Viva 'Progressive' Canada!

"The federal government must recognize the exclusive role provinces and territories have over the management of our non-renewable natural resource development or risk creating a Constitutional crisis."
"[Bill C-48 in particular] will have detrimental effects on national unity."
"Bill C-69, as originally drafted, would make it virtually impossible to develop critical infrastructure, depriving Canada of much-needed investment."
"Our [provincial] governments are deeply concerned with the federal government’s disregard, so far, of the concerns raised by our provinces related to these bills. As it stands, the federal government appears indifferent to the economic hardships faced by provinces."
"Immediate action to refine or eliminate these bills is needed to avoid further alienating provinces and their citizens and focus on uniting the country in support of Canada’s economic prosperity."

"Our five provinces and territory stand united and strongly urge the government to accept Bill C-69 as amended by the Senate, in order to minimize the damage to the Canadian economy."
"We would encourage the government of Canada and all members of the House of Commons to accept the full slate of amendments to the bill."

Premiers Doug Ford (Ontario), Blaine Higgs (New Brunswick), Brian Pallister (Manitoba), Scott Moe (Saskatchewan), Jason Kenney (Alberta), Robert McLeod (Northwest Territories)

"I think it's absolutely irresponsible for conservative premiers to be threatening our national unity if they don't get their way." 
"The fundamental job of any Canadian prime minister is to hold this country together."
"Anyone who wants to be prime minister, like Andrew Scheer [leader of the Conservative official opposition], needs to condemn those attacks on national unity."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

"Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has no one to blame but himself for the current strains on national unity."
"He has claimed the fundamental responsibility of any Prime Minister is to bring the country together yet his actions point to the contrary."
"He’s pushing legislation widely criticized by most provinces, industry groups, prospective investors in Canada and Indigenous leaders as clear violation of provincial jurisdiction and a profound threat to [the] future of natural resource development, economic growth and prosperity in our country."
"His government’s legislative actions have caused more division in Canada than we have seen for years, and today’s comments only further inflame those tensions."
Jason Kenny, Premier, Alberta 

The Hibernia platform in Newfoundland's offshore is one of the province's offshore facilities. (HMDC)

Well, actually, it's not just Conservative premiers -- who represent over fifty percent of all Canadians -- and whose provinces' natural resources have buoyed the Canadian economy since Confederation that have run afoul of the federal Liberal government's action plan on the environment clashing head on with resource development, since signatories to a previous letter sent to Trudeau were former Liberal premier Rachel Notley, and leader of the Alberta Liberals, David Khan. Furthermore, an Angus Reid poll found 50 percent of Albertans are so enraged over the federal government's stance on resource development in the oilfields they would support secession.

In Saskatchewan, over half the population would consider secession, according to an Environics poll, reflecting the evisceration of both provinces' plans for petroleum resource development that have gone awry as international investment has dried up in response to the federal government's slow and steady withdrawal from support of the oil industry, not to mention its deep-sixing of critical oil pipelines to deepwater ports for export abroad, preferentially leaving Canada's huge oil deposits untouched, a gift to strident environmentalists who prefer it that way.

A sign is located near a Trident Exploration natural gas well near the community of Didsbury, Alta. Trident blamed low commodity prices and a lack of export pipeline capacity, among other reasons, for shutting down this week. (Kyle Bakx/CBC)

The wealth generated to date by the oil and gas industries in Canadian provinces, including Newfoundland and Labrador, and particularly Alberta for many decades in tax transfers to the federal government paid the lion's share of 'equalization payments' to Canada's so-called 'have-not' provinces to ensure that all provinces in Canada would be able to offer equal services to all Canadians no matter where they live. With the Liberal government's steady encroachment on the Alberta government's responsibility for its natural resources, and its continual imposition of new environmental bills effectively halting extraction and pipeline activities, employment has plummeted and revenues along with it.

Lacking efficient export capabilities leaving Alberta to the use of trains to transport fuel to market rather than pipeline transfer, has made the province vulnerable to accepting pricing well below market value, a huge loss both for the province and for federal coffers for a government which has been profligate in other measures of spending for social welfare programs. Much like Quebec which has ever since equalization payments have been handed out, receiving the largest percentage of transfer payments to any province, enabling it to provide social programs far in excess of its own prosperity level.

Little wonder the petroleum product provinces are up in arms over the injustices they are now undergoing at the hands of the federal government. Justin Trudeau's agenda has been underhandedly undertaken, and it has impoverished the provinces that have been the engines of economic growth for the nation. He has alienated western populations by ignoring the needs of their provincial governments and putting huge numbers of people employed in the petroleum industry out of work. He is single-handedly managing to reverse the prosperity that Canada's potential promises.

And he has the unmitigated gall to charge those provinces' leaders with harming Canada's interests, with injuring national unity. We have this Liberal government to thank for social-improvement projects so dear to 'progressives' where euthanasia is now legal in Canada, as is the gateway drug to harder drug consumption at a time when the country is reeling under the ubiquity of overdose deaths, and where divisions have taken place in society over the narcissistic 'feminist' imperatives of Justin Trudeau.

A government which hands out millions in tax dollars to Islamist jihadis, and grants citizenship to convicted terrorists, while refusing summer employment funding to any organizations failing to unreservedly support abortion with no restrictions, and penalizing those in academia who refuse to use gender-neutral language in reference to LGBTQ2 demands. More, much more, all of it headache-inducing and heart-breaking for a unified Canada.

Overstepping the Bounds of Tolerance

"[Vancouver Rape Relief is] non-compliant with Canadian law [guilty of] systematic, consistent misbehaviour, [as the last women's shelter in British Columbia to continue denying services to the trans community]."
"I can open any organization I want and discriminate against the people I don't like ... but when I start to bring taxpayer funding into this it makes this entire room [council chamber] responsible for my actions."
"There is a long history of discrimination and violence against transgender women. We are a vulnerable group. There’s stigma and shame .. and then to ask for help and have someone on the phone say ’sorry’ you are not women enough for us to help you....’."
Morgane Oger, transgender advocate, vice-president, British Columbia New Democratic Party

"[Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter is a victim of] discrimination against women in the name of inclusion. [Vancouver City Council is trying to] coerce us to change our position."
"We do not have the experience to offer services to people without the same life experience ... this is not our work."
"Because we are an oppressed group who fights for equality we have a right to decide who our membership is and who we serve."
"Rape Relief is strong enough and principled enough and has enough supporters in the community ... we will say no to that kind of money [financial support from Vancouver city coffers that comes with demands]."
"I think it [the demand] is undemocratic and a very dangerous bullying move on [the part of] of councillors ... It says, ‘If you want the money, change how you operate, change your political principles, change your basis of unity'."
Hilla Kerner, representative, Vancouver Rape Relief 

Hilla Kerner speaks to city council about funding for Vancouver Rape Relief.   Vancouver Star

The longest-operating rape crisis centre in Canada has a policy of giving aid and support only to females. People transitioning from male to female who contact the Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter will get a sympathetic hearing and advice over the telephone but they will not be admitted to the shelter and they will not receive services from the centre which focuses strictly on women. Because they have been unmoving in their strictly female-centered policies the City of Vancouver has voted to discontinue funding the group.

The measure is a disciplinary one, the city council informing the centre and its board of directors that it is not pleased with what it views as intransigence on their part to continue refusing serving the needs of females born as males; men who have transitioned to women and who become victims of sexual violence. "Trans women are women and sex work is work ... I can't support (organizations) who exclude them" wrote Vancouver city councillor Christine Boyle, accusing the organization of "supporting transphobia".

Aye, there's the rub. You may be sympathetic to the plight of transgender women who elicit scorn from society and who are often targeted with violence and certainly are socially discriminated against. But generally speaking, society at large has become more accepting of alternate-sexed, gays, and others who don't represent the norm. Accepting in the sense that they are who they are. And so the tensions inherent in life as a gay or lesbian or trans, is relieved for the most part of the dangers in being 'outed'.

Problems arise, however, when the LGBTQ-2 community insists that they be recognized as entitled to complete inclusion; marriage between same sex couples was merely the appetizer; the push to guide children into differentiated gender streams, to push for the right to impose upon the rest of society the adamant need to change the English lexicon to address them differently, the yearly exhibitions of crude and colourful 'parades' not pleasing to everyone, has the tendency to invoke annoyance not support among many in society.

And thrusting upon general society the obligation to recognize LGBTQ-2 'rights' to the extent where their charter rights are paramount and the charter rights of others who prefer not to be engaged with them in the provision of services creates yet another burden that many in society are not prepared to shoulder. Born female, and fleeing male violence, the Rape Relief shelter dedicates itself to these vulnerable women; it is gender-specific in its mission.

That trans-activists have enlisted sympathizers to their cause of 'equal' treatment to place the security and comfort of women in general in jeopardy they choose confrontation and slander over accommodation. When transgender women feel they are entitled to impose themselves on groups whose mandate is other than to serve them, they do a disservice to the greater community and to themselves as well.

From 2020 forward, city council in Vancouver has voted to no longer fund any of the activities of the Rape Crisis centre. That funding by no means amounts to their entire operation's funding; the city provides them with $33,972 annually, which the group uses for educational outreach "free and accessible and available to everyone", including trans people. Not good enough for Vancouver council which will deny access to those funds "until such time as the organization makes changes to become aligned with City policies."

In fact, the Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter's operating funds amount to $1-million annually, an amount mostly provided to them by the Province of British Columbia. Since its founding in 1974 the centre restricts its core services; peer counselling sessions, shelters or transition homes to women born female. And it has faced criticism for its refusal to admit trans women for those services. A criticism that the centre is resigned to, but refuses to succumb to.

A post-operative transgender woman denied progamming at Vancouver Rape Relief launched a discrimination lawsuit in 1995 against the centre. "She was rejected from the training program because she did not share the same life experiences as women born and raised as girls and into womenhood", stated the centre. And the B.C. Court of Appeals found that argument reasonable, ruling in favour of the centre. When an appeal was made to the Supreme Court of Canada, it was denied.

An East Vancouver candy shop, the Licorice Parlour, had placed a poster advertising a fundraiser for the Rape Relief centre in May, and it became the focus of trans activists resulting in online harassment and slanderous reviews calling them out for being "oppressive" and "transphobic". Women who are feminists tend to support women's needs. Should government really feel that transgender women require similar support for their dissimilar backgrounds adjusting to a new reality a standalone centre specifically geared to their needs becomes an option.

In the meantime, little wonder there is push-back from that segment of society that is fed up with the LGBTQ-2 community believing its rights supersede all others', and in the pursuit of gaining never-ending concessions go on to demand more and in the process don't mind stepping on other groups' rights to achieve their ends using means both fair and foul.

Members of Vancouver Rape Relief and Women¹s Shelter pictured at a 2014 rally to call attention to domestic homicides.Vancouver Province

Born a Man, Always a Man, Masquerade Aside

"I see my win in this broader political moment where trans rights have made great strides and people are waking up."
"We are not going to go backwards."
“My semi-final rides were difficult and I certainly didn’t ‘dominate'. [Competitor] Linsey Hamilton rode hard, and I think that it’s a little insulting to suggest that I ‘dominated’ her when I had to give it my all to beat her."
"People seem to think that there’s no issue of ‘unfair advantage’ when I lose, but it only seems to be an issue when I win. I don’t think that’s fair or reasonable."
"There’s nothing too exceptional about my [power to weight]. There are many world-class track sprinters with higher values."
Rachel McKinnon, assistant professor of philosophy, College of Charleston, Victoria, British Columbia

McKinnon racing 2018 masters track world championships. Photo courtesy Dr. Rachel McKinnon

"It is not about making everybody biologically equal, and I think that is a common misconception when we start talking about transgender athletes."
"People want transgender [females] to be physiologically identical to [born] females, and if they’re not, it’s unfair. That is not possible."
"Can you turn a man’s body into a woman’s body? The short answer is 'no'. I think we need to move past that idea completely."
Dr. Eric Vilain, professor of human genetics, UCLA

Dr. Rachel McKinnon won the masters world title in the sprint this past weekend in Los Angeles. Courtesy Dr. Rachel McKinnon

The rule that made Dr. McKinnon, a transgender 'woman' eligible to compete in the UCI Masters Track Cycling World Championship for the women's 35-44 age bracket last week in Los Angeles was that athletes' testosterone levels are required to be within a given range and since Dr. McKinnon uses drug therapy to achieve that range, she qualified. At one time the compete requirements were considerably stiffer; to compete in their legally recognized gender, transgender women had to have had extensive physical transitioning; surgery and hormone therapy.

2015 saw a loosening of the rules, removing the requirement for surgery, leaving in the testing of testosterone levels. Dr. McKinnon defends her female role as a competitor that she had substantive advantage over other female runners by citing research suggesting testosterone levels are not correlated with elite athletic performance; one study in particular showing one-sixth of elite male athletes had testosterone levels below the average for females. However, male physiognomy is just that; male and therein lies the obvious advantage.

Jen Wagner-Assali made a public complaint, feeling her bronze medal win illustrated a competitive edge on the part of the winner: "It's definitely NOT fair", she tweeted, replying to a British woman who asserted that the "world is gripped by a febrile madness" that a transgender woman appeared as first-place winner on the podium for a world-class female track competition. Her objections lead her detractors defending transgender rights, to characterize her as a "far-right provocateur", typical of those who bow to the demands of LGBTQ-2 activism, smearing those who find fault with those demands.

Peer and public pressure ensured that Ms. Wagner-Assali would apologize, realizing she had "unintentionally fanned the flames on a controversial situation, and that I regret I made the comments out of a feeling of frustration, but they weren't productive or positive". Somewhat abashed, no doubt that the second-place silver medalist Carolien van Herrikhuyzen characterized the race as "honest", deploring Wagner-Assali's 'problem'.

A proposed change to federal anti-discrimination legislation in the U.S. would define a person's gender as an unchangeable, binary, biological reality defined at birth by the simple expedient of recognizing genitalia conferred by nature as gender identification. The response to the Trump administration's intention with respect to that legislation is to state the obvious: it would translate as no legal recognition of transgender or intersex choices as legitimate.

Whereas in contrast Britain has also proposed changes to its Gender Recognition Act in eliminating an objective test, leaving the legal determination of gender solely in the hands and mind of the individual claiming to be other than what they are from birth forward; no medical or other evidence required. The logical conclusion to which is that under universal medicare, prisoners or military personnel would have their sex-alternative therapy and surgery paid for out of public funds, as a medical condition requiring rectification.

In the United States IOC policy has been adopted by the national cycling authority, requiring elite level sport competition to test only for testosterone levels. Dr. McKinnon has a comeback for those dissatisfied with the reality that men declaring themselves women are enabled to compete in elite sport competitions with actual women. Biologically, males and females are completely differentiated physically; greater physical strength an acknowledged male reality.

She laments the parallel she identifies between her struggle for acceptance as a transgender woman to the long historical struggle of black athletes who were excluded from some sport arenas reflecting a general consensus that Blacks are endowed with superior physical prowess, making it unfair with their advantage to compete against others. That prejudicial view, despite having some element of truth within, reflected the racial tensions between the white majority and black minority, severely disadvantaging Blacks.

Justice for Blacks was painfully long in coming. According to Dr. McKinnon the same human rights trajectory is now evidenced in the battle the transgender community faces to achieve their human rights entitlements.

+15

• 
  

Almost a week after her win, McKinnon tweeted out Saturday the multiple reasons why she now competes in the same category as cis women