Right from when it was first proposed during the May 2011 federal election, the Office of Religious Freedom (ORF?) was met with the accusation that it was an attempt to pander to its base, concerns that it would overstep the boundary of what Canada should be doing in foreign nations, and skepticism that it could be instituted in any kind of way that would be fair and balanced for all religions.  As it turns out, it's becoming not very popular among Evangelicals, either.

When I first started blogging, I mentioned something that I've only talked about occasionally, since.

Recent attention from both ends of the political spectrum has focused on the efforts of the Harper government to safeguard the safety and human rights of lesbian and gay people around the world. I've commended Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird for taking the lead on this before, and without prompting. But what has been getting missed thus far are the underlying circumstances which make this a particularly difficult Gordian knot of diplomacy. The more we learn about political movements in Uganda, the more we realize that if we are forceful, we may actually be causing harm to that nation's LGBT people.

Next week or in the week following, Canada's Parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights (JUST) will be reviewing the trans human rights Bill C-279, to approve or amend it before deciding whether to forward it on to Third Reading.

On Friday, Sun News commentator Brian Lilley interviewed Rob Anders, the Member of Parliament who has drawn condemnation for conflating transsexual and transgender people with sexual predators in a petition he has been circulating on his website, and to at least one church in his riding. In "Children's bathroom bill reaches Parliament Hill," both doubled down on conflating trans people with sexual predators, and suggested that granting human rights inclusion will somehow enable and legally absolve predatory acts.  Anders claims there is "all sorts of examples of this going on."  Which is news to anybody else.

The following was originally written in March of 2011, following a "Bathroom Bill" scare tactic used in Montana and ongoing conflicts in Maryland, and may contain some references relevant to that time.  Because of a recent petition distributed by Rob Anders, the Member of Parliament for Calgary West, I am reprising it here, and editing it down because of the original length.

Human Rights In Principle

Rob Anders is on a mission. Hot on the heels of having to halfway apologize for alleging that NDP leader Thomas Mulcair drove former NDP leader Jack Layton to his grave, Anders is now sending at least one church (possibly more) a letter asking them to petition MPs to oppose Bill C-279, which would (in its current form) extend human rights protections to transsexual and transgender people. You'd almost think he needs an easy deflection, and trans people are the punching bag du jour.

Stephen Woodworth's Motion M-312 is scheduled for its second hour of debate this Friday, and the vote on the following Wednesday.  And over summer's Parliamentary break, there has been an interesting change of direction from the Canadian far-right backers of Woodworth's action.  In a way, there's some obvious desire to parlay M-312 into a personhood amendment -- but along the way, it also reveals a likelihood that they could undermine his efforts, if the direction that Woodworth's plan goes ends up being anything but.  And more than anything, it shows something interesting about Stephen Woodworth's "science," and why Canada's far right isn't particularly interested in it.

The Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform has been sending its New Abortion Caravan from the B.C. coast to Ottawa -- arriving in Toronto on Wednesday, where protesters attempted to deface the graphic posters on the truck using a coathanger. While the second hour of debate for Stephen Woodworth's attempt to push Parliament to investigate ways to criminalize abortion (M-312) has been pushed back to the fall, and looks destined to fail, that hasn't stopped the far right from mobilizing efforts across the country to change the social conversation on the topic.

On Wednesday June 6, Parliament voted to send private member's Bill C-279: An Act to Amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and Criminal Code (gender identity and gender expression) to committee for review as part of its trek toward passage. I had expressed concerns at that time about some possible changes that were being considered, but it remains to be seen in committee stage if that will happen. I do know that if Parliamentary support for the bill drops, those changes will become more likely, while better awareness could help to avert them.