I get the Toronto Star once a week on Saturdays. I read it in bed on Sunday mornings. This morning I came across a full-page ad that infuriated me, and I’d like a little help in crafting my letter to the editor.
On the back of the “Careers” section (an interesting placement I only just noticed), is a full page ad by Focus on the Family. If you don’t know about Focus on the Family, you can visit their website here (although I begrudge them the web hits). They’re a right wing religious organization that promotes man as head of the family etc etc. Or as they put it: “a non-partisan registered charitable organization that promotes the principles of healthy family living.”
The ad reads as follows: (click here to see the ad on FOTF’s website)
”
We Believe in Mom and Dad.
We Believe in Marriage.
The family is a schoolroom for life, and lasting lessons come from a man and a woman–a father and a mother.
We believe in mom and dad. Their marital commitment to each other and their parental commitment to their children is the foundation of our society.
Traditional marriage–if you believe in it, protect it.
To learn more, visit www.focusonthefamily.ca”
[oh yes, and it’s an image of a young white couple, with a young white son, and all the clearly visible people are also all white, with some blurry people in the background who *might* not be white..]
I’m still feeling somewhat unfocused in why it was wrong for the Star to run this ad. The link takes you to the fotf’s new website – designed around this ad btw – which gets into detail around why the definition of marriage should be reversed to a man and a woman only – and how to get involved around this in the federal election.
Isn’t this illegal? Isn’t it illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation? Doesn’t launching a campaign to take rights away from a particular group constitute discrimination? I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to run an ad for an organization that was organizing support to ban black people from getting married, even with a “mountain of scientific evidence” to support my position…
If you can help hash this out, I think it would help me write a more coherent letter. Thanks muchly.
The Canadian Human Rights Act states: “It is a discriminatory practice to publish or display before the public or to cause to be published or displayed before the public any notice, sign, symbol, emblem or other representation that
(a) expresses or implies discrimination or an intention to discriminate, or
(b) incites or is calculated to incite others to discriminate”
That’s my intent – I wasn’t really asking about the legality, so much as identifying all those elements that make this intolerable, so I can build a case around the strongest one.
I completely agree re: the analogy. But it does not matter to me what is “an issue” right now. You can be discontented about it all you want, but your public discrimination – implied or otherwise – is not permissable. Public institutions like the Star should be toeing the “new” line – not testing it.