When I woke up yesterday morning, I wasn't sure how long it would be before the torture of LGBT kids would finally be over.
For Erin O'Toole was promising his Cons a free vote on the Bill to ban the horror of conversion therapy.
And goodness knows his party reeks of bigotry.
So imagine my surprise, when the Cons suddenly surrendered, the bill was passed unanimously.
The federal government's updated bill to ban the practice of conversion therapy has been adopted unanimously by the House of Commons.
MPs voted to fast track Bill C-4 on Wednesday afternoon. The Commons erupted in applause after the vote and several Liberal cabinet ministers walked across the floor to shake hands with and — in some cases — hug their Conservative counterparts.
And for a while at least, the Commons never looked better, or more Canadian.
But sadly all was not what it appeared to be.
As Dale Smith points out, it was all a cynical ploy.
Let’s not kid ourselves. This wasn’t a magnanimous gesture or one that showed true allyship—it was a pretty cynical ploy to avoid a recorded vote and further embarrassment of the party.
And many of their MPs did not join in the standing ovation, including the sinister SoCon Leslyn Lewis...
Who according to those who were there looked very very unhappy and very very angry.
So who knows what O'Toole had to promise her and the others to keep their mouths shut.
For you can be sure that sooner or later those SoCons will be demanding their pound of bloody flesh, and it will make the Cons look even more ugly and evil than they already are.
And their lying leader look even more monstrous.
But that will come later, right now I am just happy and grateful.
Grateful that we have a decent Prime Minister who has done more for LGBT Canadians than any other other Canadian leader before him.
And happy that after so much pain and suffering.
And so many suicides.
The kids are free at last...
P.S. I'd like to end my post with that, but I couldn't help noticing that none of the old geezers at Progressive Bloggers bothered to write a word about this significant step in the human rights struggle in this country.
Including those who are retired TEACHERS.
How dare they call themselves progressives? Why do they bother to blog?
What bloody FRAUDS...
"So who knows what O'Toole had to promise her and the others to keep their mouths shut." My first thought, Simon, was that the SoCon group was given what they've sought after for so long...permission to eventually launch bills to limit and/or ban abortions in Canada...along with a "free vote" so they can show their ravenous base that they're staying true to the faith. Wait for it...
ReplyDeleteThe silver lining is that this cynical move is already angering influential SoCon agitators like Alissa Golob and Scott Hayward, who are doubling down on their "multi-step process" to oust O'Toole (or split the party). There's also the likelihood that this cynical move of theirs is forgotten by the time the next election comes around and goes ignored due to the holidays, the pandemic, the B.C. floods and other things at the forefront of people's minds.
ReplyDeleteThe bigots will have ample opportunities to rear their ugly heads again with future legislation (just wait until they table more gun control bills, the hate speech bill and the bill to add abortion to the Canada Health Act). The Liberals will be able to remind Canadians time and time again of who they really are. For now I've decided that this theatre is comparable to the Christmas Truce of WW1. But the Red Baron (Blue Baron?) didn't stop being an adversary just because of one trip to the bar with the Flying Ace.
The caution that I would extend to the Liberals is that O'Toole is a better liar than Scheer. He's also an egotistical autocrat like Harper who is working overtime to paper over the cons' agenda and thread the needle in order to buy himself some time and maintain his position sitting on the fence. All he cares about is power and proving his own self-declared prophecy to his high school classmates.
The Liberals will have to get louder and more efficient at exposing their bullshit, because the media is perfectly content to praise them for clearing the bare minimum low bar. Stop calling ceasefire with the enemy and helping them do that. When I saw Boissoneault hugging Lantsman last night, it made me want to puke. Not to mix world war metaphors, but it was like if Magnus Hirschfeld made nice with Ernst Röhm.
What infuriates me the most is how the shiny-object media completely memory-holes their atrocious behaviour, as though past is not precedent. Furthermore, how the elephant in the room keeps being ignored: the most blatantly obvious proof of how the cons would treat "others" -- namely LGBT+ people (or people they presume to be LGBT+) can be found right there in their abject vitriol aimed at the PM himself. The "nice hair" ad, the "just not ready" with the feminine sparkles, their rank and file calling him Justine (and a lot worse, which is especially precious considering their own current leader has what could be called a girl's name).
I mean, even our shit US media reported on the racism coming from the GOP towards Obama. Why won't Canada's lügenpresse delve into the homophobia the cons have flung for the better part of a decade against Justin Trudeau?
The kids are free at last? Not quite. The bill now goes to the Senate. It's not out of the woods yet.
ReplyDeleteHi anon@1:59 PM...I am afraid you're right. Judging from people like Leslyn Lewis, if they can't go after gays they will go after the women, and try to make it harder to have an abortion. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if O'Toole promised that they could help choose any new Con candidates. Under Scheer the Cons managed to attract many religious fanatics, and they will be expecting O'Toole to do the same thing.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is, the more kooks who end up as candidates, the bigger the target on the party's back. And the less chance the Cons will have of ever governing this country...
Old tools handlers have convinced the conservative nutjobs that Canadians won't vote for their cherished anti gay, anti woman anti coloured policies. Shut up and sit down and we can fool the Canadian voter to elect office they say. And the rabid right fell for it. They think that after the next election they will be free to jail LBGBT's , make the Handmaids Tail reality and put immigrants in their place. Assholes the bunch of them.
ReplyDeleteHi Jackie....I saw what Alisa Gollob had to say and I was very encouraged. With that rabid anti-abortionist mouthing off, it won't be hard to convince Canadians that the Cons are more American than Canadian, and a deadly threat.
ReplyDeleteBut you're right, O'Toole is a much better liar than Andrew Scheer, and since the media won't go after him as they should, those of us in social media are going to have to do the heavy lifting. I look forward to the challenge, because the Cons are low creatures, and not very bright, so taking them down shouldn't be too hard. Especially since they spend a lot of time criticizing the racism of the Republicans, but almost no time criticizing the racism in our own backyard...
IF someone lies about their basic principles can you trust them on anything
ReplyDeleteHi anon@4:27 PM....It's true that the Cons in the Senate could try to delay passage of the bill as they have done before. But O'Toole is in charge of that shabby caucus, and having given Batty Batters the boot, I doubt the others would have the courage to ruin O'Toole's cynical ploy. But if they try, it will end badly, and definitely make my day...
ReplyDeleteO'Toole kicked Batty Batters out of the national caucus, but her senate colleagues didn't follow suit. She continues to caucus with the Conservative group there. In other words, the Con senators aren't dancing to O'Toole's fiddle and may give the bill a rough ride. Now if Trudeau would get his finger out and fill those 13 vacant senate seats...
ReplyDeleteHi Steve....I have no patience for politicians who lie. I thought that Andrew Scheer was the biggest liar I had ever seen, but Erin O'Toole is turning out to be even worse. What I find particularly egregious about the Con liars is that they know they are lying and they don't care. They know that the Con media is either too weak or too corrupt to properly fact check them, so they keep lying like thieves and unless we can make a big deal out of those lies we will end up on the slippery slope to fascism...
ReplyDeleteHi rumleyfips... You may be right. It may be as simple as telling the SoCon rabble that if they are patient they will be rewarded. But judging by the anger I am seeing coming from those right-wing extremists I think O'Toole must be promising them something else as well. And I strongly suspect it's total control over the nomination process. So they can add to the already large number of SoCons and other far-right kooks and totally dominate the party. It's happening in the U.S. so I see no reason it couldn't happen here. Again, if we had a serious media instead of a shallow fake scandal seeking one, we might be able to know the extent of the right wing influence. But we don't, so we are on our own...
ReplyDeleteHi anon@7:06 PM...What you say is true, the Cons in the Senate might give the bill a rough ride. And there are some notorious bigots among them. But O'Toole's Cons would pay a heavy price for that, and it could be the spark that blows up his party. But if Trudeau wants to make me a Senator, I'm ready and willing... ;)
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the media and their shallow fake scandals, Simon: Fife's new brainfart is that COVID is a Liberal cover-up. Yes Virginia, that BS is back again, in time for the holidays. Or with bad puns on the PM's name now in vogue, should we say Justin Time for the holidays?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-liberals-offer-compromise-to-end-parliamentary-standoff-over-documents/
Instead of investigating the very real, very dangerous domestic threat of right-wing, religious extremism filtering through the conservative movement, Canadians will be treated to distractionary Cold War nonsense about Liberal-affiliated spies who collaborated with GHINA to invent a bioweapon while on the payroll of Chairman Pooh Bear. Fun fact: Communist Party of China shares the same initials with the FIPA cons, CPC. Quick, draw up a committee!
Nice to see the nominally progressive opposition parties following the lead of (checks notes) Marjorie Taylor Gallant. Stupid is the pandemic that will never be cured. Toxic, weaponized stupid.
Hi Jackie….The Cons really are the scum of the earth. From the very beginning of the Covid pandemic they have been doing their best to undermine all the efforts to fight it. And that China Covid story is a great example of how small minded, how racist, an how evil they are. Old man Fife is a disgrace to journalism and should be forced to retire as soon as possible, hopefully tomorrow. And thanks for reminding me about Cherry Gallant’s tweet where she blamed Justin Trudeau for spreading Covid around the world. The Disaffected Lib would love that one, but I think both of them should be locked up….
ReplyDeleteFYI: Skippy's new immature hashtag is Just-Insane. I don't have Twitter, but can those who do and who read this blog start assembling a list of LPC achievements and get #Justincredible going? Might as well beat the ornery pigeon at his own meme game.
ReplyDelete***
Conservatives: We genuinely care about Canadians' mental health.
Also Conservatives: We're going to make fun of the PM (who has admitted to suffering depression in his life) with a stupid pun on his name that calls him crazy. We're also going to persecute his mom, who suffers from bipolar disorder, by impugning her character and smearing her mental health advocacy as "corruption" and "graft".
Logical consistency has never been a RepubliCon trait.
Hi Jackie...I think Pierre Poilievre is suffering from some kind of mental illness. His economic analysis is so flawed he's become a parody of himself. And as you point out, he's showing once again that he doesn't give a damn about anyone but himself. And after all those ads his leader ran about mental health. It's insane...
ReplyDelete