Linked Graphic Dangers

This is an example of what happens when you link to a graphic. Courtesy of the neandertal Alberta Seperatists at FreeAlberta. com.

I had linked to their graphic of Ted Moron for my article Ted Morton Goes Federal.

I guess they don't like being linked to criticisms of their favorite Moron.

I have to wonder though what is with the moonbats on the right and their Freudian fixation of accusing folks they disagree with of practicing beastiality. I guess it show's their rural roots.

And yes I removed their offensive graphic from my page, I guess they will be happy now. Of course if they weren't such dweebs they would have appreciated that I had linked to them, giving them more hits than they deserve.

And then there is a thing called email, that they could have used to let me know they did not appreciate my posting their picture as an embedded link. But heck why bother. Its easier being an asshole.

Even when Werner Patels and I have had our blog wars he at least did not stoop so low.

But when you're an asshole you act like an asshole. And after all we all know Alberta Seperatists are Assholes. Which is why they like asshole Ted Morton.


See

Goose and Gander

Blogging

Seperatism




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Sex, Religion and Violence

I love that as a header. In Alberta yet. It comes from this CP wire story that ran over the weekend. And it's all about right wing homophobe Craig Chandler.

An ugly internal dispute over sex, religion and violence erupted within the Alberta Conservative party Saturday, ending up with a candidate being ousted and Premier Ed Stelmach saying the reasons for the "difficult" decision must remain confidential.

Where was the violence in all this? He was denied the right to be a candidate.Sex and Religion sure I can see but 'violence'? Where's the violence? Except in over active imaginations of reporters. This was a bloodless purge of 'fightin' Craig Chandler the pugilistc politician.


Edmonton Journal Leg reporter Graham Thompson equates poor Craig Chandler with being bashed like a poor baby seal on the weekend. Well actually he equates it with the Sopranos.

It was like a Mafia hit gone wrong.

What should have been done quickly and bloodlessly months ago ended up being done messily with a baseball bat last weekend.

Officials with the Alberta Progressive Conservatives bludgeoned to death the political career of Craig Chandler in a meeting room of a Red Deer Hotel on Saturday. It took 21/2 hours for the officials to bash away at Chandler's history and credibility before rejecting him as a candidate for Calgary-Egmont.

By the time they were done, there was so much blood on the carpet it's a wonder someone didn't think to put down a plastic sheet beforehand.

Don't any of these guys watch The Sopranos?

What's so puzzling about all this isn't that the Conservatives whacked Chandler but that they took so long to do it. And I don't mean the 21/2 hours of brass knuckles behind closed doors on Saturday.

The Tories could have saved themselves and Chandler a lot of grief if months ago they had taken him aside and warned him off. They could have simply told him that he wasn't welcome because while he might be a "conservative" they didn't think there was much "progressive" about him. Furthermore, if he managed to win the nomination, Premier Ed Stelmach wasn't going to sign his papers.

Chandler says he would have appreciated the warning.

"Someone could have taken me aside and told me," he said in an e-mail exchange on Monday.

It's not as if Chandler was a stranger to the PCs. He has a long and loud history of involvement with right-wing political movements including the federal Reform party and the Alberta Alliance. He is a social conservative, at times belligerently so.

More to the point, he has a long history of making inflammatory comments, often against homosexuality. He got in trouble with the Canadian Human Rights Commission and earlier this year posted an apology on his radio program's website agreeing to "cease and desist" from saying homosexuals are "sick, diseased or mentally ill" or that they are "wicked or dangerous."

It was brought on by his stacking and winning the nomination in Calgary Egmont, but the nail in his political coffin was this Human Rights Ruling last week.

An Alberta man who has pressed for five years to get an anti-gay letter branded as hate literature won a victory Friday with a human rights commission ruling that said it broke provincial law and may even have played a role in the beating of a gay teenager.

The letter, written by Stephen Boissoin and published in the Red Deer Advocate in 2002, carried the headline "Homosexual agenda wicked" and suggested gays were as immoral as pedophiles, drug dealers and pimps.

Darren Lund, a high school teacher in Red Deer at the time, complained to the Alberta Human Rights Commission after the teenager was beaten in the city two weeks after the letter was published.

In Friday's ruling, commission panel chairwoman Lori Andreachuk said both Boissoin and the Concerned Christian Coalition to which he belonged broke provincial human rights law by likely exposing gays to hatred and contempt.

During the panel's hearing earlier this year, Boissoin testified that Craig Chandler - a former CEO of the coalition who recently won a provincial Progressive Conservative nomination in Calgary - was aware of and supported what he was doing.

Chandler posted a formal apology on the coalition's website about the letter last January after a separate complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

Tory officials are scheduled to review Chandler's nomination on Saturday.

The implication in the news reporters and pundits comments was that this was the Night of the Long Knives for the Social Conservative Right Wing in the PC's. Unlikely or they would have gotten rid of Oberfuerher Ted Morton.


Some bloggers say this shows how undemocratic the internal politics of the PC political apparatus is. In fact Craig Chandler sold more memberships, and stacked the nomination meeting with his supporters. Which is far more 'undemocratic' then ousting him cause he does not meet Uncle Ed's 'progressive' standards.

The fact is he should never have been allowed to run if they were going to deny him his nomination, and that has raised the hew and cry from bloggers left and right. But what did they expect why are they surprised at this apparent anti-democratic action by a Party that has ruled this One Party State for thirty six years.

Well because Uncle Ed blundered badly. Unlike King Ralph and his advisors, who pulled folks aside in the back rooms and told them whether they could run or not, Uncle Ed made this public. He wants to send a message that the Party is for All Albertans not just the radical right. Which does not explain his making Morton a Cabinet Minister, since he too represents the radical right. And Morton has campaigned long and hard against Gay Rights, just as Chandler has.

Like I said it is being equated with a Night of the Long Knives for the radical right in the PC's. But is it?

This is all for show, Chandler is an easy target, Morton isn't. There is going to be less fall out from kicking Chandler out than there would have been if Morton hadn't been given a Cabinet position. And considering how Morton is blundering, and dependent on the next election, he may not be in cabinet next time around.

Why is everyone surprised? This is typical of political parties that dominate power in other One Party States. Just look at Putin's election victory in newly 'democratic' Russia over the weekend.


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It's Not An Election

The Tories are tryng to pretend their provincial leadership race is an election. It ain't.

The biggest challenge facing the next premier will be rekindling interest in the Tory party, says a political expert who expects voter turnout to fall well below projections.

"The number of voters will be a lot fewer than candidates estimated back in September," Steve Patten, a University of Alberta political scientist, told the Sun yesterday.

Three months ago, the camps of top Tory leadership candidates Lyle Oberg, Mark Norris, Jim Dinning and Ted Morton all expected to sell upwards of 100,000 party memberships.

"Add up all their claims and we're talking in the neighbourhood of 500,000 memberships sold to people who would be expected to vote for the next premier," Patten said.

"Nothing close to that kind of number has materialized."

Patten said he's interested to see how close voter turnout will be to the 78,000 who cast ballots in 1992, when Ralph Klein won the premiership on a second ballot.

Since 1992 our population has grown to be 3.5 million. And it is still growing.

Edmonton is expected to gain 83,000 residents by 2011

Although many former Saskatchewan residents return home for a visit, there are still far too many heading for black gold in Alberta."Pretty much everyone is moving to Alberta these days," said Fritsche, who thinks Saskatchewan should try and capitalize on the growing population that lies right next door.

So when Klein was elected leader 78,000 PC members voted. Even though more memberships than that were sold.

Today we know that the membership sales will not be reflected in those who vote. For instance business and unions have bought up memerships to hand out to get out the vote for their candidates. The Building Trades unions are supporting Oberg, despite his right wing views, because he is promising them jobs with his position on increasing funding for infrastructure.

The Edmonton Business community has gone all out in buying memberships in bulk to hand out to their employees and friends to support Mark Norris. Its a campaign to get an Edmontonian elected leader. They have abandoned Hancock the other Edmontonian because he is a Red Tory, and Norris has pull because of his political family connections.

So less than .o5% of the population will make the decision on who will lead the party and thus elect the leader of the One Party State in Alberta.

When Klein ran it was against Red Tory Nancy Betkowski. A second ballot was needed because he lost to her by one vote. He had sold more memberships than her but his supporters did not come out on the first ballot. This is the fear the Dinning folks have.

That vote was then spilt between the Calgarian For Leader and the Edmontonian for Leader factions. The Red Tories lined up behind Betkowski, the social conservatives behind Klein for the second ballot.Still in the final tally more memberships were sold than came out to vote.

In this race the front runners are Dinning and Oberg.

But the race is split this way;

Dinning represents the Calgary Establishment, a centerist candidate, a liberal fiscally and politically as was Lougheed who supports him.

Norris represents the fiscal conservatives, social liberals, business establishment of Edmonton. Its the anti-Calgary Tories he represents.

Hancock is a Red Tory to the left of the other candidates. His support is really limited to Edmonton to those not supporting Norris. Whom he throws his support behind on a second ballot will be important.

Oberg, Morton, and Doerkson split the social conservative vote between them.

Oberg relies upon the rural anti-urban anti-Calgary voters, based in Southern and Central Alberta. He also has the support of the traditional Liberal Building Trades unions. Though how many of their members will vote is questionable. As it is boom time and the tradesmen are busy working, working, working. Lots of OT versus taking time to vote.

Morton has organized the grass roots social conservative base, and is getting support from Manning, Harper, Day, Kenney, etc. So he poses a second ballot threat to Oberg. Failing that he and Doerkson could combine to push Oberg past Dinning on the second ballot.

Doerkson is a spoiler, taking votes away from Oberg, but a late comer so his campaign is really about anybody but Lyle. His supporters will go to Morton.

Ed Stelmach, farmer, rural vote, fiscal conservative, in this race a centerist compared to the social conservative gang above. His chances are zip, nada.
Though on the second ballot who he throws his support behind could be telling.

Advance polls opened yesterday. The vote is this weekend. Place your wagers.

See:

Conservative Leadership Race

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Link Byfield's New Party

Living off the avails of his Citizens Centre for Freedom and Democracy, which arose from the corpse of the politically and fiscally bankrupt Alberta Report, Link Byfield has decided that being an elected Senator in Waiting is not enough. So he and some pals have formed a new Right Wing Rump Party.

Whats interesting is that all these neo-con wannabe Reform Parties in Alberta seem to come from or originate in Calgary. The largest American city north of the 49th parallel. Which explains their Republican agenda.

A Canadian development without a direct parallel in Australia was the key role
played by “Calgary School” political scientists in new right party politics and freemarket think tanks like the Fraser Institute. In Australia a number of economists have played a prominent role in promoting public choice frames of analysis, but largely via think tanks rather than through direct involvement in party politics.

Members of the Calgary School reproduce the main features of US right-wing
anti-elite discourse, including a contrast between elite fashions and mainstream
traditional values, a campaign against the tyranny of political correctness, and an
attack on self-styled equality seekers—feminists, anti-poverty groups, the gayrightsmovement, natives and other ethnic and racial minorities.

To be honest they should quit calling themselves Albertans or Party of Alberta and call themselves what they are; the Calgary Republican Lobby. Since many of them believe Ronald Reagan Was Better Than Trudeau.

Background of Albertans

Many Albertans have immigrated from the United States. The energy industry, as well as the ranching industry, has attracted many Americans. Attacking Americans attacks the family background of many Albertans. Prominent Albertans have American roots. Senator Ted Morton is originally from California. MP Myron Thompson is from the U.S..

Their appeal is limited to the Americanized Albertans who live in Southern Alberta. So they don't even appeal to the Lougheed liberals who made the PC's the Party of Calgary. And they don't appeal to urban voters.

And they certainly don't appeal to Northern Albertans who make Redmonton their capital.




SEE:

Not Before Alberta Votes

Link Byfield Goes AA

Mr Harper Forgets Redmonton

Leo Strauss and the Calgary School

Mormonism Cult of the Political Right

Creationism Is Not Science

Reform Party of Alberta

Return of the Socreds

Aboriginal Property Rights

Shop Keepers Liberty

Alberta Separatism Not Quite Stamped Out

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Rural Boots

Here is why Farmer Ed our unelected Premier is falling behind in support from his rural roots.

Albertans protest approval of seismic testing in Marie Lake

He can blame his competitor for the Premier, Ted Morton, for some of this.

Sustainable Resource Development Minister Ted Morton is right about one thing. The province has to reform the way it sells oil and gas leases if it wants to avoid more battles like the one over proposed oil extraction on Marie Lake.

Currently, the energy department sells a lease with no regard for environmental issues or community concerns. In fact, the department doesn't even have to notify landowners that a lease has been sold in their area.

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God bless Alberta

Taking a tact used by Stephen Harper this is how Farmer Ed ended his TV broadcast last night with this little homilie; And God bless Alberta. Hoping to appeal to Ted Morton's supporters I suppose. Since we are an oil state he should have been more inclusive and also said Allah bless Alberta, heck even Yod Heh Vau Heh bless Alberta as a sop to Ezra and his pals. All these are just another way of saying God. Whoever she is.

On the other hand the God of Capitalism is Mammon, and considering Ed is the servant of Big Oil perhaps that's whom was referring to.




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Edmonton Journal PC Leadership Poll

This is a non scientific poll on the Edmonton Journal Website.

The second ballot in the race to become Alberta Conservative leader and the next premier is Saturday. Who would you vote for?

Jim Dinning
45.32 %

Ted Morton
14.27 %

Ed Stelmach
40.41 %

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Conservative Leadership Race

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Second Ballot

It's going to be a second ballot run for the man who will replace Ralph. It's between Dinning and Morton.Alberta Tory leadership bid a two-horse race

CALGARY/AM770CHQR - Alberta Tory Leadership Results (10:30 p.m.)

Jim Dinning 26,115
Ted Morton 21,507
Ed Stelmach 12,019

130/179 polls reporting

Second Ballot Required in PC Race

The other five contenders have dropped off the ballot, including Lyle Oberg, whose campaigned was dogged with missteps. The jockeying has already begun among the first ballot losers and former cabinet minister Dave Hancock -- who finished fifth -- has thrown his support behind Stelmach.

Now the cheerleaders at the Edmonton Sun can quit promoting Norris, he wasn't even in the running. He never was except in the minds of the Edmonton Sun editorialists.

And if Smilin' Ed Stelmach is really a 'centerist' he had best throw his support behind Dinning or the next Premier of Alberta will be a Seperatist.

Earlier in the week, Mark Norris told The Journal's editorial board that he Stelmach and Hancock had an agreement to support each other on a second ballot. Hancock, it seems, has fulfilled that promise. But Norris was less certain.Though Hancock’s endorsement looks good for Stelmach, his support may not mean much, as his voters won’t necessarily come with him. In the last Tory leadership race in 1992, all the losing candidates jumped to Nancy Betkowski’s campaign, but she was still routed by Ralph Klein the following week.

Hmmm maybe that's why Harper recognized the Quebecois as a nation, laying the groundwork for his pal Morton.

Vote: the only commodity that is peddleable without a license.
- More Maxims of Mark Twain

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Conservative Leadership Race

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Ralph's World: Homophobic Hate Speech and Gay Bashing

But Klein says his position against same-sex marriage – and that of his caucus – is unchanged. "You aren't going to change the political philosophy and the political mind of this caucus," Klein said. "You might change the law, but you're not going to change the attitude." Klein has been vocal in his opposition to any change to the definition of marriage to include gays and lesbians. His government has said it will fight any federal legislation, but has admitted it has little legal recourse.
CBC News Feb 2, 2005

Bill C-38 the Same Sex Marriage Act passed the house this week. It was the last act of parliament prior to the summer recess. The gnashing of teeth, whining and breast beating of the Alberta Conservatives; both provincial and Federal, both Klein and Harper, was predictable and expected. Alberta the bastion of Republican Lite Politics in Canada produced the usual red neck response from the usual suspects.

But it also led to something more shocking, gay bashing. Not just one incident but three, in the provinces capital city, Edmonton. What made it shocking was that Redmonton is a liberal left city opposed to the vast drift to the right of the rest of the province. The incidents didn't happen in Calgary home to the redneck polticians of the right but in Edmonton; which has an active gay community and a gay city councillor.

The attacks took place as the Premier's made his predictable statements bashing gay marriage. While his pal Harper insisted that his Conservatives (the vast majority from Alberta) will repeal the act, if they ever get elected to be the government (woe is us).

This fueled hate filled attacks on two gay men in Edmonton. Edmonton cops investigate attacks on gays, activists blame Klein. I was shocked further to discover it was two acquantinces of mine that had been attacked. Long time gay activists who worked for human rights and with AIDS programs in the city, one of whom is also active in the NDP.

Murray Billet, a leader in Edmonton's gay community, said politicians openly opposing same-sex rights filters down to the public."When we have a provincial government that behaves the way it does, in such a homophobic manner, the verbal kind of gay-bashing, it almost endorses and validates some of the narrow-minded activity of some of the young people in our community," he said.
Edmonton police investigate attacks on gay men CBC News Thu, 30 Jun 2005

Klein and Harper and their political minions have spent over two years attacking same sex marriage and gay/lesbians and their human rights. They and their caucuses have used their bully pulpits to denigrate gays and lesbians and their relationships. The result has been hateful stereotyping, hate speech against gays and lesbians, rampant homophobia that has resulted in gay bashing, figuratively and now literaly.

Welcome to Alberta home of hatespeech, homophobia and gay bashing.

But it doesn't stop with just with thugs in the street, in this hot house climate of homophobia even the godly stoop to gutter politics. Witness the comments made by Catholic Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary who stated; " Since homosexuality, adultery, prostitution and pornography undermine the foundations of the family, the basis of society, then the State must use its coercive power to proscribe or curtail them in the interests of the common good."

Verbal thuggery is no less gay bashing than a fist in the face. And gay bashing, which is what opposition to gay marriage is, makes strange bedfellows. When gay activists as well as the media challenged Bishop Fred's outrageous comments, he was defended not only by the Catholic Right Wing but by the Nazi 's as well.

This is Ralph's constiuency, as well as Harpers. The fundamentalist religious right, and the anti-semitic/anti-gay/conspiracy theorist/social credit right wing of Southern Alberta.

Always the political opportunists they use this constiuency to stay in power while knowing full well that their promises to over turn same sex marriage are hollow.

'There are no legal weapons. There's nothing left in the arsenal,'' Klein said. ''We're out on a lurch.''
Alberta may stop solemnizing marriages: Klein
CBC News Wed, 29 Jun 2005

Mr. Harper has previously vowed to repeal the same-sex marriage law if he becomes prime minister, although on Tuesday, he only went so far as to say a Tory government would "revisit" the issue.
Minority government 'got the job done' PM: Says he'd fight an election on gay marriage
CanWest News Service, June 30, 2005

The right wing in Canada used to be centred in Southern Ontario, but when Ralph came to power in Alberta they moved here. The National Citizens Coalition, the Fraser Institute, all moved to Alberta where right wing politics of Ralph and Preston Mannings Reform Party gave renewed vigour to the new right. And along with the right wing think tanks and business/corporate poltical lobby came the the hardcore fascist right wing like the Canadian League of Rights.

These right wing former Social Credit activists have always focused on hating Trudeau and the Liberals because they dropped the old Ensign flag, introduced bi-lingualism, and legalised homosexuality.

Their far right politics are reflected in the gay marriage debate by Alberta MP's in Harpers Reform/Alliance/Conservative Party as well as in Ralph's caucus.

Alberta MP David Chatters lamented what he described as the country's "moral decay." He blamed former prime minister Pierre Trudeau's promise of a just society as the start of that decay in the 1960s.
Harper to revisit law if he forms gov.
Conservative party leader says his party will revisit the same-sex marriage law
Canadian Press Tuesday, June 28, 2005


December 22, 1967:
Justice Minister Pierre Trudeau proposes amendments to the Criminal Code which, among other things, would relax the laws against homosexuality. Discussing the amendments Trudeau says,"It's certainly the most extensive revision of the Criminal Code since the 1950s and, in terms of the subject matter it deals with, I feel that it has knocked down a lot of totems and over-ridden a lot of taboos and I feel that in that sense it is new. It's bringing the laws of the land up to contemporary society I think. Take this thing on homosexuality. I think the view we take here is that there's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation. I think that what's done in private between adults doesn't concern the Criminal Code. "

The extreme right in Alberta has an agenda to oppose human rights based on sexual orientation, which they call the gay agenda. They will go to any exterme to defend their manliness,and their rights as patriarchs. They opposed Jews, Catholics and interracial integration in the past. Today they oppose human rights for gays and lesbians.

Gay bashing in print leads to gay bashing in the streets of Edmonton. This extreme homophobia of the right has its origins in their Nazi predecessors. And like the brown shirts of the past these thugs can justify their actions because politicans like Klein and Harper encourage them.

Ted Morton, one of the former emince de gris behind both Perston Manning and Stephen Harper and the Reform/Alliance/Conservative party, is now an MLA and is one of those who has continued to push Klein to oppose same sex marriage. Morton like the rest of his political ilk don't give a fig about marriage being sacred, they are homophobic, they oppose gay rights period. Ted and the boys want some action (Edmonton Sun, July 1)

The Klein government also has a disproportional amount of MLA's that belong to the homophobic religious cult known as Mormonism. Ty Lund is one of those and he has aligned with Morton to push the anti-gay/lesbian agenda of challenging gay rights at every opportunity.

Alberta may still challenge gay marriage in court
CanWest News Service
June 30, 2005

The Alberta government will consider going to court to clarify the rules on gay marriage, even though it is certain to lose the challenge.
The admission came Wednesday after Attorney General Ron Stevens met for two hours with caucus members to discuss their response to the federal same-sex marriage bill, which was passed Tuesday in the House of Commons.
Stevens said Alberta will soon have two seemingly contradictory pieces of legislation on the books. One is a provincial law, saying marriage is solely between a man and a woman. The second is the new federal law which allows same sex couples to marry.
"We can have a court rule on it so we can have absolute clarity as to the relationship of the two pieces of legislation," Stevens said.
But the Supreme Court has already said in this case, the federal law trumps the provincial one. Stevens admitted as much.
"There's no doubt, in my view, that the federal legislation is paramount -- it will rule the day," he said. The decision whether or not to go to court ultimately rests with Government Services Minister Ty Lund. Lund hasn't decided what to do, but a spokeswoman said he will consult with his caucus colleagues in the coming weeks.
Experts questioned the wisdom of challenging a decision that has already been made.
"It's a dangerous and very stupid thing to do," said Sanjeev Anand, a University of Alberta law professor. "When lawyers are called to the bar, they take an oath not to bring vexatious or frivolous claims or applications," Anand said. "This would be right in contravention of those concerns."

Province still looking at fighting same-sex marriage
CBC News Jun 30 2005


Klein knows full well he has lost this battle as he did with the Vriend case, which cost Alberta taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, and resulted in the inevitable decision that yes gays and lesbians have human rights in Canada and provinces are obliged to protect them.

The right wing alliance of anti-abortion/anti-gay/anti-feminists/anti union activists like Real Women oppose homosexuality outright, and opposed gay and lesbian rights. Their influence in both the Klein and Harper Conservatives is significant. They opposed changing the law in Alberta to recognize sexual orientation as being a form of discrimination and they opposed same sex marriage. And they oppose 'forced unionization'. And like the NCC and the Canadian League of Rights, Real Women is based in Alberta with links to Southern Ontario.

It's this unholy coalition of the right that is using the Alberta Conservatives, provincial and federal, to push their right wing agenda disguised as family values. It would be easy to dismiss Klein and Harper as mere political demegauouges and opportunists (as many in the media do). Too easy. This campaign against human rights for gays, lesbians, transgendered and bi people are core to the right wing values of their respective Conservative parties. It goes beyond homophobia and is a polticial campaign of gay bashing. They are opposed the very existance of sexual minorities that are not patriarchical and heterosexual.

When you have Catholic Bishops calling for the state to limit gay rights or worse to have a Catholic Archbishop state that gays and lesbians are part of the "culture of death" (not so subtle reference to AIDS) and these are considered normal reasonable people, then you have a culture of homophobia, where hate speech is allowed and encouraged. The result is gay bashing, in the press and in the streets.

Are these the 'values' Albertan's and Canadians really cherish, I think not.

Alberta may still resist gay marriage
Canadian Press
June 30, 2005


EDMONTON -- Alberta's fight to stop gay marriages has been lost, but the justice minister suggested the province may not be ready to throw in the towel just yet.

Ron Stevens said Wednesday that the province is considering going to court to challenge the new federal law that allows gay marriages - even though it knows it will lose the case.

Stevens, who admits personally that he believes such resistance is futile, said the province's government services minister could ask the court to clarify whether the federal law takes precedence over provincial law.

"I know what the outcome will be because the federal legislation, when it becomes law, will determine what marriage is," he said. "It will take precedence to the definition that we have in our marriage act."

When he was asked why the province would bother going to court when it already knows the outcome, Stevens noted there is a political side to the issue which he declined to discuss.

But Keith Brownsey, a political scientist at Calgary's Mount Royal College, said there isn't much doubt that if the Alberta Tories choose the court option, it will be in the interest of maintaining the support it garners from its right-wing Christian supporters.
"They have to be doing it for political reasons to shore up the fundamental evangelical right-wing in the party to make sure it stays loyal to the Conservatives," he said.

"They represent a substantial constituency in this province, but at this point, it seems rather futile."

Even Ted Morton, one of the vocal right-wing Tory members of the legislature, conceded as much after he and six other members of Ralph Klein's caucus met with Stevens and Government Services Minister Ty Lund Wednesday.

Morton suggested that the province should get out of the business of issuing marriage licenses and instead issue "civil union" licenses, leaving marriage to churches.

Both options enraged the Alberta gay and lesbian community.

"In 2005 in Canada it's clearly unacceptable for them to suggest we're anything less than full Canadians," said Murray Billett, Edmonton representative for the advocacy group Canadians for Equal Marriage.

"They are asking us to accept crumbs from the table of equality."

Billett said that it would be "absolutely unacceptable behaviour" for the province to force gays and lesbians to go to court to fight for the right to marry when the Supreme Court of Canada and federal Parliament have already decided the matter.

"I think taxpayers should be absolutely horrified at the thought of this government taking us to court when they know full well they will lose," Billet said.

Human rights lawyer Julie Lloyd said the only reason the government would engage the court process at this time would be - as Premier Ralph Klein suggested Tuesday - for optics.

"It's utterly ridiculous and irresponsible and mean-spirited to use a minority in Alberta for a political end," she said.

The province released a discussion paper Wednesday that examined such things as seeking a constitutional change to enshrine the definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

The paper suggested this approach "is unlikely to work" because it would require resolutions in both the House of Commons and the Senate and the legislative assemblies of two-thirds of the provinces, representing more than 50 per cent of the population of Canada.

Thomas Collins, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Edmonton, urged Albertans Wednesday to pray for the strengthening of family life in society and to "resist the culture of death."

"We need to become engaged in the world of popular culture, presently in the grip of fuzzy thinking and unwholesome values," he said in a statement.
© The Canadian Press 2005


KLEIN BLASTED FOR STAND ON GAY MARRIAGE
By Katherine Harding
Friday, July 1, 2005 Page A7 Globe and Mail

EDMONTON -- Members of Edmonton's gay community want Premier Ralph Klein to apologize for his recent comments opposing same-sex marriage, which they say played a role in two gay bashings.

"Words have consequences," Murray Billett, a long-time gay rights activist and member of the police commission, said yesterday. "What Mr. Klein and his government is doing is nothing short of schoolyard bullying."

The provincial Conservative government has long opposed same-sex marriage, and politicians said this week that they would use every legal option to fight new federal legislation legalizing it.

The Edmonton police's hate and bias crimes unit is investigating the two attacks, one of which happened outside city hall, and have made an arrest in one of the cases.


In the most recent case, Robert Smith, 58, and his boyfriend, Guy Cohoon, 43, were holding hands and walking out of a downtown convenience store early Saturday morning when eight men attacked them.

Mr. Smith said they were called faggots and homos, and when he yelled back at them to stop, the group began to chase the men, both of whom are more than six feet tall and 200 pounds. Mr. Cohoon was knocked to the ground and kicked in the head.

Mr. Smith also blames the Klein government for inflaming homophobic sentiments Alberta with its resistance to allowing gay marriage.

"That kind of rhetoric fuels the kind of hatred that we experienced," he said. "When are they going to stop lambasting us with the attitude that, 'Well you may have rights in the rest of the country, but you don't have them here'?"

The other attack took place 11 days ago, during the city's annual gay pride festival. A small group was walking to an event at Edmonton city hall during the afternoon when four men jumped them.

"It was just because of what I was wearing, a fur coat, and how I was walking," Ryan Mackenzie, 21, told the CBC.

Mr. Klein wasn't available for comment yesterday, however, his spokesman denied allegations that Alberta's position against same-sex marriage had anything to do with the attacks.

Jerry Bellikka said the Premier has always made it "clear that there is no place in Alberta for gay-bashing. There is no place in this province for hate crimes."

Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel also expressed his anger about the two attacks on gays.

"Those people should be punished severely and they shouldn't be so homophobic, if that's the right word," he said. "It just shocks me, absolutely shocks me that people act like that."

In 2003, there were 21 reported attacks against gays and lesbians in Edmonton, according to police. In 2004, that number dropped to 13.

Kris Wells, who is a member of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans-Identified and Queer, Edmonton Police Service Liaison Committee, said such attacks -- most of which go unreported -- must stop.

He also accused Alberta's government of promoting intolerance against gays.

"Recently Ralph said in the media that he has run out of weapons in his arsenal to fight same-sex marriage. That language is incredibly violent," Mr. Wells said.


Ralph Klein's Year Long Campaign of Gay Bashing over Same Sex Marriage

Ontario to recognize same-sex marriages
Last updated Jun 11 2003 01:04 PM EDT
CBC News

TORONTO – Ontario will start registering the marriages of gay and lesbian couples, Ontario Attorney General Norm Sterling said Wednesday morning.
He said Ontario cannot use the not-withstanding clause in the constitution to nullify the court decision, because it ruled against a federal law, not a provincial one.
When Sterling was told Alberta Premier Ralph Klein had threatened to invoke the clause, Sterling said he didn't know what the Klein was talking about.

Elsie Wayne doesn't want gay marriages

Last updated Jun 18 2003 07:06 AM EDT
CBC News
Wayne says the government should have fought court rulings upholding gay marriages."They probably should have used the notwithstanding clause as Ralph KLein has said he will do, but they're not doing that at this time and definitely we had hoped, the majority of the people had hoped, that they would appeal the decision on Ontario, but they haven't done that either.

Ottawa won't have referendum on same-sex marriage
Last Updated Sun, 12 Dec 2004 17:56:29 EST
CBC News

Marriage bond between man and woman, Alberta minister says

The federal government has rejected the idea of holding a national referendum on same-sex marriage.
Alberta Premier Ralph Klein suggested the referendum after the Supreme Court said on Thursday that the federal government had the legal right to change the definition of marriage to include gays and lesbians
Klein said he and most Albertans oppose gay and lesbian marriages.

Last week, Alberta Justice Minister Ron Stevens said "The government of Alberta has continually defended the traditional definition of marriage, believing that marriage is deeply rooted in history, culture and religion and is a special bond between a man and a woman."

Alberta passed a law four years ago stating marriage is the union between a man and a woman.

Stevens said that despite the Supreme Court opinion, that law stands and marriage licences will not be granted to same-sex couples in the province.

MICHELLE MANN:
Same-sex marriage and jurisdiction
CBC News Viewpoint | December 10, 2004
As was expected by most in the legal community, the highest court affirmed that legal capacity for civil marriage is a matter solely within the jurisdiction of federal Parliament pursuant to the division of powers contained in The Constitution Act, 1867. And while changing the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples will necessarily impact upon provincial powers relating to the performance of marriage, this alone does not oust federal jurisdiction.

Legal advisors to Alberta Premier Ralph Klein might want to pay special attention to this part of the reference, what with Alberta's Marriage Act defining marriage as between a man and a woman. There had previously been some pretty big talk in Alberta about utilizing the charter's notwithstanding clause should the courts find that province's legislative definition to be discriminatory and unconstitutional.

The problem with this little scenario is that any provincial legislation defining marriage is now clearly ultra vires, that is, outside provincial jurisdiction, and would be struck down on those grounds long before any charter analysis took place. And, unfortunately for Alberta, the notwithstanding clause doesn't help with the division of powers.

No Conservative rift on same-sex marriage: Klein

Last updated Dec 21 2004 08:14 AM MST
CBC News

Premier Ralph Klein says he and federal Conservative Leader Stephen Harper may differ on how to fight same-sex marriage, but that they agree on the fundamentals.

Klein has openly criticized Harper's stance – he is opposed to using the notwithstanding clause – as being too soft, but says there is no rift.

The premier is taking centre stage in the fight against any change in the definition of marriage to include gays and lesbians.

"On the fundamental question, we're on the same wave length," Klein said during a year-end interview. "So there's no rift.

"He believes that the traditional definition of marriage should be maintained. I believe that. The mechanics as to how you go about challenging the proposed legislation – understanding the federal government doesn't have to do that, but if it does – then we're dealing with proposed legislation.

"I would say that Stephen should strongly encourage members of his caucus to vote no. And at least to invoke the notwithstanding clause."

Klein's government has said it will fight any federal legislation, but has admitted it has little legal recourse.

On Dec. 9, the Supreme Court of Canada said that the federal government can change the definition of marriage to include gays and lesbians. Prime Minister Paul Martin said he will introduce legislation in January.