Ontario Premier Harris Dancing With Homosexual Activists

When the Supreme Court of Canada handed down its controversial decision in M and H in May, 1999, dealing with equal benefits for homosexual/lesbian couples under the Ontario Family Law Act, REAL Women was deeply concerned.

We immediately prepared a detailed brief setting out the various options available to the Conservative government of Premier Mike Harris, options that would satisfy the requirements of M and H, but which, at the same time, would protect traditional marriage in the province.

On July 26, 1999, REAL Women met personally and privately with Mr. Harris where we presented him with these various choices. We subsequently met twice with Ontario Attorney General Jim Flaherty on the issue. The first time REAL Women met privately with Mr. Flaherty, and at the second meeting, we were joined by representatives from the Canadian Family Coalition (CFAC) and the Catholic Civil Rights League. Also in attendance at this latter meeting were Deputy Attorney General, Mark Freiman and Stephen Rotstein, Legislative Assistant, Office of the Attorney General.

Each of these meetings was cordial, and we believed that our views were being taken seriously by Mr. Harris and his government.

We were deeply dismayed, therefore, when the government tabled Bill 5, which provided the worst possible alternative to our perspective. The Bill amended 67 Ontario Statutes to provide homosexual couples the same equal benefits as legally married heterosexual couples. (See Reality, "The Ontario Government and the Supreme Court of Canada", November/December, 1999, p. 4). It was also of concern to us that shortly after Bill 5 was passed, Premier Harris sent a letter co-signed by Ontario NDP leader, Howard Hampton, to Justice Minister Anne McLellan demanding that the Criminal Code be amended to provide homosexuals with special protection against "hate crimes," which will essentially shut down debate on the issue if passed.

It is indeed puzzling that a so-called "conservative" government which was elected on a "common sense" platform, would jump on the homosexual bandwagon and totally ignore the views of its grass-roots supporters across the province. What was going on?

We now seem to have the answer to this puzzle. It was first revealed in the Toronto Sun by columnist, Michael Coren (May 4, 2000) and then reiterated by Globe and Mail columnist, Margaret Wente in her column on June 24, 2000. Both these columnists revealed that homosexual activists were at the centre of the recent changes in Ontario and Ottawa in regard to homosexual advances.

Randall Pearce, who at one time was vice-president of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, organized the successful drive to pass the federal hate crimes law which increased penalties if the crime was allegedly to be motivated by "hate" against homosexuals (see Reality, "Bill C-41 Passes…. At a Price," July/August 1995, p. 5). Mr. Pearce, who worked as Director of Communications for the National Progressive Conservative Party in Ottawa, is now set to run for the federal Tories in the next election.

George Marsland, another homosexual activist, took leave as an executive in the large Magna Auto Parts company to work on Tom Long's leadership candidacy for the Canadian Alliance. Also, homosexual Jamie Watt is part of the inner circle who helped Mr. Harris get elected and who has been advising him on a wide range of matters ever since. Mr. Watt, according to Ms. Wente's column, "… is widely credited with persuading the Premier not to buckle to the party's right wing over M and H ….." Further, Ms. Wente stated in her column:

Mr. Harris called his caucus to heel and swiftly passed an omnibus bill that brought a vast array of Ontario laws into compliance. 'They're not the values that govern my house,' he grumped. But the gay conservatives didn't care. He'd done what was right.

Mr. Marsland, Mr. Watt and Mr. Pearce co-founded the homosexual Canadian Human Rights Campaign, a political action committee that raised money and lobbied for homosexual "equality" legislation. Both Mr. Marsland and Mr. Watt served in Brian Mulroney's Prime Minister's office.

However, it was an article appearing in the weekly Ontario newspaper NOW, June 22-28, 2000 edition (owned by the Toronto Star), written by Scott Anderson that was most revealing. According to this article, Premier Harris' coming around to the homosexual cause was credited to Jamie Watt who supposedly worked quietly to dissuade Mr. Harris from using the notwithstanding clause in M and H.

The NOW article quoted Mr. Marsland as stating:

Jamie did a lot of work behind the scenes to build comfort on those things, ….. Sixty-seven pieces of amending legislation were passed without a whimper. No muss. No fuss. That's an accomplishment.

Mr. Marsland is also quoted in the article as stating that he and Jamie Watt had met with Mr. Harris after a 1994 Ontario by-election during which radio ads questioning the NDP's homosexual agenda were aired. The Conservative candidate won that by-election.

According to Mr. Marsland, as quoted in the NOW article:

'Jamie and I went in and expressed our displeasure and asked that he not campaign on our backs again,' he recalls. 'And Mr. Harris made a commitment to us that he would not do that.'

The fact that Mr. Harris has homosexual activists in his inner circle begs the question as to why he caved in to their demands and not those of the majority of his supporters. In fact, Mr. Harris virtually stomped on voters' views and concerns by pushing through his pro-homosexual legislation (Bill 5) in a matter of hours last November.

A further key to this mystery lies in the fact that during the last provincial election (1999), when most of the left-wing special interest groups such as the unions, poverty and housing advocates, etc. were demonstrating loudly and publicly against Mr. Harris at his every campaign stop, notable by their absence were the homosexual activists. The latter were uncharacteristically quiet during the entire campaign. Since homosexual activists operate by way of activism and demonstrations, this was a highly unusual development. For example, homosexual activists have already announced a campaign against Stockwell Day, Canadian Alliance Leader. According to newspaper reports, they plan to mount an aggressive strategy of letter writing, media awareness, pointed questions at public forums and possibly protests to force Mr. Day to "reveal his thoughts on the issue." There are two homosexual federal Tory candidates who also plan to challenge Mr. Day to a public debate. These are the standard homosexual tactics which were completely absent from Mr. Harris' 1999 election campaign.

The obvious conclusion is that Mr. Harris had made a "deal" with the homosexual activists that he would do their bidding on M and H in return for their silence and cooperation during the election campaign.

Moreover, since the opposition parties in Ontario, the Liberals and the NDP, are left-leaning and are frank in their support of homosexual rights, Mr. Harris knew that social conservatives could be safely ignored since they have nowhere else to put their vote. Consequently, Mr. Harris was apparently prepared to trade off his integrity as a conservative, common sense leader in order to adopt the left-wing policies on homosexuality identical to those of his NDP predecessors. Ironically, while the latter were unable to push through these 67 homosexual amendments in 1994, the same agenda was accomplished by the Conservative's Bill 5.

In short, Mr. Harris has betrayed his conservative values and principles and is now dancing to the tune of the homosexual activists. Who can trust him?

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