CANADA: Major Party Opposes Charity Status For "Ex-Gay" Groups

Canada's New Democratic Party has adopted a resolution opposing federal charity status for so-called "ex-gay" advocacy groups. Ex-Gay Watch provides a quote from a party delegate:

"Delegates, an investigation published in September 2010 by [the] LGBT news blog Slap Upside The Head revealed that Exodus Global Alliance, an ex-gay organisation, enjoys registered charity status with the Canada Revenue Agency. Ex-gay organisations claim that gay, lesbian, and bisexual people can be made straight. They take advantage of LGB people, often in vulnerable family situations or at grips with depression and self-hatred, and browbeat them—saying that LGB people never live happy lives, that we are unhealthy and unwhole, and that we never experience love and that the only hope lies in their therapies. [...] We see that they are selling snake oil with benefits given to them by the Canada Revenue Agency at present."

You can follow the campaign to revoke these groups' non-profit status on the blog Slap Upside The Head. We need to bring this movement here.

Photo Of The Day

At the Vancouver hockey riots.

Vancouver Riots Over Hockey Loss

The Gay Who Wasn't Gay Enough

Win A Trip To Montreal Pride

Tourisme Montreal and Montreal Pride are teaming up for a "Queer Of The Year" contest in which five semi-finalists will win trips to this year's gay pride week.

Whether you’re a do-gooder, a diva, the average guy next door, a girl just out of the closet or anywhere in between, from now through May 30, Montreal wants you to visit our Facebook contest and show the world that you have what it takes! Participants are required to submit applications explaining why they should be the rightful owner of the crown. People will be judged on the following five criteria: personality, community involvement, sex appeal, healthy lifestyle and yes, even talent! Finalists will be chosen by Tourism Montreal representatives to be interviewed and answer open-ended-questions.

More details: "At the end of Pride Week (August 15), the finalist with the most public votes, combined with most points from the judges, will win the ultimate title of “Queer of the Year,” a chance to take part in the Pride parade, $5,000 and a Montréal getaway! The four other finalists will also receive $1,000."

FULL DISCLOSURE: As some of you may recall, last year Tourisme Montreal hosted me for a whirlwind week of homo tourism. And it was amazing.

Tweet Of The Day - Uptown Hockey

Uptown Hockey, a Canadian sports agency representing dozens of NHL hockey players, yesterday tweeted their disgust with New York Rangers star Sean Avery, who has recorded a video clip in support of marriage equality. Canada's National Post got this quote from Uptown Hockey's president, Don Reynolds:

"It’s sad. I mean, my personal position is that I do not support gay marriage, and I think it’s wrong, as well. It’s not politically correct to, I guess, give your opinion about a thing like that. It’s politically correct on the other side, for people to say, ‘sure, I support gay marriage.’ But the majority, I think, of Canadians would say that they don’t agree with gay marriage – that man and woman were created to be married, not man and man or man and horse, you know?”

Man and horse. SRSLY.

CANADA: Conservatives Win Majority

Canada's Conservative Party swept into the majority in yesterday's national elections.

Canadian voters have radically redrawn the country’s political landscape, handing the Conservative Party its long-sought majority in an election that decimated the Bloc Québécois and humbled the Liberals. For the first time in history, the New Democratic Party will form the Official Opposition after an extraordinary breakthrough that propelled the party to more than 100 seats. The extent of the transformation is startling. The Liberals now hold just four seats west of Guelph, Ont. The Conservatives, formerly shunned by Toronto voters, won nearly half of the seats in that city, twice as many as the Liberals. The Bloc Québécois, which defined Quebec federal politics for two decades, no longer qualifies for official party status. And Green Party Leader Elizabeth May won the party’s first seat, and the right to a place in the next election’s debates.

VANCOUVER: Comedian Fined $15K For Anti-Lesbian Insults

The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal has ordered a comedian to pay $15,000 in compensation for anti-gay insults he directed towards a lesbian couple during a 2007 show at a Vancouver comedy club.

Stand-up comedian Guy Earl was ordered to pay the money to Lorna Pardy, 32, while the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal also ordered the Vancouver restaurant owner, Salam Ishmail, to pay her $7,500. Pardy said Earle directed homophobic and sexist insults at her when she was a patron, and he was the master of ceremonies at an open mic comedy show at the restaurant in 2007. Earle said he will appeal the ruling and that all he did was insult audience members who insulted him first. He also denied that he said some of the things he has been accused of, said Pardy threw a drink in his face and argued that the tribunal had no jurisdiction to hear the case.

The comedian, who has since apologized to the patrons, intends to appeal the decision, claiming his act is protected under freedom of speech laws. News of the judgment has rocketed around anti-gay and Christianist sites, with American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer declaring on Twitter: "Canadian comic pays fine of $15,000 for making fun of lesbians. But if he makes fun of Christians, gets a paycheck."

CANADA: Florist Refuses Gay Wedding

A florist in New Brunswick has refused to provide flowers for a gay wedding because she "must respect her conscience before God."

After agreeing to provide the flowers for a wedding, Kim Evans of Petals and Promises Wedding Flowers sent an email last month to the couple, saying she didn't know it was a same-sex wedding and would have no part of the ceremony. "I am choosing to decline your business. As a born-again Christian, I must respect my conscience before God and have no part in this matter," the email said. Evans has not returned calls from CBC News to explain her decision. Mario Bourgeois Leduc, wedding planner for the couple, who didn't want their names released, said he was appalled by the florist's email, especially since "you're celebrating love and you're going against all of the odds to celebrate what is important in your life." "This is going to stay with them for years, because they were again told that their lives are not OK."

According to the New Brunswick Human Rights Act, businesses cannot refuse customers based on sexual orientation. This Saturday a group of LGBT activists will hold a protest at the shop.

A group of gays and lesbians form New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are planning a protest at Petals and Promises florist shop, 39 Glen Pine Drive, in Riverview, New Brunswick. The demonstration will take place on Saturday, March 19, from 3 to 6 PM. Protesters are encouraged to bring flowers to lay at the doorstep of the florist shop to make the point that the LGBT community is aware of the illegal actions of the florist in refusing services for a same-sex wedding, yet they are not condemning them for their religious beliefs.

Should the couple pursue a complaint, you can bet this incident will be heralded by the Christianist right as yet another example of the legalized homofacism coming to America.

Canada Citizenship Guide Adds Gay Rights

A new edition of Canada's citizenship guide includes the message that gay rights are upheld there, although a mention of same-sex marriage was removed from the draft version.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney showed off the guide to new citizens yesterday in Vancouver, but said he didn’t personally order the information removed. Other new additions to the booklet add forced marriage to a list of gender-based crimes that aren’t tolerated in Canada, and a paragraph that says “violent, extreme or hateful prejudices” aren’t tolerated here. The study guide was last updated 15 years ago.

(Tipped by JMG reader Paul)

Canadians Are In Better Shape

Researchers at the CDC say obesity is far less prevalent in Canada than in the United States. And they don't really know why.

About 24 percent of Canadians are obese compared to more than 34 percent of Americans, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released Wednesday. Researchers looked at height and weight data taken in surveys in both countries during 2007-09. The two countries have different racial demographics. The United States has more black and Hispanic people, and both have higher rates of obesity. But even looking solely at white people, there was still a big difference — a 26 percent obesity rate in Canada compared to 33 percent in the United States. It's not clear why that is, said study-co-author Cynthia Ogden, an epidemiologist with the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. "We share this border and many other things. It's a question we need to investigate more," said Ogden, whose co-authors included a researcher at Statistics Canada.

Interestingly, the difference in childhood obesity rates in the two nations is "statistically insignificant."

Vancouver Men's Chorus - It Gets Better

Lovely!

Intercourse The Penguin

According to a pastoral letter issued by Archbishop Michael Miller and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the only kind of fucking that is holy is vaginal procreative fucking. No blowjobs, no butt sex, please!

Married people living chastely can have vibrant sex lives. In the relationship between a man and a woman, chastity helps them love each other as persons rather than make each other an object of pleasure or satisfaction. Despite what the media and Hollywood suggest, the value of sexual intercourse does not lie in recreation, or physical gratification. Any physical pleasure should lead toward the ultimate expression of love between husband and wife, the total self-giving of one person to another. Sexual intercourse in marriage can be so intimate that it becomes an emotional, intellectual, physical and spiritual experience. It strengthens and completes the bond of marriage. That is why the sexual act has to be unitive and procreative and why some kinds of sexual activity are not chaste. Though pleasure may be present, some acts are a misuse of sex when they fall short of what God intends.

Maggie will be so pleased!

Gay-Bashing In British Columbia

Canadian police are investigating the gay-bashing of a British Columbia man who was brutally beaten last month while he and a friend enjoyed a rural natural hot spring.

The victim was relaxing in the hot pool with his companion, both men from Burnaby, when they were joined by two other men and a woman. The man who identified himself as ‘Terry’ discovered the men were homosexual and allegedly told his friends he was going to kill them. As one man ran from the pool to hide, the other man was viciously beaten as he begged for mercy, suffering cuts and bruising to most of his body. He was left injured in the snow as the suspect and his two friends left on snow mobiles.

The suspect is believed to be from Calgary. According to the above-linked story, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police describe the attack as a "crime of ignorance."

CANADA: Catholic School Board Overturns Ban On Gay Student Groups

Earlier this month a Catholic school district in Canada announced that they were banning gay student groups, because, as their spokesperson (pictured left) put it, "We don't have Nazi groups either." Yesterday that ban was overturned.

The Halton Catholic District School Board has struck down a controversial ban on gay-straight clubs that some newly elected trustees say did not reflect their views. The policy, set by the former board before the election last fall, had stated gay-straight alliances “cannot be permitted” even though the Ontario government now recommends such clubs, if requested by a student, as one way to promote a feeling of belonging among students of different sexual orientations. But at a meeting Tuesday attended by dozens of opponents to the ban, including the Canadian Civil Liberties Union, the new trustees voted 6-2 to scrap the clause that had sparked outrage from human rights advocates, sparked a protest petition and drawn a thumb’s-down from celebrity blogger Perez Hilton.

HomoQuotable - Scott Thompson

"Shakespeare would be rolling over in his g-word. When you ban a word, you make the word more powerful. All this banning that’s going on just makes (the hate) go deeper and deeper into the soul, where it festers. Let it it out. I want to know what you really think. I can handle it. It makes me feel like we’re five years old and need to go potty. The n-word, I guess, is number 1 and the f- word is number 2." - Kids In The Hall star Scott Thompson, responding to Canada's banning of Dire Straits' Money For Nothing for its usage of the word "faggot."

Canada Celebrates 10 Years Of Marriage

Same-sex marriage became legal across Canada in July 2005. But that road to national equality began in ten years ago today in Toronto, when Joe Varnell and Kevin Bourassa were married in the Metropolitan Community Church, a ceremony that was later ruled legal when it was performed. Starting in 2003, with Ontario leading the way, province after province legalized same-sex marriage, ultimately resulting in the landmark Civil Marriage Act in 2005. Congratulations, Canada!

(Tipped by JMG reader Neil)

Press Release Of The Day

From the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, in its ruling that radio stations may no longer play Dire Straits' 1985 smash, Money For Nothing:

Like other racially driven words in the English language, “faggot” is one that, even if entirely or marginally acceptable in earlier days, is no longer so. The Panel finds that it has fallen into the category of unacceptable designations on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status or physical or mental disability. In addition to the terms already so categorized by previous CBSC Panels, there are undoubtedly other racial epithets (not yet the subject of CBSC Panel decisions) that would likely fall into the category of words that are inherently problematic. In any event, the Atlantic Regional Panel concludes that the use of the word “faggot” in the song “Money for Nothing” was unacceptable for broadcast and that, by broadcasting an unedited version of the song, CHOZ-FM breached Clause 2 of the CAB Code of Ethics, and Clauses 2, 7 and 9 of the Equitable Portrayal Code. The Panel notes parenthetically that the song would not otherwise fall afoul of any of the foregoing broadcast standards if suitably edited.

(Tipped by JMG reader Tone)

CANADA: Appeals Court Rules Against "Religious Objection" On Gay Weddings

Saskatchewan's provincial Court of Appeals has ruled that it is unconstitutional to allow marriage commissioners to opt-out of performing same-sex weddings due to religious objections. In its decision, the Court noted that marriage commissioners are "the only option" for Canadians who wish to marry in a non-religious ceremony.

The Appeal Court said that accommodating commissioners' religious convictions does not justify discriminating against same-sex couples who want to tie the knot. Five judges on the bench at Saskatchewan's Court of Appeal have been considering the case since it heard arguments on the proposed law last May. That's when the provincial government sought advice on two versions of its proposed law -- one that would allow all of the province's approximately 370 commissioners to refuse to wed couples on religious grounds, and another that would only allow the exemption for those who held the job before gay marriage was legalized in 2004. In the ruling issued Monday, the court said the effect of both options runs counter to Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. "Either of them, if enacted, would violate the equality rights of gay and lesbian individuals. This violation would not be reasonable and justifiable within the meaning of s. 1 of the Charter. As a result, if put in place, either option would be unconstitutional and of no force or effect."

Stand by for the World Net Daily headline: "Canada FORCES Christians To Marry Homosexuals! And It Can Happen HERE!"

UPDATE: That didn't take long. Liberty Counsel's Matt Barber just tweeted: "Liberty of conscience dead in Canada. Dying here."

CANADA: Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Challenge To Hate Speech Law

In 2005 former male prostitute and Christian "ex-gay" activist Bill Whatcott, the Canadian version of James Hartline, was found to have violated Saskatchewan's hate speech law after he stuffed residential mailboxes with pamphlets describing gay men as "filthy pedophiles" and "sodomites." Last year Whatcott successfully appealed his conviction. Yesterday Canada's Supreme Court agreed to hear Whatcott's challenge to the very basis of the hate speech law, which he says violates the Canadian constitution.

Whatcott's lawyer, Tom Schuck, says what has been the traditional Christian message on appropriate sexual conduct has morphed into being characterized as hate speech. Human rights commissions should remain neutral on such moral issues, he suggests. "The problem that I have and many others in the Christian community (have), is that this law is being used to charge Christians — Christians who have a different view as to what is right and wrong on sexual behaviour and in particular same-sex sexual behaviour," Schuck said Friday in a phone interview from his office in Weyburn, Sask. "The argument is that our Constitution, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, gives all Canadians the freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of religion. And the utilization of human rights commissions to stop someone from saying that same-sex sexual activity is wrong infringes on all three of those charter rights."

After his 2005 conviction, Whatcott became a folk hero among American anti-gay activists and Christianists, who have long pointed to Canada's stringent hate speech laws as a harbinger of a coming chilling of free speech in the United States. However few have noted last year's overturn of his conviction and most continue cite the 2005 incident in their materials.

VIDEO: From the documentary, The Freedom Of Whatcott.