Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Abortion In Canada: Stephen Woodworth And Brad Trost Become Voice For Silent Social Conservative MPs

When pro-life Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth stood in front of a podium facing a room packed with journalists Monday he knew he wasn’t facing a friendly crowd.

“You’re here to get a nice controversial story,” he told reporters at the National Press Theatre as he began pleading with them for support.

Since December, Woodworth has taken to the media circuit telling reporters, the public and his constituents that he believes babies who are still in the womb should be recognized as legal human beings and that legislation which only sees them as human once their toes have seen daylight makes no sense. He has filed a motion calling for the formation of a special committee to determine when a human being is formed and, based on that conclusion, what the consequences would be of recognizing a fetus as a human being before it leaves the womb.

“At some point in your life you made a commitment, a personal commitment to the truth,” the Kitchener MP told journalists. “At least that’s what the rest of us expect of you. Has anyone here abandoned their commitment to the truth? Don’t you want truthful laws?”

A calm and friendly fellow with a gentle demeanor, Woodworth told reporters that what he is proposing is not to blow open the abortion debate but rather to have a discussion about an outdated 400-year-old law.

It’s a tactic which those who champion abortion rights are fearful of, but which self-described pro-life politicians suggest is the only route open for them.

“I’ve learned that whenever you hear the term ‘reopen the debate’ that is simply code for they want to recriminalize abortion,” Joyce Arthur, the executive director of Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada told The Huffington Post Canada.

“They have to be more covert about it and sneaky and say ‘Oh it’s not about abortion, we care about the human rights and the rights of women’ but really that is just a cover,” she said.

While Arthur worries opponents of abortions are using different tactics to sell their message, the opponents themselves worry the message isn't being heard by the government at all.

The Conservatives are “hypocrites,” suggested Mary Ellen Douglas, a national organizer with Campaign Life Coalition.

“They claim that their MPs can say whatever they like and then they send in another MP from the Prime Minister’s Office to shut them down before they can do anything,” she said in an interview this week. “That’s hypocritical.”

It’s time to reopen the abortion debate, Douglas argued. “It is 40 years time to reopen it. It never should have happened in the first place. And what is (Prime Minister Stephen Harper) afraid of, you know? He has a majority … I don’t know what his fear is. But whatever it is, it is certainly holding him back,” she said.

Campaign Life Coalition has spent decades working with MPs and trying to get legislators who oppose abortion elected to Parliament.

“These MPs should be able to speak their minds and their conscience and act that way,” Douglas asserted.

“We have to have politicians with morals. In visiting MPs, I’ve had some politicians say to me, ‘I am personally opposed but I can’t impose that on other people.’ Excuse me? …That’s what we elect you for, to stand up for the moral issues! We don’t elect you to go there and blend in with the woodwork. We expect you to earn your money."

Now that the Conservatives have a majority, Douglas is hoping some backbench MPs will start speaking out.

They’ve been relatively silent because they fear losing their position and being disciplined, she said.

“Having the courage to stand up and do something often leads to some kind of discipline. They certainly need a jolt of courage,” Douglas added.

Unsurprisingly, Woodworth’s motion raised questions once again about the Conservatives’ hidden agenda but the government was quick to distance itself from its MP’s motion. Their efficient response led most media outlets to describe Woodworth's actions as going rogue.

Woodworth himself seemed caught off guard when a journalist informed him during his news conference that Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, a man whose voting record used to reflected a pro-life stance, had just issued a press release saying the Conservative government would not reopen the abortion debate.

Original Article
Source: Huff 
Author: Althia Raj  

1 comment:

  1. Finnish government to ban our organization? Helsinki district court was ready to ban our organization! An official had told this threat to our chairman in a meeting in the Ministry for Internal Affairs.

    A government's threat to ban a peaceful organization (because of its opinions) violates the principles of democracy.

    Ethnic cleansing in Western Uusimaa in May 1918 and Forssa region. Some 200 Finnish civilians, men and women, were executed by the Swedish battalion in Western Uusimaa. The Swedes executed at least 460 Finns in the spring 1918.

    TV and newspapers broadcast disinformation about history and all political issues. Censorship in the mainstream media: Sweden, Finland and Norway are ruled by the political and economic elite.

    In the Scandinavian countries the political and economic elite controls the media.

    ReplyDelete