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Harry Potter Author Gets Quebec Anti-homophobia Award

Catholic Priest Gravel received same award in 2003 - Was at head table of 2008 National Prayer Breakfast in Ottawa

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

MONTREAL, May 20, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Homosexual activists in Canada are scraping the edges of the barrel in trying to find new ways to promote their agenda.

Joanne Kathleen Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, has been awarded the "Fight Against Homophobia" award by the Quebec homosexual lobby group Fondation Emergence, because of her announcement last fall that professor Dumbledore, the 'good' wizard of her stories was a homosexual.

When accused of using the politically correct declaration to produce more publicity after the completion of the series, Rowling said, "[Dumbledore] is my character. He is what he is and I have the right to say what I say about him," and that anyone who disagrees belongs to the "lunatic fringes" of Christianity.

Rowling pandered to the media that the revelation was very "freeing" for her and that only certain people will view Dumbledore differently in light of the new detail about his character. Referring to Dumbledore's boyhood friendship with the evil Grindelwald, Rowling said, "I think a child will see a friendship and I think a sensitive adult may well understand that it was an infatuation."

Rebecca Traister, columnist on salon.com called Rowling's announcement "a neat trick philosophically, but also economically to do it once all the kids that might have been kept away from the material have already read it."

When invited by Fondation Emergence to receive her award, Rowling conveyed her thanks but said that she regrets being unable to attend the ceremony. Three homosexual fans of Harry Potter will be accepting the award on her behalf.

Fondation Emergence produced another award, this time marking the thirtieth anniversary of the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms' inclusion of banning sexual orientation as a basis for discrimination, to Marc-André Bédard who was the Quebec Justice Minister from 1976 to 1984, and the instigator of this addition to their Charter.

It was reported that he proposed this Quebec Charter amendment following the 1976 Olympic Games, which were accompanied by crackdowns against public homosexual activity, and a series of police raids of gay bars in Montreal.

A CNW report said that Bédard was particularly moved by this public recognition, and said, "That time was one of the great moments in my political career and, thirty years later, I'm still proud of it."

Fondation Emergence's first Fight Against Homophobia award was presented in 2003 to Rev. Raymond Gravel, a priest in St. Joachim de La Plaine parish in Joliette Quebec, who opposed the Vatican's stance on homosexual unions in an open letter published in the Montreal newspaper La Presse. (Read the LifeSiteNews.com coverage: "Quebec Catholic Priest Publicly Rebukes Vatican Document on Homosexual Unions" http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/aug/03080705.html)

In 2004, Fr. Gravel made his support for abortion and homosexuality a matter of the public record when he boasted to a radio interviewer, "I am pro-choice and there is not a bishop on earth that will prevent me from receiving Communion, not even the Pope."

In 2006, Gravel announced his candidacy for the Bloc Quebecois nomination for Repentigny, Quebec, in a coming federal by-election, and was later elected, which was in direct disobedience to a papal decree which states that Catholic priests are forbidden to run for or hold political office. As a consequence his bishop, Gilles Lussier of the diocese of Joliette, only cautioned him not to endorse policies that went against Church doctrine while holding public office.

More recently, fulminating in the House of Commons on March 3, 2008 that he was pro life, Fr. Gravel voted against Conservative MP Ken Epp's (Edmonton-Sherwood Park, Alta.) private member's bill, C-484, the Unborn Victims of Crime Act, which would lay two murder charges on someone who killed a pregnant woman.

Last Thursday (May 15th), Gravel represented the Bloc at the head table of the 43rd Annual National Prayer Breakfast in Ottawa, despite his strong pro-homosexual and pro-abortions stance. Other head table guests included NDP Leader Jack Layton, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and keynote speaker Judith Graves. Notably not attending was Ottawa Catholic Archbishop Terence Prendergast, who recently told an audience at a Theology on Tap event at Malone's Lakeside Grill that he would refuse communion to any Catholic politician who supports access to abortion if they couldn't be persuaded to change their mind.

To contact Bishop Lussier regarding Fr. Gravel:
Most Rev. Gilles Lussier
Bishop of Joliette
2, rue Saint-Charles-Borromée Nord
C.P. 470
Joliette, Québec, J6E 6H6
Phone:(450) 753-7596
Fax:(450) 759-0929
E-mail: chancel@diocesedejoliette.org

To contact Luigi Ventura,
the Apostolic Nuncio to Canada:
724 Manor Avenue
Ottawa, ON. KIM OE3,
Phone: (613) 746-4914

See related LifeSiteNews.com articles:

Harry Potter Author Plays Dumb: Acts Surprised at Reactions to Gay Character
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/oct/07102505.html

US Christian Groups React Strongly to Harry Potter Books' Homosexual Character
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/oct/07103003.html

Canadian Catholic Priest/Politician Says He Supports Abortion on TV Show
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/oct/07100408.html

Catholic Priest Speaks at Quebec Gay Activist Conference
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/apr/08041810.html

Editorial: Canadian Catholic Priest Politician Condemns LifeSiteNews.com Founders in Parliament
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/mar/08030410.html
 

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