On the fringe

As I type this, the Facebook group ''Proud to be a member of that 'left-wing fringe group' called 'Women'" just topped 1,000 members, with many supportive men in there.

That column of mine has really taken off. (Thanks Mr. Harper!)

Now there's news: LEAF (Women's Legal Education and Action Fund) has agreed to take on the T-shirt enterprise as a fundraiser.

Pale Cold is tweaking Francesca Dobbyn's original design. Friends Jude MacDonald and Michael Hanna-Fein will take over the group administration.

Please check the Facebook group or back here for how to order t-shirts. That info will be up soon. (And just FYI, there will be a curvy fitted version, a square version up (to XXXL I believe) plus a man's version. (Dammit Janet! has a proposal.)

All proceeds will go to LEAF, a registered charity which has intervened in many of the cases fought by the Court Challenges program.

Okay...

Since my last post, a couple of new items have hit my screen that I think are relevant to all this.

After all, that Court Challenges program -- which helped ''left-wing fringe groups'' such as women, visible minorities and the disabled win landmark rights cases in the Supreme Court -- also helped gays and lesbians win same-sex rights.

So: Yesterday it was reported that Conservative cabinet minister Diane Ablonczy was stripped of her funding powers after she gave a $400,000 grant to Toronto's Gay Pride back in June.

Industry Minister Tony Clement's office directed bureaucrats to "scrutinize activities" of major tourism events up for stimulus funding, just two weeks after Toronto's Gay Pride festival received a federal grant.

And documents suggest Clement had a direct hand in dumping cabinet colleague Diane Ablonczy from the helm of the program, notwithstanding assertions the leadership change was always in the works.

There was "no relieving" Ablonczy of her duties at the Marquee Tourism Events Program following the controversial Pride grant, Clement's office said publicly in July. Ablonczy is the junior minister in charge of tourism and small business.

Darren Cunningham, Clement's spokesman, said at the time that the program was simply entering a second phase that would be managed by the senior minister.

But documents obtained by The Canadian Press under Access to Information legislation raise questions about that line.

"This is to formally advise Minister Clement has revoked delegation of authority for the Marquee festivals program," Clement's chief of staff, Bill King, wrote to senior bureaucrats on June 29.

"All files, projects, correspondence and communications are now to be managed, approved and signed off by Minister Clement instead of Minister Ablonczy."

Today Clement denied that.

"I know you're looking for the smoking gun or some sort of other agenda but quite frankly, you know, to be accused as I have been accused by [Liberal MP Marlene]Jennings to be some form of homophobe, you know, quite frankly I find that offensive and anyone who knows me knows that that's ridiculous," Clement told reporters.

The Canadian Press reported this week that Clement had a direct hand in formally revoking Ablonczy's authority over the Marquee Tourism Events Program, as outlined in a letter his chief of staff sent to bureaucrats last June.

The letter came just two weeks after Ablonczy had handed over $400,000 in funding to Toronto Pride, a move that incensed Canadian social conservatives and some in the Tory caucus during its last meeting before the summer break.

An internal memo, obtained through Access to Information legislation, also indicated bureaucrats were told to "scrutinize" tourism activities on the same day Ablonczy was turfed from the program.

"The minister of Industry recently ordered bureaucrats to scrutinize tourism events directly related to gays, lesbians, women's groups and so on," Jennings told the Commons.

"Will the Conservatives now tell Canadians exactly which groups are on their blacklist for special scrutiny?"

Well, one thing we know. Just after that happened during the summer, a Montreal gay-themed event was also cut off from funding. Coincidence?

Meanwhile Pride Toronto is pitching the city for World Pride 2014. It would not only be one awesome party, it would give the city a huge boost.

The event would fall during the regular Pride week in 2014 but would be substantially bigger and more expensive, costing an estimated $10 million rather than the $4 million spent this year.

The economic payoff could be big. Toronto's three-day gay and lesbian festival in June attracted 1.3 million people, and organizers say it generated $100 million in business. World Pride would include a human rights conference and opening ceremonies at a large venue, such as the Rogers Centre, possibly with an Olympics-style flag parade.

Hide your children from the ''homosexualists,'' shrieks the Conservative peanuts gallery -- the very same folks who encouraged the Harpies to kill the Court Challenges program.

Promoters of Toronto's sordid annual homosexual "pride" parade are upping the ante with a bid to have the city host World Pride in 2014.

"We believe that hosting World Pride 2014 in Toronto will engage and inspire people from around the world, be a fabulous celebration of Pride and showcase Toronto as one of the most diverse and accepting cities in the world," wrote Pride Toronto co-chair Mark Singh in a Pride Toronto press release.
 
Singh claims that this summer's homosexual festival, held during the city's garbage collection strike which filled parks and streets with rotting refuse, "attracted 1.3 million people" and generated "$100 million in business."

Cecilia Forsyth, national president of REAL Women of Canada, released a letter following the Toronto homosexual parade in which she protested the nearly $400,000 grant given to the Toronto Gay Pride Festival by Conservative Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism, Diane Ablonczy, and questioned the attendance and financial figures proffered by the homosexualist group.

"REAL Women of Canada is deeply offended" over the grant, the letter states. "The Gay Pride Parade is well known for its full nudity, open engagement in public sexual acts and its deliberate disregard of behaviour acceptable to most sectors of Canadian society.

"The parade is about hedonistic exhibitionism and narcissism, promoting a deadly form of sexuality.  The parade is designed to shock and titillate and the week-long 'celebration' has become an excuse for partying, drug use and promiscuity."

Forsyth observed that the attendance figure is absurd from a purely mathematical point of view, due to the limited size of the parade route. "The crowds would have had to be 80 deep along the 3.1 kilometer parade route," she said. "It is also highly questionable that the 'celebrations' that week contribute millions to the economy, as alleged, as this figure again appears to be part of the air of unreality surrounding the event."

The controversial $400,000 grant, given by Minister Ablonczy as part of the Marquee Tourism Events Program, has been harshly criticized by pro-family advocates and members of the Conservative caucus, many of whom claimed they were unaware that Ablonczy had directed the money to the homosexual event.

Saskatoon MP Brad Trost expressed his disapproval of Ablonczy's actions in an interview with LifeSiteNews.com on July 6th, and also hinted that the Minister may have lost the portfolio as a consequence of the embarrassment she caused the Conservative Party, although the government claims there is no official connection.

<SNIP>

A spokesman for Industry Minister Tony Clement, who now administers the Marquee Tourism Events Program, told the Star that future funding of Toronto's homosexual parade was "under review" to ensure it was providing a genuine stimulus to the economy.

(They said a ''a genuine stimulus.'' Heh.)

These are the people who are the Conservatives' base. This is the kind of Canada their majority would create.

All this is what Prime Minister Stephen Harper suggested in that Sault Ste. Marie speech he didn't want you to see he would prevent, if only he could get enough votes.

I have to wonder: Who is further out on the fringe?

No wonder that Facebook group is growing.

1,034 members ...

1,039 ...

UPPITY WOMAN DATE: We're just about to break 1100.

Just want to thank some of the bloggers who jumped on my column: Alison, who kicked off the virtual T-shirt, Pale, who came up with some of her own (and is involved with the official version), Cathie from Canada, the Dammit Janet ladies, as well as guys Warren Kinsella, Kevin Page and the Rev. Paperboy.

Comments

[hysperia]

Yay Antonia! Yay LEAF! YAY EVERYONE!

[sooey]

Gosh, the one thing I'm most proud of about Canada is that women have more rights here than women do anywhere else in the world. It's as if Stephen Harper would be more at home in Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia or Texas.

[B. York]

Thanks for starting this, Antonia.

[The Stygian and his Shemitish Dogs]

Sooey Sweetie,

So then it doesn't really matter how many women there are in Parliament, given Canada's rather poor showing stacked up against other countries?

And the Texas/Saudi Arabia comparison is really out to lunch. Produce a list of "Saudi Women Legislators" similar to this one

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Women_state_legislators_in_Texas

cf.

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday visited Saudi Arabia’s unelected advisory council, the closest thing in the kingdom to a legislature, where she tried out her counterpart’s chair — a privilege not available to Saudi women because they cannot become legislators."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/06/world/middleeast/06pelosi.html?_r=1