Roundup: O’Toole’s big corporate Pride energy

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For the start of Pride month, the Conservatives decided to go all out to show just how down they are with The Gays these days, starting with a video that Erin O’Toole put out to talk about how great diversity is, and how he joined the military to defend rights, and so on. At the same time, MPs Eric Duncan, Michelle Rempel Garner and Bernard Généreux held a press conference to decry the MSM blood deferral period and put forward an unworkable proposal to lift it (watch for my story on this later today), and pledged to go hard on this issue for the whole month – as though there is nothing more pressing for the queer and trans communities to deal with. Of course, when asked about whether O’Toole’s pledge during the leadership contest to only attend Pride festivities where police are allowed to march in uniform stands, Rempel Garner prevaricated and refused to answer, but probably most ironic of all was Duncan declaring that the Liberals were only interested in virtue signalling – even though he was doing exactly that, knowing that Canadian Blood Services is arm’s length and the minister can’t interfere (and make no mistake, the Liberals should be held to account for making a promise they couldn’t keep – twice).

As all of this is going on, several Conservative MPs have continued to argue against the bill to ban “conversion therapy” (sort of), and much of it is done with concern trolling and red herrings – that they oppose the practice but they have “concerns” about this bill, and debate on the bill still hasn’t collapsed so that it can go to a vote. And it’s hard to take O’Toole seriously that his party is suddenly cool with the gays when his own MPs are putting forward speeches that are vile with homophobia and transphobia (and that O’Toole had to pander to social conservatives to get his leadership win).

I’m not saying that the Conservatives can’t show growth on queer and trans issues, but they haven’t exactly been putting in the work to show these communities that they are actually allies – and the concern trolling and red herrings of the conversion therapy bill prove just that. Right now it’s all just words, and it’s complete virtue signalling, with O’Toole and company insisting that it’s the Liberals who are the real homophobes, not them, and that The Gays should switch their votes because the Conservatives are cool with them now. I’m not sold, they haven’t demonstrated any real understanding of the issues facing our communities – picking the literal smallest hill to die on with the blood deferral period – or why they deserve to be trusted. It’s like the same kinds of hollow corporate Pride sentiments all over again.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau promised help for cities to deal with the high cost of housing, but also warned that they need to use their own levers to help address the situation.
  • NACI’s updated guidance says that it’s safe to mix-and-match vaccine doses.
  • Carolyn Bennett explains the pace of funding around finding graves at other residential school sites, and how it’s dependent on the wishes of local First Nations.
  • Former Supreme Court justice Morris Fish’s report on the military justice system was released, and he calls for immediate changes to sexual assault investigations.
  • Court documents reveal that Health Canada, in its regulatory capacity, told Canadian Blood Services to wait two years between changing blood donation policy changes.
  • Canada’s military exports fell last year as sales to Saudi Arabia decreased.
  • The Native Women’s Association has extricated themselves from the process creating the national action plan to respond to the MMIW report, calling it “toxic.”
  • An attempt to amend Bill C-10 to restore certain protections for user-generated content were voted down (especially as YouTube is being targeted for a reason).
  • The House of Commons held a take-note debate on the discovery of the mass grave in Kamloops and on fulfilling the Calls to Action by the TRC.
  • The Conservatives spent their Supply Day motion demanding documents around the two fired scientists from the Winnipeg lab, promulgating more conspiracy theories.
  • The Green Party is being divided, with MPs and the leader feuding over their respective positions related to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
  • Heather Scoffield reflects on the gaps in employment and education facing Indigenous communities as barriers to reconciliation.
  • My column looks at the Conservative pattern to spin sinister conspiracy theories out of issues where the fact patterns are too pedestrian for them stir up hysteria over.

Odds and ends:

Here are some photos of the restoration process on the East Block.

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One thought on “Roundup: O’Toole’s big corporate Pride energy”

  1. Ejecting Sloan was just window dressing. Tamara Jansen is still in caucus mouthing off about the Bible and “unclean” “lesbian activity”. And of course, there’s still “I Don’t Give a Dog’s Tail About Gay People” Andrew Scheer. Plus, the rank-and-file have been mocking Trudeau with homophobic, transphobic and misogynistic memes and rhetoric for years. Calling him “Justine” and a whole lot worse. Photoshopping him as everyone from Caitlyn Jenner to *all* of the Village People. So big deal if they have Duncan Donut to put up as their token LGBTQ person and Rempel as their made-for-TV “ally,” and are running Lobbyist Lantsman in the next election. The only upgrade is that they’re slightly better at pretending to care. They’re still the Canadian GQP and always will be.

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