A serious party would have booted Sloan
Leadership hopeful should be removed
Writing about Derek Sloan is an unattractive enterprise, given that any mention tends to feed whatever need for attention drives his sort of political career.
Sloan is one of four candidates for the Conservative leadership. He has no chance of winning, thank God. The question is whether the party should do itself a favour by ejecting him from the contest now, before he can do it further damage.
Sloan is the type of candidate who garners publicity by making controversial comments. The more crass, ludicrous or off- kilter his opinions, the more he may be able to break through the well-deserved neglect he gets from most media outlets, which are justifiably more interested in serious candidates who have serious ideas. Even when figures like Sloan hit on an issue of some real importance, they quickly slither to the furthest fringes of opinion, in the hopes it will save them from once again being ignored.
Sloan’s latest stupidity came in a videoconference with supporters in which he favoured his listeners with some truly ignorant observations on conversion therapy. Conversion therapy is a widely debunked practice that treats non- heterosexual inclinations as an illness that can be “cured” by counselling, prayer or dissuasive practices such as medication and shock therapy. It has been linked to depression, drug and alcohol abuse and suicidal feelings. It is unlicensed, often carried out in secret and frequently focuses on young people in vulnerable situations.
“Conversion therapy is nothing more than ignorance and prejudice disguised as medical treatment,” British Columbia provincial legislator Spencer Chandra Herbert said in a letter to federal Justice Minister David Lametti, urging the practice be banned. The federal Liberals responded with Bill C-8, which proposes five new Criminal Code offences tied to the treatment. The bill had its first reading in March but has been delayed, as have so many other things, by the pandemic.
Enter Sloan, who claimed in his webinar that Ottawa is seeking to throw parents in jail for helping their children.
“The Liberals have said, ‘ no, you can’t get counselling and if a parent, as a parent you take your kid to get counselling for this, you can go to jail for five years.’ That’s insane, that’s ridiculous. But on the other hand you’re allowed to put your kid on these you know, invasive medical regimes, you’re allowed to you know, give them these puberty blockers, you’re allowed to literally cut off their healthy you know, breasts and other sex organs. That is child abuse.”
None of that is true, other than in the most distorted or perverse interpretation. What the bill does is make it a crime to advertise or profit from conversion therapy, force it on a minor or anyone against their will or spirit someone out of the country to be “treated.”
It does not in any way ban legitimate counselling. Offences under the bill “would not apply to those who provide support to persons questioning their sexual orientation, sexual feelings or gender identity, such as teachers, school counsellors, pastoral counsellors, faith leaders, doctors, mental health professionals, friends or family members.”
That isn’t about to deter Sloan, however, who argued the bill would tear children away from parents or promote practices that render them sterile. “With Bill C- 8, the Liberals are effectively putting into law child abuse,” he maintained.
There is obviously a constituency in Canada open to this sort of thinking, or Sloan wouldn’t have been able to raise the funds or the public support needed to qualify for the leadership race. As it stands, Sloan will be one of the four qualifiers to take part in leadership debates scheduled for June 17 and 18. And once again the party appears happy to belittle itself by willingly giving a platform to views that can only serve to convince less intolerant Canadians that this is not an organization that welcomes them in its midst.
Peter Mackay, considered a front- runner to win the leadership, denounced Sloan’s remarks, tweeting: “Forcing a child into ‘ conversion therapy’ is child abuse and it absolutely must be banned. Derek’s remarks are reprehensible.” That’s estimable enough, but pretty thin if it’s the best the party can do about an outlier candidate who shouldn’t be allowed to darken the doorway of any organization hoping to be treated seriously as a voice of fairness, inclusion or simple basic decency. Other Conservatives continue to be too fixated on avoiding offence to social conservatives, fearful that expressing opposition to people like Sloan might cost them votes. But social conservatism isn’t, or shouldn’t be, about fear, ignorance or repression. It’s entirely fair to hold views that are outside the mainstream, but fundamentally wrong to turn them into campaigns of injustice or oppression. The Tories aren’t going to get far in challenging Liberal power until they grasp that basic truth.
The party has already disqualified one candidate for remarks criticized as racist and Islamophobic. Sloan’s comments are easily the equal of the ignorance demonstrated in that instance. Tories should do themselves a favour and remove him now, before he has a chance to embarrass them further by sharing his puny little thoughts in debate.
It would have been easi er for Japan not to talk about it at all. — cosh
SOCIAL CONSERVATISM ISN’T, OR SHOULDN’T BE, ABOUT FEAR.