It seems to me that this is pretty clearly a case of discrimination based on sexual orientation - the Harper government, in what seems to be a clear desire to appease its bigoted base, decided to stick it to the Montreal gay festival simply because it was gay.
Here are the facts: Diane Ablonczy gave Pride Toronto $400,000 from the $100 million Marquee Tourism Events Program. Two weeks later she lost the control over the program, it was handed to loyal Tony Clement. Then a backbencher from Saskatchewan bragged about how Ablonczy had lost the file because she gave money to Pride Toronto. Now suddenly Montreal's Pride festival Divers/Cite fails to receive any funding despite being a major international tourist attraction.
I hate the way many out there excuse this deliberate discrimination as somehow okay in modern Canada. As far as I'm concerned, the Harperites are guilty of discriminating based on sexual orientation, which is supposed to be illegal in this country.
2 comments:
This certainly does appear to be a case of discrimination. It is yet another reminder that a large segment of society still regards gay men and women as second-class citizens - or worse. That is the salient point of my recently released biographical novel, Broken Saint. It is based on my forty-year friendship with a gay man, and chronicles his internal and external struggles as he battles for acceptance (of himself and by others). More information on the book is available at www.eloquentbooks.com/BrokenSaint.html.
Mark Zamen, author
Mark has a nice post about this up at Slap Upside the Head.
TRiG.
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