En Garde, or, This Is Our Chance to Bury Anti-Choice

NOTE: Sorry, but Blogger is screwing up. None of the links in this seems to be working. I'll try to fix it again later.

UPDATE: And now the links are working. I didn't do anything. Go figger.


Andrew Scheer, former and worst-ever Speaker of the House, has won the Conservative Party leadership. But as several people have pointed out, Michael Harris among them, Scheer has a BIG debt to pay. To social conservatives, aka, anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-trans, anti-assisted dying, anti-comprehensive sex-ed dinosaurs.

These social conservatives worked their hearts out for Stephen Harper for ten years. In return, they got nothing but strategic tokenism. The passion they invest in their cause never gave Harper so much as a palpitation — but it did lead him to calculate that he could bamboozle them ’til the cows came home and cash in on their political usefulness.

This time, the so-cons were wised up. They sold thousands of memberships on behalf of Trost and Lemieux. That support ultimately went Scheer’s way. Now they will expect him to deliver.

Brent Rathgeber makes a similar point.

And the Straight cites the fetus freak group fronted by Alyssa Golob as taking credit.

While Scheer has taken a page out of Stephen Harper’s book (“We will not reopen the abortion debate”), that’s going to be tough, given how many zygote zealots feel they are OWED.

But in order for him to pay his debts, he’ll have to get into power and I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

Until he gets his kick at the can, I have some suggestions for what pro-choice, pro-civil rights, pro-modern times people should do.

As I said back when the Liberals (*ptui*) got their majority, we have a historic chance in Canada to get this abortion dealie dealt with once and for all.

Canada is staunchly pro-choice (latest Ipsos poll shows 77% support) and there have been some encouraging developments over the last while.

In December, the city of Grande Prairie successfully fought off hateful bus ads with a judge’s decision that came very close to calling the ads “hate speech.” (As they are.)

In April, research done by Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada (ARCC) paid off big time when it was revealed that anti-choice gangs were getting federal Canada Summer Jobs grants. The feds promised that would end.

Continuing that work, ARCC is running a “Letter of the Week” campaign aimed at disclosing provincial grants given to rights-denying organizations like fake clinics.

Earlier this month, we learned that Health Canada has eased some of its idiotic restrictions on the abortion pill.

This year’s March for Lies in Ottawa was the smallest in memory. (RCMP pegged the number at 4,000.) It was so small that fetus freaks didn’t even *try* to claim that it was bigger and better than last year.

One of the side-stories to the March for Lies was the raising of an anti-choice flag at Ottawa City Hall. It was hastily taken down, but there was fall-out from it.

Notably, increased attention to the clinic harassers at the Morgentaler Clinic in downtown Ottawa. A result of that is today’s announcement that Ontario’s Attorney General, Yasir Naqvi, intends to craft a “bubble zone” law to protect clinics.

Also today we learned that a judge in New Brunswick has granted another injunction against clinic harassers.

These are all hopeful developments. Our job over the next couple of years is to continue and expand these efforts.

• Keep an eye on the federal government to make sure no more public money goes to anti-choice groups.

• Pressure provincial governments to spend money on women and children more wisely than on fake clinics.

• Support cities and towns targetted for hate-speech ads.

• Encourage healthcare providers to continue to press for more reasonable regulations on the abortion pill.

• Support bubble zones in Ontario and other provinces that do not have such protection.

I believe that anti-choice is dying in Canada — I mean, just 4,000 people arsed themselves to come out for March for Lies??!!? — and the election of Andrew Scheer is its last gasp.

We have the opportunity to move our laws, institutions, and media to the point where if and when Scheer’s owners try any funny stuff around abortion, Canadians will just point and laugh.

Because we are sooo beyond that here in modern, pro-choice Canada.