Rules, Shmules: CONs Flout 'Em Again for Religious Pals

We know this: the Contempt Party of Canada breaks rules. Actually, more often they don't even acknowledge that there might be rules that apply to them or their pals.

The examples are legion, but here at DAMMIT JANET! we pay particular attention to transgressions relating to reproductive rights and/or religion (and it's drearily often "and," isn't it?).

Back in December, we reported that the Dominionist Association for Reformed Political Action got "special permission" to stage their garish little gasline flag stunt on Parliament Hill. (This MASSIVE event was intended to call attention to underground gaslines -- both male and female -- cruelly bunched together on a side lawn of Parliament Hill. Or something.)

Here's another more recent flouting of the rules, this time involving Jason Kenney, Patrick Brown, and Pakistani Christians, a key voter demographic, we assume.

A religious conference held earlier this month on Parliament Hill that featured Defence and Citizenship Minister Jason Kenney as a speaker appears to have breached the rules governing House of Commons facilities.

The Conference on Religious Freedom, organized by International Christian Voice, was held March 11 at 1 Wellington Street, a building with committee rooms that is part of the Parliamentary precinct.

Link to conference. Link to organization.

According to the rules, events may not include conferences, tickets may not be sold, and the sponsoring MP must be in attendance throughout the entire event.

The sponsoring MP was Patrick Brown, multitasking his job as MP with his campaign to lead the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario.

This was clearly a conference, tickets were sold, but it's uncertain whether Brown took time out of his busy schedule to sit through the whole thing.

Because he was busy. Four tweets from March 11 informed followers of four events he attended that day, including the Pakistani Christian one.

And gee, guess what! Patrick Brown is also a double-plus-good fetus fetishist endorsed for PCPO leader by Campaign Lie, which is hedging its bet by also endorsing Monte McNaughton (Rob Ford's choice).

Here's another odd twist to the story.

According to the bylaws, applications for room use must be approved by the Sergeant-at-Arms in consultation with the party. The Sergeant-at-Arms position, however, has been vacant since Kevin Vickers left to become ambassador to Ireland.

We remember Kevin Vickers, don't we? The hero of the October Parliament Hill shooting -- part of the ostensible urgent need for the fascist Jihadi Terrorists Under Every Bed bill -- whisked off to his reward in the Emerald Isle before he could add any useful details to what actually happened that fateful -- for civil liberties in Canada -- day.

Patrick Brown did not deign to return the Ottawa Citizen's call for clarification but International Christian Voice's chairman said he was unaware that ticketed conferences were not allowed.

Who approved the event? Will anyone take responsibility for or try to explain the irregularity?

It's unclear whether any further investigation is underway.

In case you were wondering, besides Jason (The Virgin) Kenney, attendees included Andrew Bennet, Ambassador for Religious (Only If Christian) Pandering and former headmaster of a finishing school for home-skuled precious little souls, Don Meredith, ordained minister with some dodgy credentials and Conservative Senator, and Raymond de Souza, ubiquitous fetus fetishist who needs no introduction here. Bal Gosal, cited by Brown as co-sponsor, did not tweet that day aside from retweeting Brown's.

The (ongoing) lesson?

To paraphrase Leona Helmsley: "We CONservatives don't follow rules. Only the little people without important Christian and/or anti-choice connections follow rules."

It's Baaaack: Unborn Victims Bill, C484

UPDATE: December 7, 2015
This old blog-post must have been linked to somewhere because it's getting some action in the comments recently. I published a couple as you can see and there are more.

But I've said what I said and have nothing to add. Discuss this elsewhere. I will publish no more comments.

******************************


Here we go again. Another brutal murder of a pregnant woman and people are again braying for vengeance.

Firefighters discovered [Cassandra] Kaake’s body Dec. 11 after she was murdered and mutilated. Kaake, 31, was seven months pregnant. She planned to call the baby Molly.

Police said Kaake died from blood loss caused by severe trauma. The killer also allegedly torched Kaake’s Benjamin Avenue home with her body inside.

Matthew Brush, 26, from LaSalle, is charged with break and enter, arson causing property damage, possession of incendiary material for arson, arson with disregard for human life, first-degree murder and indecent interference with a dead body.

If found guilty, I think it's pretty safe to say that this fella will have the book thrown at him, including a very harsh sentence based on Canada's sensible notion of aggravating circumstances.

From a 2007 Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada Position Paper on "Fetal Homicide" Law (pdf):

In Canada, the judicial system routinely takes aggravating circumstances into account. In the case of an assault or murder of a pregnant woman, even though a third party cannot be charged separately with harm to the fetus, prosecutors may recommend more serious charges (such as first degree murder or aggravated assault), judges may impose harsher penalties, and parole boards may deny parole to convicted perpetrators.

Perhaps we want a new law that codifies such practices. Thirteen U.S. states have laws that simply apply stiffer punishments for murdering a pregnant woman, but do not make the death of the fetus a separate crime. Such a solution would avoid the controversy about giving rights to fetuses or interfering with abortion rights, and would ensure that women do not lose their rights while they are pregnant.

No doubt this has been explained to the grieving family and friends, but is apparently not enough. A woman named Kim Badour started a petition to bring back Ken Epp's ill-fated private member's bill, C484.

The bill would have made it a criminal offence to cause harm to an unborn child during a crime against the mother. It passed second reading in the House of Commons but was later dropped. Badour wants to bring it back.

As the ARCC quote indicates, there are tons of problems with "fetal homicide" laws, however well-intentioned they are. (We do not believe that Epp and other fetus freaks were well-intentioned. We believe they were and are crass anti-choicers preying on the grief and outrage of bereaved families in order to bring in anti-abortion legislation by the infamous back door.)

So what does Official Fetus Freakdom have to say?

Perhaps surprisingly, it is quite clear-eyed and balanced (!!!!) in its response. First the obligatory whine.

[Mary-Ellen]Douglas [spokesperson for Campaign Life Coalition] hopes a pro-life MP will take up Bill C-484 but doesn’t give it much chance of passage. “Harper stopped it the first time,” she said, and there is no reason to believe he won’t do the same again.

But next, a pretty straight account of the other side.

The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada (ARCC) opposed Bill C-484 then and still does, seeing it as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. While it appeals to all concerned about violence against women, according to ARCC, it really targets women’s “reproductive rights.” ARCC’s Joyce Arthur told LifeSiteNews that 38 U.S. states (and the U.S. federal government) have passed unborn victims laws or other “fetal personhood” measures that have “resulted in hundreds of pregnant women with wanted pregnancies being arrested or prosecuted, or subjected to forced interventions, for behavior perceived as potentially harmful to the fetus.”

Arthur cites a study titled Arrests of and Forced Interventions on Pregnant Women in the United States, 1973–2005: Implications for Women’s Legal Status and Public Health, and further studies by the same researchers, Lynn Paltrow and Jeanne Flavin. They count 780 instances since 1973 (380 of them since 2005) of women jailed or institutionalized by the courts either to get them off drugs during their “wanted” pregnancy or on suspicion they deliberately caused themselves to miscarry, but sometimes when women merely resisted doctors’ wishes that they deliver by caesarean section. 

None of the laws used were intended to jail pregnant women, the researchers report, and about 10 percent of the arrests fell under unborn victims of crime laws.

The piece ends with another obligatory whining flourish.

Mary Ellen Douglas countered, however: “Joyce Arthur and her crowd will do anything to avoid talking about the 4 million unborn children that have been legally aborted in Canada. They can’t face that reality.”

Here's a link to the executive summary of the study Arthur cites. It is a chilling documentation of the criminalization of pregnancy in the US, resulting in arrests, trials, and imprisonment of mostly poor, vulnerable women.

Two recent examples show the gross injustice these laws enable, both cases targetting women of colour: Purvi Patel and Bei Bei Shuai.

But however tragic these cases are -- whether they involve murder, spousal abuse, sustance abuse, or mental health issues -- there will always be the opportunists.

Like Mike Schouten of We Need a Law (Like a Hole in the Head).

It is particularly rich that Schouten with his astroturf organization -- set up by Dominionist Association for Reformed Political Action to jump on "gendercide", or the alleged MASSIVE phenom in "certain" communities of aborting female fetuses -- would attach itself to a proposed law that would target poor, vulnerable women like Patel and Shuai.

Ah well, "gendercide," "fetal homicide," criminalized pregnancies, grieving families, targetted "communities" -- what does it matter to people on a Mission from Gawd?

Here's our Minister of National Defense at ARPA's "God & Government 2014" bunfest.

(Yes, I realize that photo is irrelevant, but I like it.)

UPDATE, Feb. 25/15: Windsor Star is running a poll on whether a fetal homicide law is needed. And as commenter Anon says, people are letting their emotions get in the way of the actual threat to women's rights such a law would present.

In Beleaguered Calgary, a Tireless Multi-Tasker Toils

Poor Calgary. While home to many good and decent people, it is also headquarters for PetroState Canada as well as the country's most disgusting and self-righteous gang of fetus freaks, the Canadian Centre for Bioethical *ptui* Reform (CCBR), whose gory website you can look up yourself if you've a mind to.

They've plagued various parts of our fair land with their crap, but Calgary is their home base and special target.

When they're not dropping traffic-accident-causing gore banners over highway overpasses, they're stuffing residential mailboxes with their faked-up abortion porn.

The citizens of Calgary have fought back in various ways over the years. But after the last assault, when yet another appeal to the city to do SOMETHING resulted in arms flung up in helplessness, a group of parents (kinda ironic, eh?) decided to start a petition.

Oct 8, 2014 — We are now past 200 signatures which is a great feat in only 84 hours. Calgary City Council has put it forward for discussion but a city lawyer has stated there is little they can do. We disagree. Denver, Colorado has banned these images already. Hamilton, Ontario is in the midst of restricting them too. We have the bylaw already written for them. All they have to do is pass it. Please keep sharing, post on your social media and telling your friends and family. We need to keep the pressure on to make sure this can be passed as a bylaw here too. Please start using #protectyyckids and #yyccc when posting on twitter and facebook.

Please sign it and help stop the shameless misinformation and egregious shock.

Out of this kerfuffle though came an interesting tidbit, from the investigations of one pissed-off recipient of the anti-choice propaganda.

The Calgary teacher said he was just as shocked, however, when he started looking into the CCBR and found a staffer for Health Minister Rona Ambrose supporting the group’s more controversial actions online.

Daniel Gilman, who is listed in the federal government’s employee directory as an assistant to Ambrose, said in a tweet last year he’s “thankful” for the CCBR “project” that involves hanging graphic banners from overpasses above major roadways, including Deerfoot Trail in Calgary, where earlier this year a minor car crash occurred below one of the banners.

[The image has been digitally blurred by Metro.]

And here's young Daniel waxing all poetical-like about the recent moronic display of underground gasline markers on Parliament Hill. Link.

The gasline markers were the work of We Need a Law, an astroturf front for the Dominionist Association for Reformed Political Action, so it appears that Mr Gilman, like all good political assistants, is a multi-tasker, able to serve many masters and mistresses.

His boss, THE FUCKING FEDERAL HEALTH MINISTER, should be proud.




h/t for the YouTube to Alison in the comments here.

Woodworth's Wank: The ARPA Connection

As we reported yesterday, the Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) is behind the new player in the Undebate, We Need a Law (that link is to its Myths page; go read).

Also yesterday -- the day of WNAL's launch -- the legal counsel for ARPA, André Schutten opined at LifeShite on the usual blacks, women, and Jews weren't considered human either BS.

Now, since ARPA has been of great assistance to DJ! in ferreting shit out in the past, we decided to look some more.

And we found stuff!

There is a cool page at the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada where one can find out who is lobbying whom.

A search for ARPA revealed this.

On February 3, March 3, and March 27, 2012, ARPA's Executive Director, Mark Penninga, lobbied CON MPs Rod Bruinooge, Mark Warawa (three times), Rob Clarke, and Brad Trost, plus Senator Gerry St. Germain and Liberal MP John McKay.

Bruinooge, Trost, and McKay are well-known fetus fetishists. Campaign Lie rates Clarke as unknown. It doesn't rate Senators, so St. Germain's views are unknown.

So who is this Mark Warawa who merited three visits -- once seemingly just for him? Campaign Lie is still evaluating his status on fetus fetishism.

I think they can upgrade him now.

MP Woodworth Bill 312 was debated today. Motion is to look at scientific evidence re when does unborn child become Human. I will vote yes

— Mark Warawa (@MPmarkwarawa) April 26, 2012

So, over three occasions, ARPA lobbied three known FFs, three unknown and seems to have influenced at least one on this project -- if, indeed, that was the purpose of Penninga's trip.

An odd use of time, wouldn't you think?

Lobbying back-benchers, a senator, and a Liberal.

The search result returned only those 7 reports from this year.
I wondered how to search further back and found nothing useful. For comparison purposes, I searched for 'Canadian Medical Association'. Woo. Found 337 reports going back to July 2008.

Makes ARPA look like pikers in the lobbying department with only 7 reports.

What are they up to? Stay tuned.

Brought to You by Dominionists: 'We Need a Law'

[ADDED May 27/12: Attention, visitors from NatPo, check this out.]


There's a new player in the UnDebate, or, Woodworth's Wank.

Tada! Unleashed today, We Need a Law (Like a Hole in the Head). Its tagline is 'preborn human rights'.

Here's its glurge-filled media release.

The site was created on January 18, so this has been in the works for a while.

The front man is Mike Schouten of Surrey, BC. An interesting career fetus fetishist/Dominionist.

He ran as a Christian Heritage Party candidate in the last federal election.

I didn't know this. The CHP called for a moratorium on Muslim immigration.

The federal Christian Heritage Party is calling for a national moratorium on immigration from Muslim countries to curb increasing radical Islamist power in Canada.

Mike Schouten, CHP candidate for South Surrey-White Rock-Cloverdale, admits his party's stance on this issue will likely result in charges of racism. But he says it's about protecting Canadian values as outlined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"This issue, because of the climate of political correctness, is not allowed to be talked about," Schouten noted.

Shocker! He didn't win.

On January 26 this year, it was reported that he parted company with CHP (emphasis mine).

Cloverdale’s Mike Schouten has parted ways with the Christian Heritage Party, handing in his party membership earlier this month.

As the CHP’s candidate for South Surrey - White Rock - Cloverdale in the 2010 federal election, Schouten came in sixth out of nine, with 429 votes.

He told Black Press he did a lot of soul-searching after the campaign, wondering if his “gifts and talents were well used in a political setting.”
. . .
Schouten says his parting with the CHP is amicable. He left because he has another opportunity to concentrate more on the pro-life cause that is his primary concern than he did within the CHP.

His letter to the editor, “Gay lobbyists forcing ideology on youth,” (Cloverdale Reporter, June 3, 2010), which lamented the “hijacking of local anti-bullying campaigns by homosexual advocates,” and referred to homosexuality as a “completely unnatural lifestyle,” drew criticism from other readers.

And he's a fairly regular commenter at ProWoman, ProLie.

More googling. And we find some more stuff.

Schouten (plus, one presumes, relatives Jody and Doug) are aaaallll over the Association for Reformed Political Action.

Regular readers here will remember ARPA, yes? It's where we found that little nugget of info about Tim Hudak pledging to defund abortion.

Here's a sample contribution from Schouten at the ARPA site.

It’s time Canadians stood up to the bullying of the homosexual community. Their militant efforts to force all of us to not only tolerate but to accept and even celebrate their choice to practise a completely unnatural lifestyle needs to be stopped!

Aaaaand now, the REVEAL

Mike Schouten, from Cloverdale BC, was also able to share with the ARPA reps about an exciting new campaign that he plans to lead, under the direction of ARPA Canada, starting May 1st.

So that's who is behind We Need a Law Like a Hole in the head.

ARPA's mission.

The mission of ARPA Canada is to educate, equip, and encourage Reformed Christians to political action and to shine the light of God’s Word to Canada’s municipal, provincial, and federal governments.

A bunch of racist, homophobic, misogynist gord-botherers who want to take over all levels of government.

We clear on that?

Okey-dokey, then.

Here's the real 'gotcha'

I saw this this morning and thought: 'what a smarmy twerp. I'm going to demand rebuttal space.'

I contacted The Star and was just told I can't even write a letter to the editor under a pseudonym.

Unfortunately, I had already almost finished what I was going to send them. So here it is in all its non-DAMMITy glory. I'm planning on having another go -- complete with linkies -- later.

On Monday, July 25, editors of the online version of The Star saw fit to publish 'The Curse of Gotcha Politics' by Mark Penninga, executive director of the Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) Canada and author of the web-page containing information on Tim Hudak’s 2009 position on abortion.

I wondered why this was appearing. Did Mr. Penninga have more information on Mr. Hudak's abortion stance? That would be good because, beyond a pledge not to reopen the abortion debate, Ontario voters do not know if he stands behind his 2009 position.

No, there was no more information on that issue.

Was Mr. Penninga or his Reformed Christian organization misrepresented in The Star and thus needed an opportunity to set things right?

No. Rather, he applauds The Star as the only media outlet to contact him.

So, where's the 'gotcha'? And what's his interest in it?

Amidst much faff about 'our use of media and technology, its dumbing-down impact on public discourse, and the hope of being able to have meaningful societal conversations about sensitive topics like abortion' and 'sensationalist "gotcha" politics', it appears that the gotcha was on him.

And I perpetrated it.

I am the unnamed blogger who 'happened to come across' the information that unleashed what Chris Selley at the National Post called 'online hellfire'. (I am also the target of a snide characterization as a blogger ‘with a chip on his or her shoulder'.)

To clarify, I have been blogging -- under a pseudonym, yes -- on women's rights and politics in general for more than five years. I didn't 'happen' on that information on Hudak's abortion stance -- he's in favour of defunding it, by the way -- I went looking for it.

And found it. Gotcha!

Now, suddenly, Conservatives and anti-abortion promoters are seemingly perplexed by the media and public's interest in this 'two-year-old article from an organization that nobody has heard of'.

Really? Then why did Penninga's organization think it useful for its members to know the position on 'pro-life' issues of the Ontario Conservative leadership candidates during the campaign in 2009?

Are Ontario voters as a whole not entitled to the same information?

I guess not. We are to be satisfied with the tight-lipped, Harper-esque 'we will not reopen the abortion debate' meme and refrain from 'sensationalist' politics.

Tut-tut, says Mr. Penninga. Mere chip-shouldered bloggers and 'Liberal spin-doctors' (that would be Warren Kinsella, who picked up the story from my blog) do not have the 'maturity and grace to understand' a serious issue like abortion. We 'poison the debate' and play 'cheap political games'.

My original question is perfectly legitimate. Would Tim Hudak as premier work to defund abortion? Yes, I know that abortion is a federal matter and he can't recriminalize it (however much his supporters may wish for that).

But health care is the biggest budget item in the province. And if you believe the squawking of the various Chicken Littles at the moment, the financial axe is about to fall on all kinds of things.

Medical services have been defunded in the past. Hospital beds have been closed.

Why not defund abortion? Why not defund certain types of abortion? Why not cut back on the locations it is available? Why not put up barriers to safe, legal abortion in the name of saving money?

Especially if it would garner the support of 'mature' and 'graceful' voters able to understand what this is about?

Mr. Hudak must answer the question. Would he defund abortion?

On a personal note: I'm delighted that a mere blogger, an ordinary citizen, could put the spotlight on this issue. All I did was dig a little. And find something that some would obviously prefer remain cloaked.

ADDED: Link to original post.