Tory Plett's bullying of trans people continues in Ottawa

Wednesday was Pink Shirt Day in Canada, a day to stand up against bullying.

But in Ottawa, where Tories act like bullies most of the time, attacking anyone who can't fight back easily, they ignored the day and continued their old tricks.

Tory Senator Don Plett ignored his critics, including me, and bulldozed ahead with amendments to Bill C-279, a NDP private member's bill that seeks to add "gender identity" to the Canadian Human  Rights Act and the Criminal Code's anti-hate provisions.   Plett succeeded at a Senate committee on Wednesday to pass amendments to the bill that would fundamentally undermine its intentions by exempting the legislation from applying to "sex-specific" facilities such as public washrooms.  

Now the amended bill must go back to the House of Commons, where the original version passed in 2013.  But the bill's author, MP Randall Garrison, now says even he would vote against it if it miraculously comes up for a vote again in the Commons before the summer break because of Plett's discriminatory amendments.  

Now Garrison predicts the bill is dead in this Parliament. 

“It does look like the death of the bill,” Mr. Garrison said from Ottawa Wednesday. “I can’t understand why the Conservative leadership of the Senate would allow this small group of senators to derail the bill since the Senate twice voted, in principle, in favour of the bill.”

Shame! 

Tory leadership candidate caught catering to homophobia during sex-ed curriculum debate

A few hundred social conservatives reportedly gathered outside the Ontario legislature Tuesday to protest the province's revised sex-education curriculum, claiming ignorance is a virtue when it comes to their kids' health and knowledge of their own bodies, I guess. 

Decades ago, these folks represented mainstream Ontario thinking.  Not any more.

But as they dwindle in number, there are still some misguided conservative politicians willing to pander to them, including Progressive Conservative MPP Monte McNaughton, who is running for his party's leadership.   He's frequently been openly critical of changing our outdated public school curriculum, claiming not enough parents (like him) have been consulted.  In truth, the process for drafting a new curriculum has included thousands of parents around the province.  McNaughton objects to the wishes of the socially conservative few not trumping the majority.

This week, McNaughton said, in a not too subtle reference to the premier's sexual orientation, that it's not the job of the premier – "especially Kathleen Wynne" – to tell parents what is age appropriate for their children.  He left those words out there for all to interpret as they saw fit until reporters finally demanded yesterday McNaughton explain himself.  In response, he lamely said Wynne was unqualified due to unrelated scandals and an alleged lack of consultation (which of course is a farce.) 

Homophobes speak in code today.  It helps them deny later they were being homophobic when in truth that's exactly what they were doing at the time.  Nudge nudge, wink wink. 

Premier Kathleen Wynne was having none of it yesterday and I love this clip of her from the legislature.  

'Matt Shepard Is A Friend of Mine' opens in Toronto

Director Michele Josue, father Dennis Shepard and mother Judy Shepard
address crowd at gala event in Toronto last night.

I attended the gala screening last night of the documentary feature 'Matt Shepard Is A Friend of Mine' by director Michelle Josue at Toronto's Carlton Cinemas, and later the Q&A session at the Marquis of Granby pub where the filmmaker as well as Shepard's heroic parents, Judy and Dennis, answered audience questions.

Judy Shepard is a force of nature, working tirelessly since her son's tragic death in 1998 to promote tolerance and better understanding through the Matthew Shepard Foundation.  That spirit was on full display last night as she took most of the audience questions.

The film is a loving and tender portrait of the young man whose life was tragically cut short in 1998 by two gay bashers in Wyoming.  The emotional doc offers greater details about Shepard's life, fleshing him out as a human being.  We learn that Matt was passionate and political and suffered from personal demons. Still searching for himself but perhaps finding some peace in school in Laramie, it's clear he hoped he'd make a difference in the world.  One can't help but think about how great a person he could've become had he lived.  It's been almost 17 years since this tragedy and the film acts as a great reminder of Shepard's legacy as well as how far we've come since then. 

Check it out at the Carlton this week if you can! 

OPEN LETTER to Senator Don Plett re: Bill C-279, An Act to Amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code (Gender Identity)

OPEN LETTER to Senator Don Plett,

I understand from this Hill Times article that you are planning to introduce amendments in the Canadian Senate to this democratically-passed private member's bill, Bill C-279, An Act to Amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code (Gender Identity).  

To date, you haven't specified what those amendments might be or why they are necessary, except only to make public comments at a committee meeting last fall that exposed your thinking on human rights and transsexuals:

"Sen. Plett said the bill in its current form has the potential to be abused by sexual predators and pedophiles as they would be able to access women’s public washrooms. 

“If my five-year-old granddaughter doesn’t want to be in a bathroom with a biological male. … What is her option? She doesn’t want to be there. What’s her option?” said Sen. Plett in October in the Committee meeting."

Can you please provide verifiable links to the legal studies and police reports or anything else valid that have caused you to hold this concern?   I highly doubt it. 

I strongly suspect that you have no valid cause to hold these concerns.  Instead, your comments are simply reflective of the same old bigoted stuff inspired by fictional stories of yesteryear when transsexuals and homosexuals were considered nothing more than perverts hiding in dark places trying to rape little children.  

Were this the 1950s or 1960s and you were in the southern United States serving as a Senator, I'm sure you'd express similar concerns about desegregated bathrooms like this:

“If my five-year-old grandson doesn’t want to be in a bathroom with a Negro male. … What is his option? He doesn’t want to be there. What’s his option?”

Can you deduce the inherent injustice in your comment when you simply replace one minority group with another?  That somehow the rights of transsexuals or anyone else must be suppressed in order to accommodate the bigotries of the majority?

I would argue that maybe your granddaughter's option is to understand and accept that transsexual people, who are no threat to her, exist in this world and have a right to use public restrooms too.   And perhaps she should also stop listening to her grandfather on these issues.

Your arguments are on par with those of Rob Anders and other bigots in your party.  You should be ashamed of yourself! 

I understand that if you succeed in proposing unnecessary amendments to this Bill, it will once again delay passage of protecting the human rights of a very vulnerable group in our society.   Human Rights laws exist to protect such vulnerable communities who are frequently the victims of crime like discrimination.  I thought Conservatives were supposed to be on the side of victims?   But sadly I've learned from the collective records of Conservatives that they are merely only concerned with victims' rights as long as those victims look, live and love just like them. 

In the interests of justice and fairness, I implore to put aside your groundless fears and focus on what's right for Canadians! 

The transgendered and transsexual community, very vulnerable to discrimination in our society, has been waiting for protections such as these at the federal level for decades.  An equivalent bill protecting gays and lesbians was passed in Ottawa almost 20 years ago.

Bill C-279 was passed by a clear majority vote in the House of Commons in March 2013 with unanimous opposition support, plus 18 Conservative MPs.   Trying to amend the bill now would force the bill to return to the House of Commons for another vote, something apparently unlikely to happen in time before this October's federal election, which would kill the bill altogether.   A similar bill would have to be introduced again in the next parliament. 

We know how many years we've waited to see something like this bill passed into law.   The time for amendments is over.  Your fears are groundless.   Please don't put up further impediments to passing these important protections for a very vulnerable community. 

Sincerely,

Matt Guerin,

A concerned Ontario voter

-30-

I encourage all readers to contact Senator Plett to voice your concerns over his attempts to kibosh much-needed protections for the trans community in federal law.  

Telephone:

613-992-0180  or 1-800-267-7362

Email:

don.plett@sen.parl.gc.ca

Unelected Conservative senators threaten to kill democratically-passed Trans Rights Bill

Due to parliamentary rules that few Canadians understand, the Senate is threatening to kill an NDP MP’s democratically-passed Transgender Rights private member’s bill when it’s amended in the Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee next week. 

This is a travesty on a number of levels.  

First, the transgendered and transsexual community, very vulnerable to discrimination in our society, has been waiting for protections such as these at the federal level for decades.  An equivalent bill protecting gays and lesbians was passed in Ottawa almost 20 years ago. 

Secondly, the bill was passed by a vote of 149 to 137 in the House of Commons in March 2013 with unanimous opposition support, plus 18 Conservative MPs.  Now unelected Conservative senators appointed by Stephen Harper (who voted against the bill in the House) may end up killing the bill by trying to amend it in yet unspecified ways.   

That would force the bill to return to the House of Commons for another vote, something apparently unlikely to happen in time before this October's federal election, which would kill the bill altogether.   A similar bill would have to be introduced again in the next parliament. 

Bill C-279, An Act to Amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code (Gender Identity), would prohibit discrimination on the grounds of gender identity or gender expression and it would amend the Criminal Code to include gender identity and gender expression as a recognized group when offences are motivated by bias, prejudice or hate.

Conservative Senator Don Plett, a former Conservative Party president, who is threatening the bill with amendments, has raised the tired, old attack that protecting trans people from discrimination will somehow allow sexual predators a new legal defence when entering public women's washrooms.  

It's the same old bigoted stuff inspired by fictional stories of yesteryear when transsexuals and homosexuals were considered nothing more than perverts hiding in dark places trying to rape little children.  

  

“If my five-year-old granddaughter doesn’t want to be in a bathroom with a biological male. … What is her option? She doesn’t want to be there. What’s her option?” said Sen. Plett in October in the Committee meeting.

Maybe her option is to understand and accept that transsexual people, who are no threat to her, exist in this world and have a right to use public restrooms too?   

But Senator Grant Mitchell, who is sponsoring the bill in the Senate (as the NDP, which initiated the bill, has no Senators), has disagreed: “First, there is no evidence of there ever being a problem in this regard. It’s purely hypothetical. What I know for sure is that you cannot diminish the rights of one group of people on the possibility or in the anticipation of the criminal intentions of another group of people. To draw that further is to say that if that were the case, then white males wouldn’t be allowed to go into corner stores because corner stores have been robbed by white males. The problem that you mention is purely hypothetical, literally almost purely hypothetical.”

Randall Garrison, the NDP MP who introduced the bill in the House of Commons, who also appeared before the committee last fall, told committee members: “Discrimination is discrimination, and that’s what we’re seeking to correct in this bill. Some people have been excluded from the protections that all other people enjoy,” Mr. Garrison said.

It's time to start agitating to get this bill finally passed.  We can't wait any longer for it.  

Here is a link to Senator Plett's contact information and email, also copied below.   I'm certainly going to email his office today to urge him to drop his ill-informed criticisms and let this bill pass into law.  

I urge everyone to do the same: 

Senator Don Plett's contact info: 

Telephone:

613-992-0180  or 1-800-267-7362

Email:

don.plett@sen.parl.gc.ca

Ontario PCs now must choose between moderate mainstream or Tea Party takeover

Tea Party Ontario PC leadership candidate Monte McNaughton

I love Kathleen Wynne dearly and greatly appreciate her style of leadership.  I find that I agree with her on most issues.   I think she brings a smart balance between pragmatism and progressive politics and has the listening and consensus-building skills that make her a great leader.  I hope that she continues to govern Ontario for as long as possible.

But by 2018, the Ontario Liberals will have been in power for 15 years.  It's also likely that the federal Liberal Party will be back in power in Ottawa by then.  Ontario voters love to elect different parties to office federally and provincially.   Thus an Ontario Liberal government long in the tooth with a long legacy of scandals will likely be extremely vulnerable to an effective challenger next time. 

Thus far, the mainstream of the Ontario PCs seems to be coalescing around the leadership candidacy of Christine Elliott, MPP for Whitby-Oshawa and widow of former federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.   This week, two of her moderate opponents for the leadership, Vic Fedeli and Lisa MacLeod, dropped out and endorsed her.   Elliott's been talking like a smart red Tory, emphasizing fiscal conservatism but also socially progressive policies.  She's very much in the same ilk as Bill Davis and John Tory.   Should she win the leadership and project competence and vision, she'll give Wynne quite the challenge in 2018. 

Yet the Tea Party wing of the Ontario PCs refuses to go away.   It seems clear that both Lambton-area MPP Monte McNaughton and Barrie MP Patrick Brown are fighting over that Tea Party vote in order to try to stop Elliott.  

As for Brown, I can only say this: if Brown is talented enough to be premier of Ontario, wouldn't he have at least made federal cabinet by now?  Such a talent would've ascended higher than the backbench in Ottawa, no?  Brown strikes me as a twerp, in over his head with an ego out of touch with reality.  He'd be a weaker leader than Tim Hudak.   It remains to be seen if his leadership campaign will get any real traction.

But it's perhaps Monte McNaughton who might form a bigger threat.  Now he's been endorsed by former Toronto crack mayor Rob Ford, who's turned his back on his family friend, Elliott, in favour of this unknown MPP from southwestern Ontario.   

Why?  Unfortunately it seems to be that McNaughton, along with a number of far-right Tea Party types, want to keep the Ontario PC Party on the far right. And this attracts RoFo. 

The far right Ontario PCs have been a losing force since 2003 in Ontario.  That year, Ontario voters signaled fatigue with years of undermining public services by electing a Liberal government promising to return quality to public education and public health care.   In 2007, in response to the right-wing promise to finance more religion in public schools, Ontario voters gave the Liberals another huge majority.  And in 2014 (and to a lesser extent in 2011), when offered an austerity agenda that would cut thousands of public service jobs, Ontario voters opted against such lunacy.

It's baffling that there is still a contingent of Ontario PCs who think that if they keep down this road they'll still be able to win one day.   It's the definition of insanity.  Thus, it's not surprising that Rob Ford would be supportive of it.

Ford carefully nourished a bigoted persona and still does.  His barely-concealed contempt for the LGBT community - including refusing to take part in Pride Toronto events - were designed to win support of anti-gay bigots in the suburbs and ethnic communities.   Disrespecting gays was a fundamental building block of Ford Nation.

It worked for one election for RoFo in 2010.  In 2014, after four years of crack scandals and general incompetence at City Hall, that support was still there for his brother, who earned 34% of the vote and carried many low income areas where homophobia runs rampant.  Now RoFo thinks he can work his homophobic magic for Monte McNaughton.

The only issue for which McNaughton has been getting any ink is his frequent criticism of the new Ontario education curriculum.  He's using rhetoric similar to that used by Charles McVety-type bigots around the province, who are attempting to slam the changes that would emphasize the importance of consent.

Martin Regg Cohn recently wrote a nice column about the burgeoning fight over the curriculum.

Columnist Andrew Perez also recently wrote about the ongoing struggle in the Ontario PCs. 

As a tactic, it could prove somewhat effective in a party with only about 10,000 members at the start of this leadership race.  If they can sign up a bunch of bigots across the province, it could hamper Christine Elliott's more moderate campaign.  

But like the Tea Party in the U.S., where weak, far-right candidates managed to win Republican nominations, only to get crushed by their Democratic opponents in the general election, this tactic will actually help Ontario Liberals and Kathleen Wynne in the end. 

If by some pathetic miracle that McNaughton or Brown do manage to win the Ontario PC leadership in May, they will ensure another Liberal majority for Kathleen Wynne in 2018.  Both would be less effective at winning over Ontario voters than Tim Hudak.