VANCOUVER, April 15, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Homosexual New Democratic Party Member of Parliament Svend Robinson is taking what he calls a medical leave from politics. As revealed on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Thursday, a sobbing Robinson said that the move results from his admission of a jewellery theft that took place on Friday. Robinson, MP for Burnaby-Douglas in British Columbia’s lower mainland, is BC’s longest-standing politician. He is a vocal proponent for legal protection for homosexuality and is responsible for crafting Bill C-250 which would add the open-ended term “sexual orientation” to the hate crimes section of Canada’s criminal code. Robinson was Canada’s first openly homosexual politician, announcing his condition in 1988. He has also been a strong advocate for abortion and euthanasia. Robinson told reporters that he had been under “considerable stress,” which culminated on Good Friday, in his “unthinkable act…the pocketing of a piece of expensive jewellery,” a ring, while in full view of retail sales clerks. He claimed that, despite knowing that what he was doing was wrong, “something snapped” inside.
Robinson said he will take medical leave and seek professional help before considering a re-entry into politics. An investigation into the incident is pending. Read related Interim News, “What’s wrong with the hate crime legislation?” The article reiterates the danger of the legislation, before the Senate: “As one Swedish homosexual activist group promised recently, in anticipation of the passage of a similar law there, individual activists will be in churches on Sundays to tape-record the services and press charges of ‘hate’ or hurt feelings whenever possible.” https://www.theinterim.com/2002/aug/05whatswrong.html