The NDP put forward a motion in the Commons today to restore queer rights to the Canadian citizenship guide, but Conservative MPs voted to adjourn debate until after the passage of a major budget bill.

Xtra's federal politics reporter Dale Smith has more:

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NDP MP Olivia Chow moved a motion in the House of Commons after Question Period, which would see the government reinstate sections on queer history and queer rights in the next printing of the citizenship guide. This follows a motion from the Commons citizenship and immigration committee that recommended the same.
 
After 30 minutes of debate, during which only the NDP asked questions or made comments, the parliamentary secretary for the minister of finance, Ted Menzies, said that it was an important debate, but that C-9, the budget implementation bill, was more important. He moved to adjourn debate on Chow’s motion until after the passage of C-9.

While all three opposition parties carried the vote on an oral call (and there were only about 15 or so MPs in the House at the time), the Conservatives demanded a recorded vote, so the division bells rang for 30 minutes, and a standing vote was recorded.

The final vote was 119 to adjourn, 101 against, with all three opposition parties voting against adjourning debate. Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff was not in the House for the vote, nor was Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

It is almost assured that Chow raised the motion as a means of delaying the debate on C-9 — especially given some of the comments raised by NDP MP Peter Julian during the short debate on the motion.

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Read Dale Smith's Hill Queeries blog every weekday.

 

Read more: 

• Add gay rights to citizenship guide: Commons committee
• 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

 

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
  

 

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney dodged more questions today about the removal of gay rights from the new Canadian citizenship guide.

At today's Commons immigration committee meeting, NDP MP Olivia Chow asked Kenney if gay rights would be added to the next printing.

Kenney wouldn't say yes or no, and instead he turned to his bogus talking points: that there was "zero content" in the previous guide (written in 1995) on gay rights or same-sex marriage, that the new guide includes a reference to gay athlete Mark Tewksbury, and hey, the guide can't be "a thousand pages." (read more about today's meeting in Xtra's federal politics blog)

How could the 1995 guide have referenced gay marriage, which was legalized in 2005? Argh!

Kenney has refused to publicly commit to adding gay rights to the guide in the next printing. His office won't return Xtra's calls.

A March 2 Canadian Press report revealed that Kenney's office deliberately removed gay rights references from an early draft of the guide in the summer of 2009.

More than 8,000 people have joined a Facebook group, Canadians Calling for the Resignation of Jason Kenney. 

Read more:

• A disaster week for Jason Kenney and Egale
• Twittersphere slams Egale's response on 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. 

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

 

Today on Open Book Toronto, Paul Vermeersch had some choice words for Jason Kenney.  After a lengthy tongue-lashing, Vermeersch issued a challenge: we should send gay books to Jason Kenney.

Vermeersch's challenge comes one day after it was revealed that Kenney, Canada's immigration minister, removed references to gay rights in a guide for immigrants applying for Canadian citizenship, despite an impassioned plea from a top bureaucrat to have the gay material reinserted.

Mail going to MPs at their Parliamentary office doesn’t need postage. Here’s his addy:
Jason Kenney
325 East Block
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

Vermeersch, himself a writer, had some suggestions. The ideal Kenney curriculum would include Timothy Findley, Dionne Brand, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Shyam Selvadurai, Daphne Marlatt, Derek McCormack, Ivan E Coyote, Michael V Smith, Zoe Whittall and more.

Vermeersch is also the guy behind a Facebook page calling for Kenney’s resignation.

I’ll give the last word to him:

“[Jason Kenney] and his socially conservative pals have a vision to make Canada a less inclusive, more intolerant place, and Kenney has dug in his heels to make his partisan's paradise a reality. And if we can't get Kenney to change jobs, perhaps we can get him to change his mind. What if he simply needs to be enlightened? Maybe all he needs is to read the right books.”

(photo courtesy of the Fire Jason Kenney Facebook page)