Stephen Harper: J’Accuse!
This past week, the heart-retching story of Jamie Hubley came out. The 15 year-old committed suicide because of homophobic bullying from his peers. The column that appeared in the Toronto star is enough to make even the hardened-hearted like myself weep like a little girl. (Despite Heath Mallick’s journalistic masturbation clouding the horrifying story.)
Hubley was the son of Ottawa city councilor Allan Hubley (whom Mallick for some reason insists on describing as “handsome” in the story.) Reaction was swift and unanimous - this is a terrible loss.
Mallick insists - repeatedly and with unnecessary conviction - that this hatred lives in all of us. That’s to say; these bullies that murdered Jamie Hubley are just manifestations of the hatred that is installed within us. It’s brought out, she argues, by television, politics and those damn video games.
This is, of course, sentimentalized pop psychology nonsense. Speaking as someone who spent his high school years deeply closeted, yet still the target of many a “faggot” or “queer,” I know for a fact that this intense and arbitrary cultural hatred is not augmented or fueled by “politics, school, workplaces, hockey rinks, talk radio, yell TV, tabloid newspapers” - it is the product of them. It is the product of homophobic parents who pass on messages of intolerance. It is the child of the commercialization of “gay.” It is the offspring of a society more interested in marketing or feigning interest in queer community than in helping it.
And let’s deal with the elephant in the room - it is the product of this Conservative government.
Let me be clear, there is a lot of mudslinging from the left against this government for a variety of issues. There are accusations of dictatorship, hating the poor, so on ad nauseum. These are bunk. This particular accusation comes not from my political conviction but from the experience of growing up knowing I was queer, and at the same time seeing the intense homophobia that raged in Ottawa. You can’t tell me that doesn’t trickle down.
The years and years of vitriolic opposition to LGBTQ rights on the part of the Conservatives and their predecessors did not happen in a vacuum. It gave state-based recognition to individuals’ hatred. It propagated, fueled and heartened “social conservatives” to admonish queers, merely for seeking a world for people like Jamie.
It gets better, they say. And it will - but we have to lead the charge on all fronts. We need ground-level education. We need a positive message. We need constructive visibility.
We need the cooperation - in spirit and in dollars - of the federal government. They’ve failed that. They’ve cut funding and subtly attacked queer institutions and they’ve opposed bill after bill after bill, after-
[1980] Bill C-242, an act to prohibit discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation doesn’t pass…
…MP Svend Robinson introduces similar bills in 1983, 1985 1986, 1989, and 1991. In 1991, Robinson tries to get the definition of “spouse” in the Income Tax Act and Canada Pension Plan Act to include “or of the same sex.” In 1992 he tries to get the “opposite sex” definition of “spouse” removed from Bill C-55 which would add the definition to survivor benefits provisions of federal pension legislation. All the proposed bills are defeated …
…[1992] Bill C-108 which would add “sexual orientation” to the Canadian Human Rights Act. But the act, which would also restrict the definition of “marital status” to opposite-sex couples, doesn’t pass first reading.
But with Jamie’s tragic death still on the frontpage, the Conservative cabinet puts the cherry on top:
Yes, those caring faces are the ones of this Conservative government. They want to let you know that it gets better.
Yet they all opposed a bill that would have recognized gender expression as protected in the Human Rights Act.
And who are some of these pretty faces? Well, we have John Baird - who has been subtly touted as the token queer minister by Stephen Harper (“I’m not racist, some of my best friends are black!”) yet has refused to publicly admit his own sexuality, despite it being a well-know secret. Sigh.
One of those mustached faces is, well, a hypocrite. (Via the fantastic Slap Upside the Head)
[Vic] Toews was an outspoken opponent of equal marriage rights for gay couples during his ironic term as Justice Minister. Calling the legalization of same-sex marriage “a mistake” despite nine consecutive lower court rulings declaring it a constitutional necessity, he actively fought against the courts’ unanimous consensus. He introduced a House motion in 2006 to revisit the law, opening the door to end marriage rights for gays and have existing same-sex marriages annulled. Acknowledging that the law would be unconstitutional, the Justice Minister suggested the use of Canada’s obscure Notwithstanding Clause which could legally pass laws known to be unconstitutional for five years at a time. If he had succeeded, I wouldn’t be married today.
After his motion was defeated, Toews attempted to introduce a bill ostensibly titled the Defense of Religion Act. The bill would have allowed civil servants, such as civil marriage commissioners and justices of the peace, to deny public services to gay couples.
And there’s more! (Via Pushed to the Left and Loving It!)
Latest on Conservative Leadership’s OBSTRUCTION OF BILL C-38
When the second reading debate began on February 16, 2005, Stephen Harper moved an amendment to the Prime Minister’s motion, which called for the House to decline to read the Bill a second time. This procedural delay tactic is known as a “Hoist”…
…
On April 12, following the vote that defeated Mr. Harper’s amendment, Conservative Justice Critic Vic Toews told reporters that the Conservatives would insist on as full a debate as possible before the second reading vote, and would introduce further motions and take additional measures to delay the vote. Earlier in the day, Conservative leadership had made clear to the other parties their intention was to do everything in their power to obstruct and delay Bill C-38.
And, perhaps, the coup de grâce
[Toews] was a vocal opponent of Bill C-250 (2003), which made sexual orientation a protected category under Canada’s hate crime legislation. Toews stated that the bill could restrict freedom of expression and religion, and was quoted as saying that a “homosexual activist” could sue a hotel chain to remove Bibles as hate literature. (Wikipedia)
There you have it. Vic Toews says: “It gets better … but until then, we have no interest in recognizing that your human rights are being infringed upon.”
So, Conservative Party, please don’t churn out a poorly producing video every time a queer teen kills himself. It’s insulting. If you want to come into the big pink tent, feel free, but don’t play the acceptance card when your entire history is based on ingrained homophobia and bullying on parliament hill.
