Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Harper's choice for Aboriginal Affairs

Maurice Vellacott, the Conservative MP from Saskatoon-Wanuskewin who defended the officers accused of dumping natives miles outside of Saskatoon, a practice that has caused at least one death.

Vellacott got the Committee Chair position after an unprecedented post election public appeal to Harper for the job.

He also believes that birth control causes cancer and has fought tirelessly to criminalize abortion. He once savagely criticized then Governor General Adrienne Clarkson for sending a "best wishes" message to a newly-married same-sex couple in Toronto and opposed the addition of sexual orientation as a protected category under Canada's hate crimes legislation. He was famous for ten minutes for calling Belinda Stronach a prostitute and has claimed there was no genocide of Armenians by Turks.

So much for seeking the political center Stephen?

13 comments:

Sean S. said...

I have the fortune of living in this man's riding, and the misfortune of helping in the NDP campaign to displace him.

This man is a racist a bigot and his stance on aboriginal issues is appalling. I believe he is also in favour (as well as his Saskatoon counterpart Brad Trost) in removing all forms of government assistance for aboriginals....

How he ever recieved 49% of the popular vote is beyond me.......

Richard_Cranium said...

I am in agreement of providing the identical forms of government assistance to Aboriginals that the rest of the citizens of this country have access to. No more and no less.

Cliff said...

Ok thanks Richard, that was a surreal little non-sequiter but thhanks for contributing.

Richard_Cranium said...

OK Cliff lets try on some math. In 2005 the Federal bill for Aboriginal people worked out to just over 38,000 per Aboriginal, and this does not include Social Assistance. Do you really think that the aboriginal family of 6, living on the reserve, actually saw 152,000 worth of assistance. Aboriginal assistance has grown to the same level of incompetance and mismanagement as has foreign aid. For every dollar given, only pennies get to those who need and deserve it. The current system does not work, and simply throwing bigger pails of money at it will not make the problems go away.

Cliff said...

Seriously, Richard, what on Earth has this to do with my post?

Richard_Cranium said...

Yer right. It spun from sean's comments on government assistance. My bad...i just rolled with the punches...

Anonymous said...

There actually is a link between Breast Cancer (along with other cancers) and Oral Contraceptive use. I would back it up with a link, but the only link I have is my pathology textbook, which obviously, can't be linked to.

susansmith said...

I am totally amazed that this guy gets re-elected. What is so weird in this province is how it has a NDP govt provincially which is left of centre and yet elects neo cons to the federal representative body. Obviously, in this riding a large segment of these voters swing both ways! Maybe Chris Axworthy should have kept to his NDP roots, and perhaps he would got elected federally. People tend to not trust party switchers

Cliff said...

I would argue the link is being over-stated by so-cons like Mr Vellacott for partisan ideological reasons.

There's a also a causal link suggesting the more children a woman has, the lower her odds of breast cancer. Jumping from this, to suggesting women should therefore have many, many children for health reasons would be, to my mind, an inappropriate application of medical data.

The additional medical stressors of birthing, raising and supporting many children have medical risks as well.

Anonymous said...

"He also believes that birth control causes cancer"

Your statement suggests that you believe that there isn't a link between birth control and breast cancer. Perhaps this is a case of "progressives" understating the significance.

Your example of childbirth and cancer is quite different because you are suggesting doing something to lower the risk; whereas with birth control the case would be stopping something which increases the risk.

Anyways, my point of this was that you appeared to think that birth control doesn't have a role in breast cancer, and I wanted to clear that up.

NO ONE said...

The facts are quite simple really. This man is a homophobic who does not give a shit about women's rights.

Regardless of the fact that cancer does or does not get caused by birth control will not change those facts. Will it discourage some women from birth control? I suppose. But that is their choice and not a choice that people like him should get his hands on. Afterall, it's not his descision to make.

Richard_Cranium said...

Why is it that people can be for or against abortion or the death penalty, and discussion progresses on both sides. However, when anyone even whispers that they are not for homosexual relationships or SSM, they are tarred and feathered as homophobic bigots. Puzzles the heck out of me.

Cliff said...

In this case we have a guy who has tried to stop legal protection for gays, even savagely critisized the Governer General for sending a little congratulaions note to a gay couple on their wedding day. I think bigot fits.

I haven't met too many people who are opposed to homosexual relationships or same sex marriage who don't descend into slurs and really hateful language on the subject. They are painting themselves with the bigot brush.

I think the evidence is clear enough at this point that homosexuality is rarely a choice (I've know gay people who say they knew what they were from the time they were toddlers.) therefore condemenig someone for being gay or living as a gay person is in my opinion bigotry.

In the past people wo were bigoted against others over race, religion or creed would defend their bigotry on religious or (pseudo)scientific grounds. Nothing has really changed.

I think the biggest objection social conservatives really have to gay marriage is that it's hard to paint someone as a selfish hedonist who's despreately fighting for the right to make a lifelong commitment to one other person.

Popular Posts