No hidden agenda
During the run up to the last federal election the Conservatives swore over and over again that they had no hidden right wing agenda. I didn’t believe them then and I sure as hell don’t now, particularly with several things that have come to light this week
The federal Conservative government says it will no longer fund women’s groups that do advocacy, lobbying or general research.
The drastic change to the mandate and operation of Status of Women Canada also drops the word “equality” when listing the agency’s goals.
Previous objectives such as helping women’s organizations participate in the public policy process and increasing the public’s understanding of women’s equality issues have been eliminated from government literature.
Organizations that receive funding from the Trudeau-era agency were stunned.
“When you look at this Conservative government’s policy it’s like, ‘Be good girls, be quiet.’ It’s shocking really,” said Monica Lysack of the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada. (more…)
and
OTTAWA — The Conservative government is planning measures, including a Defence of Religions Act, to allow public officials, such as Justices of the Peace, to refuse to perform same-sex marriages.
The measures are also intended to protect the free-speech rights of religious leaders and others who criticize homosexual behaviour or refuse to do business with gay-rights organizations, The Globe and Mail has learned.
[snip]
Sources say the government is considering measures to protect individuals who oppose homosexual marriages or even relationships from human rights’ complaints.
The measures would seek to ensure, for example, that churches cannot be forced to rent their halls for same-sex marriage receptions, or that a justice of the peace cannot be compelled to marry a same-sex couple in violation of his or her religious beliefs.
Justice officials have also been told to search for ways to protect the rights of individuals to criticize homosexual activity because it contravenes religious teachings, or to refuse to do business with organizations whose purposes he or she disagrees with, without being brought before a human-rights tribunal. (more…)
The values expressed in those two pieces of legislation arise directly out of the fundamentalist Christian backgrounds of Steven Harper and many of his Conservative MPs. The second issue above I covered back in February 2005. The first issue I’d like to say was simply unbelievable but unfortunately it’s just too obvious. Fundies are misogynists at heart. They do not accept that women are mens equals but that a woman’s role is to shut up, spread her legs, bear and raise his children, and in every way support her man at the expense of herself, and they use the hammer of their religion to achieve it. Oh, in this day and age when it is politically incorrect for them to say what they really believe they will couch it in coded speak but it is still the same religious crap.
It’s time for the Liberals, NDP and the Bloc to bring this minority government down and force a new election.
