is to abuse power," which makes the implementation of this supposedly 'symbolic' law a danger to Canada's very democracy.

When examination of the Senate record is done, chillingly irrational and even frightening rhetoric begins to emerge from social-Liberal "rights" proponents. In the March 11 Senate committee meeting records, a director for Canada's federally funded homosexual lobby group called Egale, explained one of the reasons he was lobbying for Bill C-250 to pass was his discomfort in kissing his partner in public at the airport and his feeling that Bill C-250 would help in this sort of uncomfortable situation. One of the Liberal senators, a former school teacher, seemed to indicate that children should be prosecuted under Bill C-250 for calling each other names in the schoolyard, and that would be acceptable, because Canada's Young Offenders Act would protect them from jail time--re-education is all that would be necessary. An even more bizarre turn to the debate came earlier this year when Liberal Senator Laurier LaPierre replied to a reportedly respectful letter from a concerned Canadian citizen disagreeing with homosexual marriage by saying, "God! You people are sick. God should strike you dead."

On March 10 Cools made an impassioned speech attempting to reason with her fellow Liberal Senators who hold the balance of power in the Canadian Senate:

Honorable senators my skin is black. That is immutable. There is no evidence that has been put before us, never mind as to whether or not the immutability of sexual orientation, we have not even been told what sexual orientation is. This is where my concerns come, I am not a prude or anything like that, but my concerns come because no one will tell us what the words "sexual orientation" mean. Back in 1996 when that bill was before us, there were many of us who pleaded to use the words "discrimination against homosexuals" and not any word as vague and wide open as sexual orientation."

In desiring to be "nice" to left wing lobby groups, and to avoid the media twisting of this so-called "rights-" related hot potato, politics continues on the issue of Bill C-250. The Conservative Party has circled its wagons, no longer allowing MPs to speak freely during the general election. While disappointing to conservatives in favor of free speech, with only one alternative, conservative publication in the country--the Western Standard-- the Conservative Party and new leader Stephen Harper can go only so far because Canada's biased media hammer anyone who breaks from the narrow politically correct construct the mainstream media enforce. Harper has chosen to moderately clarify the party's position on Bill C-250 by saying the Conservative Party would appeal it, while prior to Harper's own gag, some MPs were talking about repealing BIll C-250.

A coalition of grassroots conservative groups, including my own (www.canadianconservativeunion.com) and Concerned Christian Canada is calling for Bill C-250 to be scrapped. This initiative has been online for little over a week and has received over 600 signatures online and in hard copy form across Canada--from the Maritimes to the Yukon.

Social-Liberalism has hijacked the debate making even conservatives forget that ,besides defending freedom of speech and religion, and protecting the state from interfering in the church's business, individuals--including homosexuals are equal under one law. Homosexuals, as individuals, are already are given full protection from violence, just like all other individuals in Canada.

As Liberal fortunes continue to plummet they are now reaching out to the more left-wing element of the party that is being effectively split by the socialist New Democrat Party's new dynamic leader, Jack Layton. Paul Martin in a June 15 debate tried to employ the Liberals' continuing strategy of claiming that if you're not Liberal you are unCanadian "Rights" and the Charter that protects them is more sacred then Parliament representing the people according to Martin.

Martin also tried to reclaim the party's left wing component by promising to reintroduce a bill to decriminalize marijuana. The auditor general reports that less then $500 million is invested in fighting illicit drugs in Canada, and Canada's burgeoning basement trade of high potency pot is spawning a wave of organized crime never before seen in Canada. But an unconcerned Martin lightened the mood while visiting a daycare center by joking he had not smoked marijuana but, "there is a rumor going around that I have eaten [marijuana] brownies."

J. L. Jackson is a writer, photojournalist, and conservative activist from Canada who also runs CanadianConservativeUnion.com.

[MegaSilver]

Aux arms, conservateurs!

[Clintonfatigued]

Does Canada have any retired actors who are dissillusioned with liberalism, articulate, likeable, anti-terrorist, and willing to call for change in public dialogue?

[goldstategop]

Even social conservatives in the Liberal Party (yes, there are a few) have been silenced by the demand to be politically correct on social issues in Canada.

[little jeremiah]

Homosexual Agenda Ping - A long read, managed to choke some of it down and will try to swallow the rest.

Basically, Hate Crimes morph into Hate Speech, and that's only a hop, skip and a jump to Hate Thought.

Gulag, anyone? Or maybe just electroshock therapy, or perhaps Thorazine.

Why would such laws have any justification? Because they know they can't indoctrinate everyone. Must criminalize independent thinkers.

let me *and* scripter know if anyone wants on/off this pinglist.

[WritableSpace]

Looks like will have to start 'regime change' in Canada soon, there being taken over by tyrants.

The Lavender Mafia.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

In desiring to be "nice" to left wing lobby groups, and to avoid the media twisting of this so-called "rights-" ...-- the Conservative Party and new leader Stephen Harper can go only so far because Canada's biased media hammer anyone who breaks from the narrow politically correct construct the mainstream media enforce.

I seem to recall just a little bit of civil disobedience by the Cubans in Florida sent the fairy Democratic lawyers to flight when they came to Miami to feather the vote recount. Conservatives need to act up now and then. The homosexuals and socialists seem to have a lock on intimidation by mob tactics.

[familyop]

"...but my concerns come because no one will tell us what the words "sexual orientation" mean."

Feminist linguistic activists (those who eventually have a say as to what will be in your dictionaries) also started abusing the word, "gender" (which refers to Latin words and plants) to replace the word, "sex." ...that, so they could spread the false word that there are five sexes instead of only two.

[backhoe]

From my files, a letter from years ago:

---

Letter to the Editors, Washington Times, circa fall, 1998:

---

In the waning hours of the 105th Congress, quiet efforts to pass controversial legislation are under way.

The Hate Crimes Prevention Act... cites violence based on sexual orientation as a Hate Crime.

Hate Crimes have commonly been racially motivated. Only in Canada has sexual orientation been included in anti-hate and human rights legislation. The Canadian law does not focus exclusively on physical violence-- it includes all forms of communication as well.

...As a Canadian living in the United States, I fear for your freedom, mainly because you take it for granted.

If my words were published in a Canadian newspaper... I would be charged with inciting hate under the criminal code.

Freedom of speech no longer exists in Canada-- I could not state that AIDS is largely found within the homosexual community, nor quote statistics to back up my assertion.
My opinion would make me a criminal. Since "tolerance" has been redefined... only Political Correctness is tolerated...

The Hate Crimes Prevention Act is a signifigant foot in the door for homosexual rights lobbyists-- it validates the entire... movement as an endangered group in need of special legislative protection.

Violence against any person is already illegal, no matter what the motive.

I find it offensive that violence is noteworthy only when the victim ( is)... a member of some political action group.

Susan Mayhew
Herndon, Virginia