Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party 
Judick Rebick, author of Ten Thousand Roses: The Making of a Feminist Revolution and an editor at rabble.ca, has decided that the Green Party's leader Elizabeth May commited a big femme-e-nist no-no by bringing up the baby killing debate again.
"We had a debate on abortion in this country for decades. Raising the need for further debate as you have done is a serious error in judgment and in the unlikely possibility that Stephen Harper wins a majority in the next election, you could have done irreparable harm," Rebick said in her open-letter of December 20 2006.
The comments stem from a byelection campaign in November by the ex-Sierra Club executive director, read the comments here.
Rebick, I think, purposefully left out the specifics of May's personal views on abortion, or what she calls "a moral issue." It stands to bear that her comments were recorded unbeknownst to her and in a context of capaigning to some religious sisters. But the truth was brought to the public, and it outweighs any ethical quandary of informed consent. I will take the same position as Rebick and not sketch out what May said but I will say that May's desire to again raise the issue in a political realm is outrageous. Her bible-thumping words in the audio file attest to her extremism. Listen the audio here if you desire to have your skin crawl.
Hear her answer to the question "so... what's your position on gay marriage and abortion?" (Whoa, loaded).
White GreensWhat the hell do the Greens do, anyway? Like the above pic (queers at a Diversity Pride parade) they seem to be involved in an entanglement of issues, with no clear agenda. And now May's bizzare comments about abortion?
My roomate Renée spent a weekend with Liz back in the summer. She was doing the Sierra Club youth coalition weekend of brainstorming or something. She says Liz was cool but everyone there was old, and the fact that the retreat was held at the Saint-Paul University (for religious studies) was kind of strange. Plus, she said:
"You know what I noticed though? Everyone there was white."
So. Maybe it's time the Green Party, AND ALL THE OTHER EFFING PARTIES, start paying attention to youth issues. Hello, gender & sexuality politics are so the way of the future. Are you listening Stephen Harper?
3 comments:
Hey there, good post. It's so good to see young people speaking out.
My political activism began as a university student in the 80s, fighting for women's reproductive rights, as well as other issues.
It does my heart good to see the next generation stepping up and speaking out. Carry on, Sister!
her comments were recorded unbeknownst to her and in a context of capaigning to some religious sisters.
The comments were recorded by Dan Baril, who was referred to as May's "chief strategist" during the London North Centre by-election. They were posted on a blog that was hosted on Elizabeth May's own campaign website (Baril had done that throughout the campaign) and linked to (in glowing terms) on various web forums by May's own press secretary. Baril cited the comments as a defining moment in the campaign. In other words, there's no arguing that the recording and posting of the remarks was unfair to May.
Moreover, I don't think that May gets off the hook for her remarks due to the fact that she was speaking to a group of nuns. If you can't be pro-choice when you're talking to people who aren't, then you aren't really pro-choice. The fact that she has basically echoed (using different words) her attitude that women would be crazy to have an abortion and that the phrase "right to choose" implies that the choice may be a frivoulous one just confirms that.
Thanks Berlynn!
I do want to stress that I disagree with Ms. May's comments concerning abortion. Scott piatkowski quoted me about my concern over recording someone without their knowledge... and that is all it was, a concern. If I made a mistake, it's probably in the way i expressed my train of thought. I don't think anyone should be recorded without their knowledge, though when it comes to obtaining information one might not get otherwise... the area is grey.
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