…including the Minister for Status of Women. 1984, anyone? Having Rona Ambrose in charge of SOWC is like making Ezra Levant the head of the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
91 “representatives” who view women as little more than walking incubators, with no rights to bodily autonomy. When it comes to women, the state rules, say these “smaller government” types. A parliamentary Transvaginal Wand Squad has come into being.
Am I pleased about this vote? Hell, no. I’m horrified. Does it show?
I was completely off the mark in my predictions. Nearly half of the Conservative caucus voted, in effect, to start the process whereby Canadian women would no longer have access to safe, legal abortion. Back-alley to the future with these backwoods bozos.
And Stephen Harper, who had piously claimed that his government would not, oh my, no, re-open the abortion debate, allowed Cabinet solidarity to be cracked wide open. Eight Cabinet ministers supported Motion 312. His heir apparent, Jason Kenney, voted in favour, as well as the ridiculous Rona Ambrose. So did Government House Leader Peter Van Loan and International Co-Operation Minister Julian Fantino.
The wily chessplayer who runs the country has helped to launch the beginning of a new anti-choice push. What pro-choicer, three decades ago, wouldn’t have been delighted to cop a third of the House in a vote: surely a base to build on.
Harper is playing a careful, devious game.
But the Liberal Party, too, deserves public shame and ridicule for its evident belief that basic human rights—supposedly a given in a civilized society—should be simply a matter of pro or con. Do the Liberals have principles? By God, yes they do, and you can take your choice of any you like. Liberal MPs John McKay, Lawrence MacAulay, Kevin Lamoureux and Jim Karygiannis said yes to gender slavery. Bob Rae looked on benignly.
NDP MPs voted unanimously against the motion—but who thought they wouldn’t? I’m not going to thank them, either. We shouldn’t be grateful, for goodness sake, when a progressive party stands up for human rights. It goes with the territory. It’s expected.
Ditto the BQ. Ditto the lone member of the Green Party.
Women of Canada, now you know where you stand, according to nearly a third of your MPs. They’ve made the choice pretty obvious: over the next three years, it’s on your knees or into the streets.
I need a drink.
UPDATE: The 91 Members of Parliament who think uteruses should become state property. [H/t Ivy]
