It's always fun to see the hideously inappropriate names some people give their organizations. In the United States, that typically refers to any collection of yahoos with the word "values" in their collective title, where "values" normally refers to the values of intolerance and hate-filled homophobia. Among others, of course.
Not wanting to be outdone by those gosh-darned Americans, we here in Canada have the "Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy" whose mandate, as near as I can read it, is to bad-mouth other peoples' freedoms and suggest that democracy isn't for everyone -- just for people who think like them.
How else to explain what the CCFD describes as "travesties" of modern Canadian politics:
As things now stand, we will just get more and more travesties like gay marriage, the unreformed Senate, the gun registry boondoggle, the sponsorship scandal, the Belinda Stronach affair, the illegal refusal of the Martin government to resign, and wasteful federal spending sprees like the one this spring to shore up a sagging government.
First ... "the Belinda Stronach affair?" If memory serves, that's where the democratically-elected Stronach exercised her freedom to bolt from the CPC after she finally realized that its leader was a complete whack job. To its credit, though, the CCFD and its ideological brethren did exercise their God-given freedom to subsequently describe Stronach as a "whore."
And as for the gay marriage thing, well, apparently this is where that whole democracy idea needs a little tweaking given that a majority of Canadians these days support same-sex marriage:
On September 5, 2003, the NFO CF Group released the results of a survey that they had done on Canadian attitudes toward same-sex marriage during late August. 46% of respondents said they supported same-sex marriage while 46% said they did not.
In other 2003 polls, the percentage of support had risen to slightly over 50%, and two thirds of Canadians now believe that gay and lesbian couples in a committed relationship should have the same legal rights as heterosexual couples.
Bill C-38, which legalized same-sex marriage in Canada, was adopted in the standard democratic way up here:
Bill C-38, the Civil Marriage Act, was introduced to Parliament for its first reading in the House on February 1, 2005. The Prime Minister launched the debate on February 16. The bill passed second reading on May 4 and third reading on June 28, with votes of 164-137 and 158-133, respectively. It then moved to the Senate, and received its first reading on June 29. Debate was launched on July 4, and a Liberal closure motion limited debate on the bill to only four hours. Second reading and committing the bill occurred on July 6, with a vote of 43-12. The Senate passed Bill C-38 on third reading by a margin of 47 to 21 on July 19, 2005. It received Royal Assent on July 20, 2005 (Hansard).
Therefore, in the minds of the CCFD, Canadian democracy is hideously broken and desperately needs repair. Or something to that effect.
Wouldn't it be refreshing if people could just be up-front about their beliefs and their mandate and give their group a name that reflects how they really feel? In the case of the CCFD, I'm thinking "Far-Right Misogynistic Homophobes of Canada." But I'm willing to be flexible. If they wanted to leave out the "Canada" part, I could live with that.
3 comments:
CC - if you dig a little bit, you get to discover that Link Byfield & Co. are behind CCFD.
The Byfields (Link and Daddy Ted) have managed to become the voice for the "I want it all and I want it now" religious arm of the Reform/Alliance/Conservative Party.
In their view, Canadian Democracy is broken - it doesn't reflect their particular brand of evangelical religious conservatism. (Of course, Canadian society as a whole doesn't either - but they've never got that point).
Oh, you don't need to dig, just read a sample article like this one, where Link Byfield is openly listed as the author. Or check the CCFD Staff page -- it's all there.
I'm particularly amused by this page, which emphasizes that the CCFD is neither right-wing nor left-wing. Of course not -- they just hate gays for the sheer sport of it.
Following the missing links a bit further, you find this little gem, where they are continuing to flog a dead horse.
Or, for that matter, this editorial where you get the usual BS about "judicial activism" - which is a code phrase for "we don't like how the charter of rights works".
CCFD is neither right wing nor left wing - nah - they're in a wing of their own - the nut wing!
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