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The Death of Canadian Scouting
Intellectual Conservative ^ | 13 August 2004 | Hans Zeiger

Posted on 08/15/2004 9:05:41 AM PDT by BraveMan

Scouts Canada ceased to serve any useful purpose the day they became all-inclusive, all-sensitive, and all-tolerant.

Big Canadian real estate is on the market. A rather sizable chunk of Lord Robert Baden-Powell's Empire is available for investors, homebuilders, fishing resort prospectors, or blacktop barons. Scouts Canada is pounding in "for sale" signs at the entrances of a number of Scout camps across the country, including at least twenty camps in Ontario. But don't worry. No Boy Scouts will mourn the loss of their summer camps, for the Boy Scouts of Canada no longer exist.

Thinking they could become more inclusive, the Boy Scouts of Canada Board of Governors decided in November 1998 to admit females, atheists, agnostics, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transsexuals into troops. Although established troops were not even allowed to remain all-male groups, Scouts Canada approved the establishment of the world's first all-homosexual troop in 1999. The troop marches in homosexual pride parades and loudly symbolizes what Scouts Canada calls its commitment to diversity.

Scouts Canada's new non-discrimination code reads: "Scouting is a worldwide, multicultural movement. We welcome people to membership regardless of gender, race, culture, religious belief, sexual orientation or economic circumstances. Youth members are strongly influenced by the behavior of adults. We need to be sensitive to the traditions and beliefs of all people and to avoid words or actions which "put down" anybody."

And so, in its attempt to include everybody and everything, Scouts Canada is effectively dead.

Budgets have run dry. Troop halls and old campsites sit vacant. Professional staff salaries are severed. Membership is mostly decimated. In the past, membership roles consistently exceeded 300,000. Around the peak in 1965, there were 320,000 Boy Scouts. Today, despite a one third population increase in Canada over four decades and a doubling of the demographic possibilities (with female members), Scouts Canada has dwindled to a puny 130,000 and it is rapidly declining.

Open to all, there is a certain liability that accompanies the mixture of sexes and sexual preferences at Scout Camp. It is no coincidence that Scouts Canada's costs for liability insurance against sexual molestation claims increased dramatically by 2002 when, lacking adequate finances, Scouts Canada canceled its sex abuse insurance, and with it many "high risk" activities. Without the insurance, a single pedophile could potentially annihilate Scouts Canada forever.

Esprit de corps has evaporated. Last year, wearing a uniform at official Scout events became optional. Scoutmasters were deprived of the authority to demand the wearing of uniforms. "It's time to stop bickering about the clothes we wear," said Ms. Bonita Brick, chair of the National Scouts Youth Committee that handed down the uniform decision. "Accept the reality of change."

It seems that change is not so attractive to the traditional core of Scouts Canada. "It is disheartening. Everything seems to be going down and down," laments veteran Scouter Bill Stauttener, who manages Union Marsh Scout Camp which is set to go on the chopping block.

Eastern Ontario's Camp Apple Hill is expected to sell for just $30,000, a bargain considering that it is 300 acres. "It's very heartbreaking and very distressing," says three-decade Scout leader Pat Tugwood.

It may be a sad affair for some who've been around Canadian Scouting for a while, but I say good riddance to Scouts Canada. They ceased to serve any useful purpose the day they became all-inclusive, all-sensitive, and all-tolerant. The Scout Oath and Scout Law are obliterated in the land of the red maple leaf north of Parallel 49.

It is doubtful that this organization can be resuscitated. Political correctness, having infected whole institutions, does not easily reverse. But we Americans might well consider this malady and contain it at the border.

"In meeting the challenges of a multi-faith society which is increasingly gay-positive, the [Boy Scouts of America] might follow the lead of Scouts Canada," urges a writer at ReligiousTolerance.org. And thus the far Left attacks the Boy Scouts of America, relentlessly for the past two decades.

There are prices to be paid by the BSA for standing on traditional moral values, but none so severe as this eulogy of Scouts Canada. In America, United Way funding may be cut, cities and school districts may abandon the Scouts, courts may order the Scouts to leave public property. But so long as the Scout Oath and Law remain intact, the Boy Scouts of America can survive.

Goodbye, Scouts Canada. Political correctness is sure grand, eh?


TOPICS: Canada; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: agnostics; atheists; bisexuals; boyscouts; bsa; females; gays; hanszeiger; homosexualagenda; lesbians; theend; transsexuals; troops
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1 posted on 08/15/2004 9:05:42 AM PDT by BraveMan
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To: BraveMan
SAD.....hadn't heard of the "Queer Scouts" official recognition before. :((
2 posted on 08/15/2004 9:20:43 AM PDT by skinkinthegrass (Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you :)
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To: AppauledAtAppeasementConservat; Da Jerdge; Looking for Diogenes; Congressman Billybob; ...
Caution, .... the effects of turning French on Scouting ever giving in to the is shown in this story.
3 posted on 08/15/2004 9:25:20 AM PDT by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country. What else needs to be said?)
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To: skinkinthegrass

come on Canada, just admit it.
You're just a province of Old Europe.
Not a real country.


4 posted on 08/15/2004 9:27:55 AM PDT by VOA
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To: BraveMan

Are you really in favor of discriminating against kids based on religion?


5 posted on 08/15/2004 9:31:45 AM PDT by gcruse (http://gcruse.typepad.com/)
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To: BraveMan

Wood Badge bump...........


6 posted on 08/15/2004 9:38:02 AM PDT by DKM
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To: gcruse
Scouts don't discriminate on religion, but they do say you have to profess one. If kid doesn't want to, he doesn't have to join. The BSA is a private club and they have the right to set the standards they choose.
7 posted on 08/15/2004 9:41:21 AM PDT by Conservative_boy_in_Bangkok (DNC- "We have made a clone. We shall call him Minnie Dukakis")
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To: BraveMan

After reading this, I am so proud to say my son is a scout. I will continue to encourage and support him as he keeps going in the program. Long live Boy Scouts of America!!!


8 posted on 08/15/2004 9:50:10 AM PDT by Wonderama
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To: Conservative_boy_in_Bangkok
The BSA is a private club and they have the right to set the standards they choose.

IOW, yes, you are in favor of discriminating against kids based on a religious test.
Is it so hard to say it right out?
9 posted on 08/15/2004 9:56:51 AM PDT by gcruse (http://gcruse.typepad.com/)
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To: BraveMan

That's a shame. It WAS a wonderful organization.


10 posted on 08/15/2004 9:58:58 AM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
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To: Wonderama
My brother and I were both scouts for years. One of the best things we could have done. Today he is a youth pastor at a very large church, and runs a very successful small business on the side, I am a missionary, and have traveled the world. That might not sound like much to some folks but we are both living our dreams and that is what Scouting is all about. It's one of the best things you could do for your kids!
11 posted on 08/15/2004 9:59:28 AM PDT by Conservative_boy_in_Bangkok (DNC- "We have made a clone. We shall call him Minnie Dukakis")
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To: BraveMan

I was a boy scout. I'm proud of the fight they have put up and have/will donate to help out.


12 posted on 08/15/2004 10:02:30 AM PDT by Vision ("This is in God's hands now")
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To: gcruse
I secularism is a religion, then yes I am in favor keeping them out of private clubs that don't want them to join. If that is you what you call discrimination, you bet ya ! they have the right to discriminate in that manner, because it is a private club that has the right to set its standards.
13 posted on 08/15/2004 10:04:28 AM PDT by Conservative_boy_in_Bangkok (DNC- "We have made a clone. We shall call him Minnie Dukakis")
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To: gcruse

What do you expect? The organization is called the BOY Scouts of AMERICA. Right there they have "discriminated" against girls and Australians.


14 posted on 08/15/2004 10:05:32 AM PDT by Boss_Jim_Gettys (This tagline has been removed under threat of legal action by the DNC and Kerry-Edwards campaign.)
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To: Boss_Jim_Gettys

Right on excellent point!


15 posted on 08/15/2004 10:06:40 AM PDT by Conservative_boy_in_Bangkok (DNC- "We have made a clone. We shall call him Minnie Dukakis")
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To: gcruse
IOW, yes, you are in favor of discriminating against kids based on a religious test. Is it so hard to say it right out?

So should atheist organizations be forced to accept the religious?
16 posted on 08/15/2004 10:11:12 AM PDT by Kozak (Anti Shahada: " There is no God named Allah, and Muhammed is his False Prophet")
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To: BraveMan

I'm a proud, card-carrying Eagle Scout ('62) and support my local councils outside the socialist, hate-America United Way scumbags. Scouting USA will NEVER go the way of Canadian Scouting: to hell.


17 posted on 08/15/2004 10:12:54 AM PDT by 7.62 x 51mm (• Veni • Vidi • Vino • Visa • "I came, I saw, I drank wine, I shopped")
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To: Kozak
So should atheist organizations be forced to accept the religious?

Then you, too, are in favor of discriminating against kids based on religion.
Why so sensitive in admitting it?
18 posted on 08/15/2004 10:16:13 AM PDT by gcruse (http://gcruse.typepad.com/)
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To: gcruse
"Are you really in favor of discriminating against kids based on religion?"

ALL religions (including atheism) are "discriminatory" by definition.

19 posted on 08/15/2004 10:16:25 AM PDT by nightdriver
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To: Conservative_boy_in_Bangkok

You're absolutely right. And as such, they should get no tax funding or privileged use of public facilities.


20 posted on 08/15/2004 10:17:46 AM PDT by gcruse (http://gcruse.typepad.com/)
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