So ... how's that obnoxiously public Order of Canada renunciation going? Gilbert Finn? Hmmm ... still listed. Catherine Doherty? Ditto. The child-abusing Father Lucien Larre? Hanging in there.
Here's a thought -- if those people are so determined to renounce their awards, they might want to demand that any trace of it be stricken from the record. 'Cuz, until that happens, they really can all just shut the fuck up. Seriously.
OH, THIS IS PRECIOUS: Following a link from TGB's Dave over at Dr. Dawg's, we learn:
TERMINATION OF MEMBERSHIP IN THE ORDER [OF CANADA]
25. A person's membership in the Order ceases when
(a) the person dies;
(b) the Governor General accepts the person's resignation from the Order, which resignation shall have been made in writing and given to the Secretary General; or
(c) the Governor General makes an Ordinance terminating the person's appointment to the Order.
I expressly draw your attention to part (a), which means that you can't give back the Order of Canada on behalf of someone that is already dead, so all you pompous, shrieky publicity harpies can just piss off.
Oh, and as for this guy:
Leo Goski of Regina Saskatchewan wrote to the local paper that he was returning the Order of Canada his late uncle Monsignor A.J. Goski received for helping immigrants settle in this country.
“With the appointment of Henry Morgentaler to the membership, my respect for the medal has diminished entirely,” he wrote to the Regina Leader Post. “Because of this I am sending the medal back to the Governor General and urge anyone else who has the medal to do likewise. I realize this is not my medal but it is the pride of our family and I know that Monsignor would not want to be a party to this disgusting appointment.”
Yeah, he can piss off, too.
9 comments:
Just pointing out something Dave (Galloping Beaver) wrote at Dawg's Blawg:
If I might add to the commentary on an empty gesture I would direct everyone to Article 25(a) of the Constitution of The Order of Canada.
You cannot give back that which does not exist.
Further, those who are "returning" their awards are required to follow a specific procedure to "resign" from the Order. Dropping off their gong at Rideau Hall means nothing unless they submit, and the Governor General accepts, a formal resignation from the Order and then that resignation is published in the Canada Gazette.
Keep your eye on that publication and let's see how many of these cats actually quit the Order and how many actually got their medal back a few weeks after supposedly "returning" it.
It's been a while since I paid attention to The Canada Gazette, but this might motivate me.
This just in:
Catherine de Hueck Doherty is still dead.
While you may not be able to return the Order of Canada when someone is dead, you can certainly return the medal, which is all that was claimed by Madonna House.
While you may not be able to return the Order of Canada when someone is dead, you can certainly return the medal, which is all that was claimed by Madonna House.
You can't return an "Order".
The medal is representative of membership - that's it. If you're dead, your medal is nothing but a wall hanging. Further, it's rather presumptuous of a third party to take it upon themselves to deliver a decoration to a destination without the original recipient being able to participate in the decision.
Not that it matters. They could have gone out onto Burrard street in Vancouver and stomped on it until the enamel shattered. That might have had more impact and they would have been in jeopardy of being criticized for their actions.
Instead, they put themselves in a position of being mocked by a majority of Canadians.
If you're dead, your medal is nothing but a wall hanging.
It's a lot more than that. It's a powerful symbol, whether the recipient is living or dead.
And whether such a gesture is met with public respect or mockery might be moot. The people returning the medals likely did it out of deeply felt convictions and are not going to be swayed by the popularity of their actions.
I can't imagine that the OC committee is happy about this. The honour that the OC is supposed to confer is purely a matter of public opinion. Anything that degrades that honour - even in the minds of a minority of the citizens - has to hurt.
"I can't imagine that the OC committee is happy about this."
You think they are suprised by any of this? Considering the stink the fetus fetishists raised when Dr. M was nominated, I'm pretty sure the only thing the committee is surprised by is how low-key the response has been. Only eight medals "returned"? LOL.
Nope, this whole thing went exactly according to plan.
The people returning the medals likely did it out of deeply felt convictions and are not going to be swayed by the popularity of their actions.
Too bad that the only public demonstration of a "return the medal" wasn't done as a deeply held conviction of the recipient. The recipient of that insignia is dead, is no longer a member of the OC and the person who "returned" it has never received such an honour. She just projected her deeply held convictions using somebody else's symbol.
BTW check and see how many deceased people have their senior Canadian Orders returned to the secretariat as a matter of final wish. They all go to the archives and the occasional one finds its way to a museum.
((I can't imagine that the OC committee is happy about this. The honour that the OC is supposed to confer is purely a matter of public opinion. Anything that degrades that honour - even in the minds of a minority of the citizens - has to hurt.))
Geez, I dunno. You think they might have given the decision a thought or two over the past two decades since Morgentaler's actions managed to get the heinous conditions on abortion reneged by the legal courts of the land?
*I* imagine the OOC committee decided that a whingeing minority of people displeased that they can't control the sexuality of women anymore would just have to cowboy up and take it like the rest of the 'minorities' offended by one recipient of a Canadian honour or another. What /might/ concern them is that pro-forced pregnancy people don't seem to have the eggs for that. Maybe they're too busy lovingly turning each and every one of them into a baby that they will raise healthy wealthy and wise.
Niles -- Ha! Good one.
The truth is, the OoC committee, like the majority of Canadians, give not one flying fart what these nitwits "think".
Said nitwits should take this as a long-overdue slap in the yap and govern themselves accordingly.
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