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TARGETING THE OPPOSITION TO SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

During the heated public arguments in the weeks and months following the Liberal government's announcement that it would be introducing legislation to permit same-sex partners to enter into legal marriage, individuals and groups who oppose the legislation have been targeted. This targeting was so persistent and well-coordinated that it is not possible to assume that it occurred by mere chance. This campaign did not come from the Liberal caucus, but was more likely to have been directed from the Prime Minister's office (PMO) itself or some individuals within it. This targeting has all the fingerprints of Warren Kinsella, author of the book "Web of Hate" and a prominent member of the Liberal "War Room" during the 2000 federal election. It was he who was mainly responsible for the mocking of Stockwell Day, Alliance leader, for his Christian beliefs during that election campaign. If Warren Kinsella was not directing this campaign against those opposing same-sex marriage, then certainly his methods of operation have acquired an apt pupil.

The purpose of this targeting was to undermine the credibility of those opposed to same-sex marriage. Individual members of the media sympathetic to the homosexual agenda have joined the attack to make opponents to same-sex marriage appear to be odd, or, at least, somewhat unhinged.

The line-up of those who have been targeted is quite impressive.

1. Liberal MP Dan McTeague (Pickering-Ajax-Uxbridge)

Mr. McTeague has been articulate and forceful in his defence of traditional marriage. The targeting of him took the form of a front page story in the Globe and Mail (Aug. 20, 2003) in which it was reported that he had organized a meeting in July with Barry Crane, the U.S. deputy drug czar in connection with the proposed legislation to decriminalize Canada's marijuana law. (See Reality, July/August, 2003.) At this meeting, Mr. McTeague was alleged to have urged the Americans to tighten Canada's borders to prevent marijuana grown in Canada from entering the U.S. This story was followed by editorials in Canada's daily newspapers (e.g. National Post, Aug. 27, 2003) condemning Mr. McTeague for his supposedly "un-Canadian" disloyalty, claiming that he was working against Canada's national interests which "shocked and appalled" the editorial writers. As if MPs do not meet on a regular basis with special interest groups, and other government officials in regard to proposed legislation! Spare us the media's indignation.

2. The Roman Catholic Church

In June 2003, the Vatican released a document in which same-sex marriages were condemned, and Catholic MPs were urged to vote against any such legislation. This document was immediately attacked in a round of intense criticism by both the government and the media. They complained that the document was a breach of the supposed separation between church and state - a separation which in fact does not exist in Canada's legal/constitutional framework. The attack on the Catholic Church for its vigorous defence of the traditional family culminated in a full page article in the Globe and Mail on Labour Day (Sept. 1, 2003), which claimed that Roman Catholic seminaries are becoming disproportionately homosexual, while as many as 40% of priests in the U.S. are homosexual. The article quoted no studies to support this allegation, and quoted only from dissenters from Catholic doctrine who are sympathetic to the homosexual agenda. The article included exactly one sentence from someone mildly suggesting the supposed percentage of gay priests may be "overstated." This article was in retaliation to the Catholic Church's strong opposition to same-sex marriage. It was so biased and preposterous, that no reasonable person could take it seriously.

3. Senator Anne Cools and MP Roger Gallaway (Sarnia-Lambton)

Senator Anne Cools and MP Roger Gallaway held a press conference on August 14, 2003, during which they expressed their concerns, as Parliamentarians, that the appointed courts were determining public policy, including the definition of marriage, thereby usurping the role of Parliament. Because of this concern, they announced their intention to intervene on behalf of Parliamentarians In the government's Reference to the Supreme Court of Canada on the proposed same-sex marriage legislation. In their intervention, they requested that the Court return the matter to Parliament. Journalist Paul Wells, formerly with the National Post but now with Maclean's Magazine, wrote an article published in the August 25, 2003 issue of Maclean's, ridiculing the concerns of Senator Cools and MP Roger Gallaway, claiming that they were only raising objections because their feelings were hurt because they were not being consulted on the issue. He referred to them as Ottawa's "lost souls" and mocked them as a "downtrodden parliamentary underclass." The purpose of this article was to ridicule and belittle them personally, as well as their legitimate concerns about judicial activism - an unsettling reality in Canada today.

4. Town Hall Meetings by Pastor Royal Hamel and the Rev. Tristan Emmanuel

Pastor Royal Hamel and the Rev. Tristan Emmanuel, a Presbyterian minister from Jordan Station, Ontario (near Niagara Falls), held seventeen (17) very well-attended meetings across Southern Ontario during the summer months to discuss the problems with Bill C-250 (amendment to hate propaganda provision in the Criminal Code) and same-sex marriage. The purpose of the town hall meetings called "Equipping Christians for the Public Square," was to alert the sleeping public of the dangers created by these bills. At one of these town hall meetings, held in Waterloo, Ontario on August 27, 2003, the local MP was invited to attend - the usual courtesy extended to MPs by the organizers of these meetings. The local MP is Liberal Andrew Telegdi (Kitchener-Waterloo), who surprised everyone by arriving at the meeting with a considerable entourage of supporters, plus TV, radio and newspaper reporters. While Pastor Hamel was speaking, Mr. Telegdi suddenly stood up and interrupted him by shouting that he was a liar and a fraud. After about four minutes of shouting, Mr. Telegdi stormed out of the meeting followed by the TV cameras and reporters. The local TV station covered the story that evening and three times the next day, and it was also a front page story in the local newspaper, the Kitchener-Waterloo Record. This episode was directly reminiscent of the 2000 federal election during which two Liberal female MPs, Hedy Fry (Vancouver Centre) and Elinor Caplan (Thornhill), suddenly erupted into matched screeching choruses from opposite sides of the country, alleging that the Alliance party was "racist" and "hateful," etc. The facts had no bearing on the allegations in either situation. The purpose was only to cast doubt on the integrity of the opposition.

5. Alliance Leader Stephen Harper

On September 4, 2003, Opposition Alliance leader, Stephen Harper, accused the federal Liberals of stacking Canada's courts with liberal-minded judges over the years in an effort to achieve same-sex marriage. That is, he claimed that Prime Minister Chrétien stacked the courts so that the biased judges, not Parliament, would decide this contentious issue. This objective, Mr. Harper stated, was aided by the government deliberately losing the court cases and choosing not to appeal them. He stated:

It was the government that decided to put the judges on the bench, the government that decided not to appeal, the government that decided to lose the case, and the government that decided not to come back to Parliament.

Mr. Harper's allegations were quickly met by statements such as those of left-wing former McGill University Law Professor, and supposed human rights expert, Liberal backbencher, Irwin Cotler (Mount Royal), who claimed that Mr. Harper's statements were an attack against the independence and integrity of the judiciary. A spokesperson for Justice Minister, Martin Cauchon, reiterated this by stating:

It's an unprovoked attack on the independence of our judiciary and a system of justice that has served this country historically and is respected around the world.

This was followed by an editorial in the Globe and Mail (Sept. 6, 2003) accusing Mr. Harper of trashing "the integrity of an excellent judiciary," and that Mr. Harper's allegations were "offensive and bewildering." Other newspapers across the country echoed this false sentiment.

6. REAL Women of Canada

REAL Women was the next in line for targeting. This took the form of an incoherent juvenile article about REAL Women published in the Vancouver Province on Sunday, September 14, 2003, written by columnist Dan Murphy. During an extensive interview with REAL Women, Mr. Murphy, apparently to his regret, and despite his best efforts in putting forth several leading questions, was unable to pin anything such as "racist" or "hateful" on our organization. Consequently, he wrote a silly article which did much more to undermine Mr. Murphy's credibility than that of REAL Women. No one reading the article could even make much sense of it.

Conclusion

The moral of these events is that one should not believe much of what one reads in the newspapers or watches on TV. The media in Canada have passed over the line from objectively and professionally presenting the facts, to become a vehicle to propagandize on behalf of their favoured groups and to undermine those who object to their liberal agenda

If the media had integrity, e.g. the Globe and Mail, Toronto Sun, Vancouver Sun and Edmonton Journal, they would have published the story of the Ontario Court of Appeal judges partying with the homosexual litigants in the case, as discussed in Reality, July/August, 2003 issue. Link Byfield wrote about it in the Calgary Sun, as did a columnist Mike Milke and columnist Trevor Lautens in the North Shore News (North Vancouver). Why not any others? It certainly was significant information which the major newspapers chose not to bring to their readers' attention. Objectivity and integrity are not a part of journalism today.

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