The Commons citizenship and immigration committee passed a motion Thursday calling on the government to restore the references to gay rights and history to the new citizenship guide. 

The motion, put forward by NDP MP Olivia Chow, read as follows:

"That, in the opinion of this Committee, the Minister and the Department of Citizenship and Immigration should, in its next update of the citizenship guide, include references to gay rights and gay history; that the Committee adopt this recommendation as a report to the House and that, pursuant to Standing Order 108(1), the Chair present it to the House."

The motion had been amended from its original text of demanding that the guide be updated and reissued immediately, to the final version of seeing the mentions returned in the next update.

Members of all opposition parties had previously asked about this issue when Immigration Minister Jason Kenney came before the committee for the business of the supplementary estimates, even though Kenney avoided answering the questions.
 
Dale Smith is Xtra's federal politics reporter. Read his blog Hill Queeries every weekday.

Read more:

• Kenney dodges more questions about gays and citizenship guide
• A disaster week for Jason Kenney and Egale
  
• Twittersphere slams Egale's response to citizenship guide issue
  
• Queer MPs criticize Kenney's decision to edit gays out of citizenship guide
  

As queer lobby group Egale comes under fire for its response to the citizenship guide issue, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney did not commit to adding gay rights to the document during Question Period on Mar 4.

When NDP MP Olivia Chow asked Kenney if he would "immediately restore" references to gay rights in the guide, Kenney dodged the question and suggested he is "proud" of the guide as it is.

Kenney said he takes "full responsibility" for the content of the guide, but he did not apologize for the removal of gay rights from an early draft in 2009. It's still unclear who ordered the removal of gay rights from the document, whether it was Kenney himself or an aide.

Read more about the citizenship guide issue on Xtra.ca:

• Twittersphere slams Egale's response on citizenship guide issue
  
• Queer MPs criticize Kenney's decision to edit gays out of citizenship guide
  

Read the transcript of today's Question Period debate: 

Ms. Olivia Chow (Trinity—Spadina, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, memos show that references to gay rights were shamefully deleted from the citizenship guide at the behest of the immigration minister.

Half a million copies have been printed with gay history censored.

The minister will not take responsibility and instead leaves his staff to take the blame. That simply is not acceptable.

Will the minister do the right thing, admit his mistakes, stop laughing about this and immediately apologize to Canadians?

Hon. Jason Kenney (Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, I take full responsibility for Discover Canada.

About that, the Montreal Gazette wrote that the "62-page guide is a solid step toward a healthy, self-respecting Canadian nationalism we can all share."

Maclean's said, "The remedy of the historical oversights of the previous versions, the new citizenship guide also provides clear-eyed and forceful statements of the expectations of current Canadian values."

The old study guide, the one that is replaced, had zero mention of gays and lesbians in Canada. We corrected that in the new guide.

However it is true, there is no section on marriage, there never was, and we are proud of this guide. We believe it does reflect the diversity of Canada.

Ms. Olivia Chow (Trinity—Spadina, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, newcomers need to know that gay-bashing is illegal. They need to know that gay marriage is to be celebrated. Is the minister saying that those important elements of Canadian law should not be made known to new Canadians? Why is it missing? Why is it censored away from the new citizenship guide?

Canadians are tolerant, peace-loving, and we value our freedom. Let us make sure that newcomers are welcomed in this spirit. 

Will the minister immediately restore this reference to gay rights and gay history to the citizenship guide right now?

Hon. Jason Kenney (Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, perhaps I have a higher estimation than the member does about new Canadians. I do not believe that new Canadians are potential gay-bashers. I believe that new Canadians come here to respect our laws and the dignity of other Canadians.

We make very clear in this document that was well accepted right across, I believe, the political spectrum, right across the country, that there are rights and responsibilities, and among those responsibilities are following the laws and respecting the dignity of all Canadians.

I am proud that this is the first citizenship guide that does mention gay and lesbian Canadians, unlike the one that it replaces. 

** 

(Note: The "mention" that Kenney refers to is a tiny caption on a photo of gay Olympian Mark Tewksbury. See for yourself here.)

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney removed references to gay rights in a new study guide for immigrants applying for Canadian citizenship, reports the Canadian Press:

Internal documents show an early draft of the guide contained sections noting that homosexuality was decriminalized in 1969; that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation; and that same-sex marriage was legalized nationally in 2005.

But Mr Kenney, who fought same-sex marriage when it was debated in Parliament, ordered those key sections removed when his office sent its comments to the department last June. (read the full story at theglobeandmail.com)

The only mention of queers in the study guide is a small reference to gay Olympian Mark Tewksbury, in the section devoted to sports, arts and culture. 

Xtra spoke to queer MPs about Kenney's decision to remove gay rights from the guide - read our follow-up here.

See the citizenship guide for yourself - download the PDF here.

Read more:

• New immigrants guide glosses over gays
• Meet Harper's new anti-gay speechwriter
• Christian conservative takes over as Tory policy chief
• Anti-gay evangelical appointed to refugee board
• Evangelicals get top PMO jobs after shuffle
  
  

"By hook or by crook, we will..."

You know you've got some genuine propaganda-with-a-capital-P when even the National Post notices that the Tories' new guide to Canada for immigrants leans to the right.  The new guide, says John Ivison, is "yet another incremental step in the re-branding of Canada into a conservative country, full of people more inclined to vote Conservative."

But Ivison hasn't seen the original draft, which blogger Robert McClelland was kind enough to dig up for us:

Hello, new Canadian -- welcome to the Village:

Sunday's big TV event features the delightful irony of watching right-winger Jim Caviezel and gay-rights activist Ian McKellen swapping their usual ideological roles in a redo of the classic fable of the individual vs. the state.  It's almost enough to keep me away from Lady Gaga on 'Gossip Girl' this Monday. But whether you spend it in front of the tube or not, have a great weekend!  Be seeing you...

The new "Transformers" movie is a hit but star Megan Fox has upset the Canadian Free Press with her "mean-spirited" attack on the "white trash, hillbilly, anti-gay, super bible-beating people of Middle America."  Yikes, this might become a Perez-Hilton-sized scandal unless I defuse it here with a simple photo:

Ms. Fox, you see, has breasts.  Nice ones, in fact, and -- while I'm no anthropologist -- I have learned that conservative straight men really, really like them. 

Consider Republican South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who abandoned his family and his job to spend days with his Argentinian girlfriend and (as described in his embarrassingly leaked email) her magnificent pair: 

"I love the curves of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of night’s light..."

Sexytime!!!  Now why is everyone making fun of this man who played hooky?  Because, once again, while it's none of our business if Sanford cheats on his wife, it is when he then covers for it by attacking Bill Clinton and voting against the civil rights of gay people:

Sex sells.  You know it, I know it, even Bill O'Reilly knows it, but what kills me is that conservatives still accuse gay people of debasing the culture while one of their beloved blue-chip-stock corporations and international purveyor of processed-meat sandwiches unloads an ad like this:

Now if you love camp like I do, this ad is gloriously tacky but you can't blame homosexuals for it (for one thing, that font is awful!) -- no, this is clearly the work of corporate straight guys who obviously and rightly like blowjobs even more than breasts.  But where's the moral outrage now?  Isn't Burger King cheapening the sanctity of traditional family dinners? 

No, you can't get people riled up about gay perverts while you're selling them BK BJs -- the public sees the disconnect.

And while the family values people like Sanford hate us, their corporate bretheren loooove our money!  After all, even in the glow of Megan Fox's headlights, the "Transformers" people still gave us what we like: