GLEEFUL IN INDIGNATION,
Alberta members furious with PC leader’s comments, but quite happy he made them
You often know politicians are having fun by the level of their indignation.
The higher the level of indignation, the more fun they’re having. I call it “fundignation.”
And we saw it on full display Monday afternoon at the Alberta legislature.
The NDP is indignant over comments made last week by Progressive Conservative Leader Jason Kenney, who seemed to suggest teachers “out” gay students to their parents if the students join gay-straight alliances in their schools.
“I … believe parents have a right to know what’s going on with their kids in the schools unless the parents are abusive,” Kenney told the Calgary Herald editorial board.
“I don’t think it’s right to keep secrets from parents about challenges their kids are going through.”
Kenney’s comment immediately landed him in hot water with anyone afraid that if he ever became premier he’d be forcing teachers to denounce closeted gay and lesbian children to their parents. And, by the way, what is his definition of “abusive” parents?
NDP MLAs are upset with Kenney’s statement — but they are also happy he made it.
This would seem to be an oxymoron, being both sincerely furious and having fun at the same time. But politicians are masters of the oxymoron.
The government is busily using Kenney’s statement, that he has since tried to clarify, to paint him as a right-wing, anti-gay zealot who would make life miserable, even dangerous, for vulnerable LGBTQ students.
On Monday, even before the session began, Culture Minister Ricardo Miranda held a scrum in the hallway outside question period to attack Kenney.
Miranda, an openly gay politician, didn’t just slam Kenney’s comments from last week, but tried to pile indignation upon indignation by raising comments Kenney made as an MP 19 years ago.
Back then, Kenney was indignant (but not in a fun way) over a landmark decision from the Supreme Court of Canada involving an Edmonton teacher, Delwin Vriend, who had been fired from his job with a Christian school because he was gay.
The court ruled in Vriend’s favour and ordered sexual orientation be protected under Alberta’s human rights legislation.
Kenney was not happy and in the House of Commons on April 3, 1998, accused the Supreme Court of launching “an unprecedented attack on democracy and on our constitutional order in what can only be described as an exercise of raw judicial power.”
Kenney — who was a staunch opponent of same-sex marriage, too — saw the court decision as trampling on religious rights.
This week, the NDP is happily mining Kenney’s history of LGBTQ-unfriendly comments in an attempt to demonstrate that the Kenney who would like to out gay students in 2017 is much like the Kenney who slammed protection for gays in 1998.
To drive home the point, after Miranda attacked Kenney in the hallway, another openly gay NDP MLA used a members’ statement to slam Kenney in the assembly. (And at the same time, take a shot at Kenney’s ongoing plan to unite conservatives into one party).
“As an MP, Jason Kenney spoke out constantly against the Vriend decision. In Parliament, he stated the usual excuse that the human rights of LGBTQ plus Canadians should be lower on the roster than others,” MLA Michael Connolly said.
“He called for a new party with far-right, anti-LGBTQ ideology. I wonder where Albertans have seen that before?”
Kenney might be PC leader, but he is not an elected MLA and was therefore not in the assembly to defend himself.
Instead, he issued a statement Monday afternoon criticizing the NDP for dredging up “controversies from decades ago” and saying his views have evolved just as “social mores and law change over time.”
That’s not going to stop the NDP’s attacks against Kenney.
Government MLAs will continue to dredge up comments from his past as they also dissect his more recent statements for any evidence of intolerance.
They’ll do it while being both overtly furious and quietly gleeful.
I call it “gleefury.”