The Photographs of Your Junk (will be publicized!) - Love it!
January 5, 2012
September 30, 2011
Canada's The National Post Issues B.S. Apology on Anti-Trans Ad It Ran
What is more frustrating is that the original “apology” that they issued said “…in their singling out of a specific group of people who have made choices about their sexuality with which the group disagrees.” They have since changed this to read “… in their singling out of groups of people with whose sexuality the group disagrees”
The only reason they are apologizing is because they realize that if this blows up as an election issue there will be backlash against the Conservatives because most people in Ontario (particularly the key voting areas in and around Toronto) support Trans rights and education on issues like sexual orientation and gender diversity. The National Post being a right wing Conservative mouth piece wouldn’t want to do that.
The post has never really been supportive of LGBT issues in the past. During the same-sex marriage debate they ran a front page “article” which was more like an advertisement for an upcoming protest against same-sex marriage. When a similar protest in support of same-sex marriage was made (the March of Hearts) there was no pre-march article and the article on the actual march itself was relegated to the middle pages as if hiding it. Perhaps if this paper had shown any inkling to support the Queer (LGBT) community in the past I might take this apology more seriously but considering their track record they’re simply trying to save face.
July 26, 2011
Rob Ford interview with CP24 with actual facts being checked.
April 28, 2011
Canadian Paper The Globe & Mail Endorses Conservative Party, Taking Away Same-sex Marriage
While I recognize that the Globe & Mail has previously endorsed political parties I don’t agree with it. In my mind unless all of the other parties are Nazi or Stalinist parties a news agency has no business endorsing a candidate. News agencies are supposed to be as unbiased as possible, and endorsing the Conservative party comes with a WHOLE lot of a other biases that cannot be ignored.
What does endorsing a party really mean? Well to announce your endorsement of a party, as a national paper, this means you must really believe in and accept the values and policies the party represents and has put forward. In the Conservatives case this of course would mean lowering corporate taxes, cutting funding to women’s programs, building new larger prisons and expanding old ones (despite the dropping crime rate), expanding the military budget and purchasing 30 new figher jets, and ignoring experts within various industries (corrections canada, climatologists, statisticians, environmentalists, healthcare professionals, law enforcement, etc). I guess because they are experts that makes them “elite” and we all know how much the Conservatives - and apparently the Globe now - hate the educated “elite”.
The other thing that this means is that the Globe & Mail is effectively endorsing the banning of same-sex marriage, as the Conservative caucus has made it quite clear where they stand on the issue of same-sex marriage, and in fact Queer rights in general - see here for more information. While Harper himself has said that it is not a priority for him to bring up the same-sex marrage issue again if they win a majority he has been silent on what he would do if a private member’s bill were introduced to remove it - though through his past voting record I think we all know where he stands on that - video of Harper speaking at an anti same-sex marriage rally here.
The Globe & Mail has now endorsed a political party whose leader has stood smiling beside people who have demonized the Queer community, people who believe we shouldn’t be allowed to have children, teach in schools, who believe it is their right to fire people if they are Queer. They have endorsed a party with a leader who belongs to a Church that thinks homosexuality is one of the gravest of sins, akin to murder, rape, and incest. By endorsing this party the Globe and Mail is also endorsing it’s leader. What the Globe & Mail has done here would be tantamount to endorsing a KKK-esque segregationist back in the 50’s and 60’s, it’s disgusting.
The Globe & Mail can try to do all the talking it wants around this issue but at the end of the day they have endorsed a homophobic party, and a homophobic leader. It is an insult to the Queer community that a national paper would do this. I also find it an insult to women across this country, to native people, and to people within the arts.
June 7, 2010
CBC Reports on Pride Toronto Banning “Queer Against Israeli Apartheid” Wrong
I was listening to CBC’s radio one on the shuttle to work today and was shocked when it failed to mention the reason behind why Pride Toronto has banned the group “Queers Against Israeli Apartheid” from marching in the parade.
The CBC claimed it was due to a some letters of complaint that Pride received from people in previous years however failed to mention the fact that Pride Toronto could lose funding for the event from city and/or the province.
I think if the CBC is going to be reporting on something as controversial as this issue is, especially now, then they should at least get the facts right because the threat of loosing ones funding, and thus the entire event, is a just a tad more understandable than reacting to “a few” complaints.
The CBC has also reported on it here - http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/06/07/toronto-pride-israel.html#socialcomments
