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Canadian Conservative Party to go Officially Pro-Abortion?

Social Conservatives Warned to Wake Up

TORONTO, January 10, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - "The grassroots of the party should be very careful because it sounds like the Red Tories are attempting to gain the upper hand." That was the reaction of Jim Hughes the leader of the political arm of Canada's pro-life movement to the decision by a conference of 32 Greater Toronto Conservative Party ridings to adopt a policy to support abortion. Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), also told LifeSiteNews.com he was concerned about the other resolutions put forward which undercut social conservative and democratic priorities.

Some 250 delegates representing Conservative ridings in downtown Toronto, York, Scarborough, Pickering, Mississauga, Etobicoke, Barrie, Bramalea and Brampton held a meeting last month at which they adopted resolutions to go forward for consideration at the Party's National Convention in March.

The Toronto Star reported that Bret Snider, president of the Toronto area riding presidents' council, who convened the meeting, used typical social leftist code words in saying the overall message "was one of moderation. ... It was one of tolerance." He admitted however that the measures were "hotly" debated.

Social Conservatives within the party scoffed at calling a pro-abortion party stance "moderation." "Even the Liberal Party doesn't have an officially pro-abortion party platform," said one disaffected Conservative who wished to remain anonymous. "The Conservative party believes that a woman has the right to make choices about her own reproduction," reads the resolution which passed narrowly.

Another resolution, which passed within this party which has been the only alternative to the social liberal hegemony in Canadian politics, would not permit the party to use the notwithstanding clause against a Supreme Court decision to force homosexual 'marriage'.

The resolution reads: "A Conservative government would not support the use of the `notwithstanding clause' in section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to override any decision of the Supreme Court of Canada which provides that the equality rights in section 15 of the Charter require that marriage, for civil purposes, be available to same-sex couples, provided that the decision also upholds the freedom of officials of religious groups to refuse to perform marriages that are not in accordance with their religious beliefs."

Why "Conservatives" would want to emulate the Liberals' fanatical opposition to use of the Charter's legitimate notwithstanding clause raises serious questions about who is controlling the party right now, at least in the Toronto region. For one, it appears that gay activists are having a new and large influence on the party, as they have had for the past several years on Ontario's Progressive Conservative Party. Sketchy reports from Quebec indicate that the same thing is happening in Conservative riding associations there.

Another resolution that passed even went so far as to limit free votes for Conservative MPs in Parliament. The resolution going forward to the national convention states that no Conservative MP "will vote in Parliament, nor vote to put any procedure in place (including a referendum) to amend, overturn or limit any existing Charter right or freedom" unless both the specific amendment or limitation were included in the party's platform. For a party born from the Reform/Alliance emphasis on democratic reform, the GTA resolutions are a heretical rejection of the earlier movement.

CLC's Hughes stressed that social conservative grassroots members will have to wake up to what is going on and get heavily involved in order to maintain a Conservative party which gives voice to their concerns.

Conservative MP John Cummins, thought of as a social conservative within the Party, although not thrilled with the pro-abortion resolution, oddly seemed to find little cause for concern. "I think that those issues are best left up to the members and their constituents and I don't think folks are interested in the party taking positions on that," Cummins told LifeSiteNews.com. "They can pass all the resolutions they want, and more power to them. In the end we've got to leave it to the member and constituents."

The social liberals, however, appear to be working very hard to play a major role at the March policy convention and pass resolutions which, unlike Cummins, they believe will force the party to follow their dramatically different Red Tory agenda.

jhw

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