Clarifying some points in SACPA talk

I was very happy to see that you published a short article about my recent talk for SACPA. I am writing to make a few clarifications. First, I would like to point out a mistake I made during the talk, and that appeared again here: The roughly $55,000 (I think it was $56,695, according to several articles, e.g. one by Amanda Connolly for globalnews.ca) was given to the Canadian Center for Bio-Ethical Reform which is known for protesting abortion with emotionally disturbing posters. The way I said it, it sounded as if the money went into printing those posters, and I do not think it did, as it was a supplement for student wages. I apologize for misstating this and I am grateful that I became aware of my mistake through your article.

On the other hand, I did make clear during the talk that I had only found two sources claiming that money had gone to employers who later refused to hire people identifying as gay, and that I was therefore not sure how trustworthy that bit of information was.

I also want to point out that I am not entirely sure whether the government mishandled their attempt to regulate where the summer-jobs money goes better. The point of the talk was to show that this is a very difficult question to answer.

Furthermore, the government’s attempt at clarification was not to add the term “core-mandate”, which had been in the attestation from the beginning, but to point out that by “core-mandate” they mean “primary activities,” not “belief.”

Finally, I would like to clarify one last point: When I said, “They may be wrong, but they’re legitimate.” I was speaking about government decisions that entrench (new or not so new) rights in general. I did not mean to indicate in any way that I think it is wrong to include abortion rights in the list of rights the Canadian state recognizes. In fact, I am very much pro-choice, and would welcome abortion rights to be integrated into Canadian constitutional law.

Again, thank you very much for including an article about my talk!

Katharina Stevens

Lethbridge