Priorities

Yet another bill for my collection of litmus-tests. How many Liberals will vote for this piece of shit?

OTTAWA — The Conservative government is planning measures, including a Defence of Religions Act, to allow public officials, such as Justices of the Peace, to refuse to perform same-sex marriages.

The measures are also intended to protect the free-speech rights of religious leaders and others who criticize homosexual behaviour or refuse to do business with gay-rights organizations, The Globe and Mail has learned.

I really hope that this doesn't get introduced until after the leadership race is done. I would love to see Ignatieff - the man who's made a name for himself on the issue of fundamental human rights - be confronted with gay marriage and the freedom to have it when he takes over.

Time for a moment of "moral clarity" that Conservatives love so much. All this will do, if passed, is add administrative hurdles for couples who want to get married. It's petty, immoral, hateful, and probably unconstitutional. That it's also fucking stupid should go without saying. For example, how many justices of the peace have no problems signing off on arrest warrants in our counter-productive war on fun drugs, but are going to balk at two dudes kissing?

The Bible also condemns eating lobster, as Fred Clark wrote masterfully. If I'm serving at a restaurant that starts serving lobster or shrimp one day, will Stephen Harper pass a law that protects my right - as an employee of this establishment - not to ever have to serve lobster? Will he pass a law protecting my right to harass customers who order lobster, because it contravenes my religious beliefs? Will he pass a law protecting my right to call for the deaths of people who eat lobster?

The fact that the law has changed is no excuse - JPs constantly have to deal with changing laws and changing sentencing guidelines, but somehow they've managed until now. The reason the law has changed now is only for the best of all possible reasons - Canadians have, in their immense charity, decided to expand the frontiers of the fully-enfranchised. But some people think that gays and lesbians shouldn't be fully equal citizens, but want to keep their jobs as Officers of the Crown. Normally, Conservatives are against politicized, do-nothing bureaucrats who refuse to do their jobs properly. But when it comes to fag-hating, the Tories are not only in favour of it, they want to protect it with the force of federal law.