Taki Magazine

Human rights in Canuckistan Part 2

by Grant Havers on June 08, 2008

Paul Gottfried’s recent piece reminds us of the undying tendency for pseudo-conservatives to surrender to the rhetoric of their leftist enemies in the culture war.  Here’s another horror story from Canuckistan which sadly illustrates the same tactic of appeasement without any rationality or hope of reward.  A Christian pastor has run afoul of the human rights authorities for criticizing homosexuality on biblical grounds.  At first glance, this is not news in Canada; there have been similar human rights cases over the past few years.

But this one happened in the western prairie province of Alberta, the cradle of right-wing populism (my birthplace as well; perhaps these two factors are connected).  Alberta, whose oil riches contribute to 50% of Canada’s GDP (think of Montana with the wealth of Texas), is supposed to be more right-wing than any other province.  Apparently not, if one looks at the power of human rights tribunals in that province.  When I complained to a fellow Albertan conservative about this scandalous abuse of authority and asked why right-wing Albertans are not storming the gates of these tribunals, she could only reply:  if it doesn’t affect the majority of people, then it doesn’t matter.  So much for rugged individualism in the heartland!

One last interesting item about my home province.  During the start of the Iraq war, Alberta was the only province in Canada where a majority of citizens supported the US war effort.  It seems that Albertans are in favor of global democracy-building in the Middle East, but they are quite content to accept the death of democracy in their own backyards.  Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

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