Cardinal Ambrozic, Catholic Primate of Toronto, issues an open letter asking the Prime Minister to invoke the Notwithstanding Clause and deny an entire segment of the population their rights and freedoms, simply because it offends his outdated, overwrought religious sensibilities.
There are SO MANY important issues in Canada that need attention: health care, day care, native land claims, Kyoto, missile defence…but all that needs to go on the back-burner, because the religious right wants to stop those evil gay people from getting married!
Thankfully, Justice Minister Irwin Cotler told the Cardinal where he can shove his suggestion: “Rights are rights are rights.”
What bothers me ever more is that the Cardinal states that, by legalizing same-sex marriage, public schools will be forced to teach that homosexuality and heterosexuality are morally equivalent, against the objection of many parents.
Well, I could rant for many paragraphs about the sick and twisted nature of that outrageous point…instead, I’m going to quote some nice replies in today’s Globe and Mail letters page:
“Funny thing: I always thought the purpose of a public school education was to challenge children to explore thoroughly, and to question often, the “values and beliefs” that have been passively handed them, and to offer a critical perspective on a variety of normalized ideas — such as the retrograde, insulting notion that homosexuality is somehow immoral. Apparently, for Cardinal Ambrozic and his fellows in the Roman Catholic Church, school must be a place of indoctrination, not reasoned consideration.”
*KIM SOLGA, Austin, Texas
“Specifically, he (Ambrozic) wonders how children will reconcile the values of their parents with those represented by the state. I wonder if some of the priests who abused children in the past, or other church officials who attempted to cover these act up, had such concerns. Given the church’s sordid history, Cardinal Ambrozic is in no position to present the church as the defender of children.”
*ANDREW M. COSTELLO, Stittsville, Ontario
As for the political response, Stephen Harper is planning a Conservative ad campaign, targeted at ethnic groups, to fight against gay marriage. My only response to this is that Harper has finally realized that asking sane, predominantly white & Canadian born, middle class, educated citizens to vote for him is NEVER going to work!
So endeth today’s lesson.
