Keep your hate money out of my country

[Zeond]

Link: http://www.canada.com/national/national ... d49581a18b

Same-sex debate gets U.S. infusion
Religious agencies finance opposition

Elizabeth Thompson, with files from Kirsten Smith Sound Off
CanWest News Service

Monday, February 07, 2005

OTTAWA - Powerful U.S. religious groups are sending money and support to allies in Canada to fight same-sex marriage.

Patrick Korten, vice-president of communications for the Knights of Columbus head office in New Haven, Conn., said no limit has been set on the help his organization is prepared to offer.

"Whatever it takes," he said. "The family is too important."

Mr. Korten said the U.S. headquarters of the Catholic men's group paid $80,782 to print two million postcards being distributed in Catholic churches across Canada.

"It has been extremely enthusiastically received in Catholic parishes all over Canada. As a matter of fact we may have to print some more -- there was a great deal of interest in it. It offers a quick, simple but effective way for Catholics ... to make their feelings about the same-sex marriage bill known to their MPs."

Another opponent of same-sex marriage, Focus on the Family, is also sending support and services worth hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to its Canadian affiliate.

James Dobson, the charismatic founder of Focus on the Family who has been described as one of the most influential Christian figures in the United States, personally waded into the debate two weeks ago in a radio show taped in Colorado Springs, Colo., and transmitted as a paid broadcast to 130 stations in Canada.

"It is clear here in the United States that the American people do not want same-sex marriage. I would hope that Canadians who also do not want same-sex marriage would be encouraged by what has happened down here."

Mr. Dobson also attacked Paul Martin for refusing Cabinet ministers a free vote. "Your Prime Minister, Paul Martin, has recently done things to subvert the will of the people," he said.

Last spring, Focus on the Family Canada ran an ad campaign in newspapers praising the virtues of traditional marriage between a man and a woman. Derek Rogusky, vice-president of family policy for Focus on the Family Canada, said the group spent $800,000 on advertising last year -- well within the $1-million he said the group is allowed to spend on political activities and keep its charitable status.

Canadian registered charities can spend no more than 10% of their budgets on political activity, but the only time interest groups are restricted in what they can spend on lobbying is during elections and referendums.

Focus on the Family Canada is about to launch a new ad campaign but Mr. Rogusky said this one will likely cost less.

Focus on the Family Canada has also put a Marriage Action Kit on its Web site -- a sophisticated step-by-step guide to lobbying -- from form letters for MPs and letters to the editor to advice on how to present the case. It has also sent a letter out to the 100,000 Canadian households on its mailing list.

Altogether, Focus on the Family U.S. has channelled $1.6-million in services to its Canadian affiliate between 2000 and 2003, the latest year for which financial reports are available.

Mr. Rogusky said Focus on the Family Canada is independent from its U.S. parent, with its own board of directors and financed by contributions from Canadians.

Documents filed in British Columbia, where Focus on the Family Canada is incorporated, show two of the directors of Focus on the Family Canada -- Tom Mason and Jim Daly -- are vice-presidents of Focus on the Family U.S. with addresses in Colorado Springs. Also listed on the board is Sharon Hayes, a Reform Party MP from 1993 to 1997.

Roger Robins, a professor at Marymount College in California who has studied the role of religion in U.S. politics, said few leaders of the religious right wield as much clout as Mr. Dobson.

"It's huge. James Dobson may be one of the most important religious right figures in America right now....

"If James Dobson calls attention to an issue and urges people to write about it, [legislators] are inundated."

Same-sex marriage supporters worry the involvement of powerful U.S religious groups risks tipping the balance in the debate.

"We simply have no way to protect ourselves against an American invasion by the religious right," said Alex Munter, national co-ordinator for Canadians for Equal Marriage. "In terms of resources, we're just not equal on that basis."
© National Post 2005

Many Americans vehemently disliked it when foreigners expressed their opinions regarding the presidential elections but when it comes to same sex marriages they feel that they have the right to influence the decision in Canada. Only thing I have to say to these people is: "Keep your hate and hate money out of my country! Canada is a sovereign nation and we can make out own decisions without your meddling."

[Chmee]

C'mon, leave Canada alone to settle these matters in their traditional fashion ...... by abandoning the gay on an ice floe to be eaten by polar bears!*


















*Not guaranteed to reflect actual Canadian cultural practices. Provincial laws may vary.

[Dark Hellion]

Wait a second, Canada's not part of the United States?

Yah, I hear you, hypocracy of the religious is one of the worst things we have here in the U.S. right now. And few people are willing to point it out on national TV anymore, with people like Bill Mahrer gone to IIRC HBO and Leno and Letterman and Stewart seen as Comedians first and social commentary second.

[Enforcer Talen]

"family is too important"?

what? are we talking polyarmourous families which have an incredibly extensive history, families that allow women to 'act' as men for the purpose of inheritance, or what?

[VT-16]

OTTAWA - Powerful U.S. religious groups are sending money and support to allies in Canada to fight same-sex marriage.

Sounds like a goddamn military operation.

"Whatever it takes," he said. "The family is too important."

So, gays get stereotyped as only promiscuous and lustful, and when they try to settle down, build a family and show the stereotype to be wrong, they´re not allowed. Family´s only important when it´s not headed by gays, right?

It is clear here in the United States that the American people do not want same-sex marriage. I would hope that Canadians who also do not want same-sex marriage would be encouraged by what has happened down here.

60 years ago, the German people didn´t want Jews and other dissidents around, they were also inspired by a charismatic leader and a book.

But, oh, I forget, it didn´t last 2000 years so it wasn´t okay.

[Frank Hipper]

Keep eating the fatty foods, Dobson...

[Solauren]

As a Canadian, I'd like to say, I agree

Get the fuck out of our politics. With 4 major political parties, we have enough problems, thank you

Too bad there is not a law preventing Canadian-based non-business groups from recieving finicial support from out of country sources.

[HemlockGrey]

You guys could always decide to ditch Quebec and the fundie provinces (Alberta is one, right?) and be annexed into the United States. We can divide you up into a couple of states and the Senators added to Congress will swing the balance of power to the liberals, while you get all the benefits of being both Canadian (via the usual state autonomy) and American.

Just a thought!

[Gil Hamilton]

You guys could always decide to ditch Quebec and the fundie provinces (Alberta is one, right?) and be annexed into the United States. We can divide you up into a couple of states and the Senators added to Congress will swing the balance of power to the liberals, while you get all the benefits of being both Canadian (via the usual state autonomy) and American.

Just a thought!

I think the Canadians would make rather ditch Quebec and the fundie provinces and let them be annexed into the United States.

[Guy N. Cognito]

Good God, do Fundimentalist American see it as a requirement that they mettle in everyone's affairs?
:Iraq's done, now what?
:Canada's Voting on same sex marriages
:Quick, let's pull out the big guns!

[Elfdart]

Dobson is total crackpot who is given a pass because he comes across on television as a kindly old man, as opposed to creeps like Falwell, Robertson and Phelps, who come across as Klansmen on Casual Friday.

But Dobson is every bit as scummy -even more so since his delivery is much smoother. He co-wrote a book with Gary Bauer (Children At Risk) that makes the following claims:

Clinton's White House sent a lesson plan to the public schools instructing children to draw the largest penises they could imagine. They were also told to compare black and white schlongs.

Clinton's White House sent out a lesson plan instructing children to write about their parents' sex lives.

And this one from Garry Wills' column:

Dobson also, in the same book, said that humanism was to blame for the man who had his own daughter artificially inseminated with his semen so he could take the kidneys out of her 7-month-old fetus to get a compatible kidney implant for himself. This incest-and-murder story, from a man who calls himself "Doctor," supposes that a 7-month-old fetus kidney will support a grown man.

Wills challenged Dobson and Bauer to prove any of this nonsense. That was more than five years ago and still no answer.

Fuck James Dobson!

[Uraniun235]

I jumped to the stuff about Clinton in your post and thought I was reading satire at first.

[Enforcer Talen]

what I like about the annexing canada idea, excluding quebec, is that it balances the american south.

iraq war, canceled, drug war, canceled, gay rights, approved.

[Elfdart]

I jumped to the stuff about Clinton in your post and thought I was reading satire at first.

I don't have that much imagination.