Harper speech stirs wide outcry
Comments during gay marriage debate roundly condemned
Insulting `to play politics with an ancient historical wrong'
TONDA MACCHARLES
OTTAWA BUREAU
OTTAWA—When Opposition leader Stephen Harper accused the Liberals of "staggering hypocrisy" on human rights in the debate over gay marriage, he unleashed a storm of reaction inside and outside Parliament.
"Let us not forget it was the Liberal party that said none is too many when it came to Jews fleeing from Hitler. It was the Liberal party that interned Japanese Canadians in camps on Canada's West Coast, an act Pierre Trudeau refused to apologize or make restitution for, leaving it to Brian Mulroney to see justice done," Harper said.
Harper went on to say Conservatives led the way on anti-apartheid actions.
A range of groups responded yesterday with fury, saying Harper went too far. A flurry of outraged news releases descended on media offices from the National Association of Japanese Canadians, the Chinese Canadian National Council, the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, the Canadian Buddhists Civil Liberties Association, the World Sikh Organization, the British Columbia Unitarian Church and the Muslim Canadian Congress.
A director of the National Association of Japanese Canadians said in a news release it was "wrong-headed" of Harper "to try to play politics with an ancient historical wrong.
"By raising the issue of Japanese Canadian internment, Mr. Harper is resorting to cheap political shots ... rather than facing the inconsistency of his position on human rights," said Professor Audrey Kobayashi of Queen's University.
Pat Case, chairman of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, said it was "simply embarrassing" to see Harper try to score political points with the issue.
Judy Hanazawa, of the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens' Association, said in a written statement: "Although the fight against racism and racial discrimination is far from over, supporting Bill C-38 for equality rights in marriage for same-sex partners is today's civil rights struggle."
`Mr. Harper is resorting
to cheap political shots.'
Audrey Kobayashi, Queen's University
The Chinese Canadian National Council lambasted Harper for incorrectly stating all Chinese or other ethnic minorities were against equal marriage, saying it is "patronizing and insulting" for him to tell the Commons that there is a "universal view among them."
As for Harper's reference to Canada's record on abusing Jewish or Japanese-Canadians' rights, federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, a legal scholar and a Jew, responded: "Everything that Stephen Harper cited, many of us have already written about and cited.
"The question that I ask Stephen Harper is what does all this have to do with the issue at hand, the question before the House?"
Cotler said it was "nonsense" for Harper "to portray ... the Liberal party as anti-religious, and anti-multiculturalism, anti-everything else, anti-human rights, the source of almost all evil, to deflect away his own vagueness on this matter."
In St. John's, Danny Williams, Newfoundland's outspoken Conservative premier, told Canadian Press he supported same-sex marriage.
"From a personal perspective, I actually support gay marriages," Williams said in an interview. "I practised law for over 30 years and championed social justice and believed in minority rights and believed in the rights and freedoms of individuals under our Charter of Rights."
The Family Services Association of Toronto said Harper, in raising controls the Netherlands and Belgium have put on adoption by gay married couples, wrongly suggests gay parents are somehow "unfit."
Yves Savoie, executive director of the association, said studies show the opposite. He said step-parent and third-party adoption rights are already allowed in nine provinces and one territory in Canada with courts ruling that the exclusion of same-sex couples from adoption rights is unconstitutional. Yesterday, Canadians for Equal Marriage also responded saying Harper was "so busy vetting his MPs speeches, he forgot to check his own."
Alex Munter, the coalition co-ordinator, said Harper "reached a new partisan low by blaming one political party for Canada's collective failure in admitting Jewish refugees and interning Japanese-Canadians."
Harper wrote his speech himself, with some research help, and delivered it for nearly 50 minutes this week during "second reading" debate of Bill C-38, the Civil Marriage Act.
