OTTAWA, March 16, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a case that has pitted one facet of the liberal agenda against another, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has ruled in favour of homosexual activists against the claims of a Mohawk father in granting custody of his children to two lesbian women.
The father, Stacey Boots argued that the aboriginal culture does not accept homosexuality. He said that the children would be ostracized from their own community if custody was awarded to the mother, Devona Sharrow, who lives in a lesbian relationship with a non-aboriginal woman from the US. The children have been raised in the traditional Mohawk manner, are in school on the Akwesasne reserve and speak the Mohawk language. The children’s paternal grandmother, a Mohawk “clan mother” testified that the children would suffer ostracism because of the decision. Even the spokesman for aboriginal homosexual activists has admitted that homosexual aboriginals, who are referred to as “two-spirited,” have more problems in aboriginal communities than do gays and lesbians in the general population. Said Art Zoccole, executive director of the Two-Spirited People of the First Nation, “Generally, right across the country, homophobia is common is our communities.” Justice Heidi Polowin ruled that the children would be better off with the mother who has, despite her lesbianism, promised to raise the children according to Mohawk traditions. Justice Polowin compared the decision to a Supreme Court of Canada ruling about Theodore Edwards, who is black, and his former girlfriend Kimberly Van de Perre, who is white. She said, “I am bound by law and common sense to decide this issue on the basis of the evidence … and not on unfounded fears or prejudices or on a reaction to the vociferous comments of an isolated and uniformed segment of the community.” National Post coverage: https://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=d933b9e1-2f3c-4527-91e3-f7bb457b824e