Next week or in the week following, Canada’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights (JUST) will be reviewing the trans human rights Bill C-279, to approve or amend it before deciding whether to forward it on to Third Reading. Following federal Member of Parliament Rob Anders’ disastrous attempt to lobby Canadians against the bill by 
Tag: Dissecting Spin
Dented Blue Mercedes: MP’s trans predator fearmongering escalates.
On Friday, Sun News commentator Brian Lilley interviewed Rob Anders, the Member of Parliament who has drawn condemnation for conflating transsexual and transgender people with sexual predators in a petition he has been circulating on his website, and to at least one church in his riding. In “Children’s bathroom bill
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Stephen Woodworth’s “science,” and why Canada’s far-right isn’t really interested in it.
Stephen Woodworth’s Motion M-312 is scheduled for its second hour of debate this Friday, and the vote on the following Wednesday. And over summer’s Parliamentary break, there has been an interesting change of direction from the Canadian far-right backers of Woodworth’s action. In a way, there’s some obvious desire to
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: On Persecution Complexes and Rage
The interplay of rage and persecution complexes works to shape trans, LGB — and in fact all — struggles against oppression. It can become an eternal feedback loop that can stymie any attempt to move progressive causes forward, if it succeeds in establishing its circuitous pattern. This translates to many
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: M-312 Doublespeak Decoder: the “toe in the birth canal” argument.
The Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform has been sending its New Abortion Caravan from the B.C. coast to Ottawa — arriving in Toronto on Wednesday, where protesters attempted to deface the graphic posters on the truck using a coathanger. While the second hour of debate for Stephen Woodworth’s attempt to
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Hypocrisy on Free Speech and “Protecting Freedom.”
On June 6th (the same night that the trans human rights Bill C-279 advanced to committee) Conservative MP for Westlock – St. Paul, Brian Storseth’s Private Member’s Bill C-304, An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act (protecting freedom), passed Third Reading in the House of Commons, and advanced
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: When even silence “indoctrinates:” the “No Pro Homo” education model. (Part 2)
This is part of a 3-part series on LGBT-inclusive anti-bullying education, centering around the Day of Silence, which encourages students to take a vow of silence for the day, to bring attention to anti-LGBT bullying and harassment. It occurs on April 20th. Part 1: When even silence offends: on the
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: When even silence fails: On affirmation (part 3)
This is part of a 3-part series on LGBT-inclusive anti-bullying education, centering around the Day of Silence, which encourages students to take a vow of silence for the day, to bring attention to anti-LGBT bullying and harassment. It occurs on April 20th. Part 1: When even silence offends: on the
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: When even silence offends. (Part 1)
This is part of a 3-part series on LGBT-inclusive anti-bullying education, centering around the Day of Silence, which encourages students to take a vow of silence for the day, to bring attention to anti-LGBT bullying and harassment. It occurs on April 20th. Part 1: When even silence offends: on the
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: A Lesson in Spin: Minimizing the Issue
I’ve been thinking on doing a few brief posts on seeing through spin, considering the growing escalation of techniques in Canada, which mirror an epidemic of it in the U.S. While my examples tend to look at the far-right, no one side of the social discussion is entirely innocent of
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: MARS Canada doesn’t want to be affiliated with homophobia / transphobia.
Not long ago, Charles McVety’s transphobic “Don’t Confuse Me” ads about a proposed LGBT-positive curriculum in Ontario made the rounds — first on the National Post (which apologized for running them) and then by Sun Media, which claimed they were free speech champions for doing so. The Toronto Sun and
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Aarchive: Anti-Abortion Lobby Dances on the Graves
(This post previously appeared at The Bilerico Project) Recently, leaders of Commonwealth nations met to discuss pressing international issues, and leaders from the U.K., Canada and others pressed for human rights reforms for LGBT people. British Prime Minister David Cameron went so far as to threaten to cut off aid
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: The Occupy Calgary story you’re not seeing elsewhere.
“Nothing to see here. Nothing to see here.” Until the last couple days, that had been the mood in Calgary, as the Occupy Wall Street (#ows) movement seemed far from many peoples’ minds. Sure, by now, everyone’s seen the graphs coming out about American inequality that show 1% of that population controlling an exponentially widening 
Dented Blue Mercedes: Dissecting Spin 101 and Parsing Ezra Levant on Occupy Toronto
Here’s a quick lesson on the human microphone. Because voice amplification in public spaces is banned in New York, where Occupy Wall Street (#ows) began, the large crowds attending have adapted by breaking speeches into short phrases, which those near the speaker repeat loudly, then those further away, and so on, so that the words 
Dented Blue Mercedes: Hate Speech on Trial in Canada
If you lived in certain parts of Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Toronto over the past decade, there’s a chance you’ve encountered or at least heard about flyers distributed by Bill Whatcott. These fliers are typically peppered with photos of naked or half-naked gay men kissing (or in at least one instance, engaging in oral sex), with 
Dented Blue Mercedes: Guest Post: Beth Elliott’s Rebuttal of the Brennan-Hungerford Submission
Beth Elliott is a San Francisco Bay Area writer, musician and lesbian activist. The first transsexual woman to transition to be an out lesbian, she served a year’s term as Vice President of the San Francisco Chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (1971-72), but was purged from the organization three months later. She was one 
Dented Blue Mercedes: Kathy Shaidle Whines About Not Having A Column
Five Millimetres of Integrity blogger Kathy Shaidle is upset that she doesn’t have a column, but an actual journalist (who happens to have a transsexual history) does. Well cry me a river. When we last saw Shaidle, I was sort of stating the obvious on this blog, that Ezra Levant and Spin SunTV– along with 
Dented Blue Mercedes: Full Dissent: When gay rights and religious rights collide
Canada’s National Post published a roundtable on Friday about when religious rights and the rights of sex and gender minorities collide, in the form of school board policies to protect and affirm LGBT kids. The roundtable focuses specifically one such policy being proposed in Edmonton by the Edmonton Public School Board (EPSB), although this is on 