Salute to Nancy Ruth
I may not agree with Nancy Ruth on her proposal to neutralize gender difference in our national anthem, but I do applause her courage to speak out the truth yesterday — in the capacity of a Conservative senator — when she tells womens’ groups to “shut the f* up” or else no government funding. Ruth, IMHO, is genuine and forthcoming.
According to the Globe and Mail:
“We have five weeks or whatever until the G8 starts. Shut the fuck up – on this issue,” Ms. Ruth said.
Ms. Ruth issued her salty warning on Monday, at a Parliament Hill gathering to discuss the declining place of women’s rights in Canada’s foreign policy. When the aid groups criticized the Harper government’s decision not to fund abortion as part of its initiative to reduce the deaths of mothers and young children, Ms. Ruth counselled self-censorship.
Her comments – reported by the Toronto Star – were a suggestion of strategy, not a threat. She was arguing that if the activists let the abortion issue alone, there is a better chance the maternal-health plan will include programs for family planning and contraception.
The Globe says “Nancy Ruth is a Conservative senator and pro-choice feminist.”
Bob Rae has some colourful words in the House today:
“Senator Ruth gave perhaps the pithiest, sharpest description one can imagine of Conservative political policy that we’ve all heard for a long time,” Toronto Liberal MP Bob Rae said. “… If you have a disagreement with the government, just shut the F up.”
Foreign aid groups and womens’ groups are definitely not the only NGOs that got their federal funding cut — or threatened to cut if they choose to take an opposite stance from the government. Immigrant service providers in BC such as SUCCESS and MOSAIC have also been far less vocal over the last few years. The two organizations used to be strong advocates for immigrants’ and refugees’ rights. I can still vividly remember how the late SUCCESS CEO Lilian To went numerous times to Ottawa and Canadian to the embassy in China to learn about how unfairly Chinese family reunion applications were processed and to advocate for a a better and fairer system. Lilian was also vocal on a lot of immigrant-related controversies and she was a regular on government’s consultation meetings on immigration issues. And could we hear voices half that fearless of Lilian nowadays? Unfortunately, the answer is no.
Actually, not only NGOs are being tamed. Journalists — including the Press Gallery which is presumably to be most critical of Harper’s media strategies — are bent to their knees after years of PMO intimidation. We were shocked to see how timid Press Gallery members was responding to strict orders of PMO communications people during Harper’s visit to China in Dec 2009. Rather than speaking up against unreasonable control of free reporting for journalists on the tour, reporters of national media outlets chose to follow orders without uttering a word of complaint. In an earlier article appeared on The Globe which talked about Harper’s appearance on Youtube, the writer admitted that reporters may sometimes refrain from asking Harper pointed questions for fear of “bad relation” with the PMO.
Well, what a country Canada has become.
Tags: conservative, Media, Nancy Ruth, NGORelated posts
Short URL: http://www.chineseinvancouver.ca/?p=10657
I thought using “swears” will be banned here.
Are you going to ban yourself for that “shut the f* up” remark? Hahaha.