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The single most heartening, and the single most forthright, statement I’ve heard made since the federal election began more than three weeks ago occurred at an all-candidates meeting at the University of British Columbia on Monday.
At a boisterous question and answer session, attended by Liberal MP Stephen Owen, and three other candidates contesting the Vancouver Quadra riding, Owen drew the loudest cheers when he warned students about allowing men to interfere with a woman’s right to choose on whether to have an abortion, saying that a Liberal government would never allow a free parliamentary vote on whether a woman should have a right to choose.
“Since 88 per cent of the MPs in Parliament are men, a so-called free vote would result in men deciding one of the most important human rights issues for women,” Owen said. “That is unacceptable and our party would not support it.”
The three other candidates gave the kind of politically-correct answers you’d expect of a politician.
The NDP candidate, David Askew, said: “All votes on human rights issues should be along party lines.” Conservative candidate and former British Columbia Social Credit cabinet minister Stephen Rogers defended the free vote system, supported by his party and leader Stephen Harper.
“I believe free votes are a good thing to do,” Rogers said.
And, Green party candidate Doug Warkentin said he believed a party should take a position on all votes.
Men and women fighting side by side — over the course of these past 30 years and more — to achieve the goal of self-determination for women, for our wives, our sisters, and our daughters, and the three comments made above by candidates Askew, Rogers and Warkentin is the best that these political aspirants could come up with? None of these three deserve office.
Full coverage of Decision Canada events, and a reflection on last night’s leadership debate will be posted later today.
One’s lamp remains lit in search of any non-foolish statement about abortion policy in this country. It actually borders on unsuitable contempt of Parliament for Stephen Owen to presume upon the gender composition of a Commons not yet elected. It is merely repellent and sexist to lull an audience full of idiots–present company excepted–into forgetting that the Morgentaler decision striking down Canada’s abortion law was made by a panel consisting of, as far as historians can ascertain, six men among seven members. Owen’s factual claim, it seems, was that a decision made by a body consisting of 86% men is sacred; one made by a body consisting of 88% men, possibly more, perhaps less, is an outrage.