XPost: can.politics, ab.politics, bc.politics   
   XPost: ont.politics   
   From: ConsRCons@govt.cda   
      
   WHO are the members of 'REAL Women'?  This is the description from a   
   Jewish National Post columnist, Barbara Kay, whose son, Jonathan Kay,   
   happens to be the National Post's comment pages editor.   
      
   'REAL Women of Canada, is an activist group composed of socially   
   conservative women (mainly evangelical Christians), who've done   
   admirable work in supporting traditional family values, standing up   
   against the marginalization of men’s rights by radical feminists, and   
   promoting the rights of the unborn in this country.'   
      
   IOW:  REAL Women is an anti-feminist, anti-abortion, anti-gay, pro-men's   
   rights group.  How's, that for being radical and Conservative at the   
   same time?   
   _____________________________________________   
      
   National Post, with files from The Canadian Press | 13/08/07 |   
      
      
   John Baird’s defence of gay rights ‘highly offensive,’ conservative   
   women’s group says   
      
      
   A conservative women’s group took aim at Foreign Affairs Minister John   
   Baird on Wednesday for opposing international anti-gay laws, calling his   
   stance “highly offensive to conservative taxpayers.”   
      
   REAL Women of Canada, a vocal supporter of “traditional family and   
   marriage” released a statement on its website Wednesday condemning the   
   cabinet minister’s recent lobbying actions.   
      
   “Just who does John Baird think he is?” the group’s national   
   vice-president, Gwendolyn Landolt, said in the statement.   
      
   “He argues that homosexual rights are a ‘Canadian value’, but this   
   applies only to himself and his fellow activists and the left-wing   
   elitists.”   
      
   Last week, Mr. Baird revealed that he had attempted, in eight   
   closed-door meetings, to convince the Russian government not to move   
   forward with a law that banned gay pride rallies and the spreading of   
   information about gay choices to minors.   
      
   “It is an incitement to intolerance, which breeds hate,” Mr. Baird said   
   following the Russian sport minister’s pledge to hold athletes at the   
   2014 Sochi Olympics accountable if they went out into the streets to   
   “propagandize.”   
   Related   
      
   REAL Women categorized Mr. Baird’s efforts as an affront to “other   
   countries’ sovereignty and dignity, rooted in stable family structures   
   and religious faith.”   
      
   The group also took issue with the minister’s criticism of anti-gay   
   sentiments in Uganda, calling Mr. Baird’s efforts “destructive to the   
   conservative base in Canada and causing collateral damage to his party.”   
      
   Since last year, the Canadian government has funnelled $200,000 into gay   
   rights initiatives in the African nation — an action REAL Women   
   criticized as a misuse of taxpayer money.   
      
   Mr. Baird’s office fired back at the women’s group on Wednesday evening,   
   claiming the issue was not a matter of “left versus right.”   
      
   “Canada believes that the criminalization of homosexuality is wrong,”   
   Mr. Baird’s press secretary, Rick Roth, said in an email.   
   “This is a position that is supported by a vast majority of Canadians.”   
      
   The minister’s office has offered to meet with REAL Women   
   representatives to clarify the government’s “principled position …   
   against the suppression of fundamental freedoms around the world,” an   
   official said. A spokesperson for REAL Women could not be reached to   
   confirm whether the group would meet with Mr. Baird’s office.   
   ________________________________   
      
   You can bet that any conversations between Baird and this radical   
   women's group is going to be quite different than the tenor of the above   
   press release.   
      
   He will be telling them quietly that they will continue to fund   
   Christian and evangelical groups, while defunding any gay rights groups.   
   AND feminist groups.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)