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To the Justice Committee, April 9, 2003
The board of Pagan Federation/Fédération païenne Canada supports the rights of all people to live free from hate crimes, and equally those who are lesbian/gay/bi/transgender amongst its own members and other unaffiliated pagan (and non-pagan) people in Canada.
We believe that people, whatever their sexual or gender orientation, should have the same rights as all other citizens, including protection from being victimized by propaganda promoting hatred, violence or even genocide.
The claim made by some Canadian Alliance MPs that the bill would make religious texts like the Bible illegal is false, and purely propaganda meant to incite 'people of the Bible' to reject this bill out-of-hand. It needs to be noted that a significant percentage of of lesbian/gay/bi/transgender people are deeply committed to their biblical faith: and whatever their faith, religion should never be a reason to deny citizens basic rights (as protection from organized verbal and physical violence). Furthermore, this (more than) 10% of the population contributes to the society, at least equally (percentage-wise) if not more, than heterosexual people, and deserves all the same rights.
The kind of intentionally blind hatred propagated by sites like 'godhatesfags', sponsored by the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) of Topeka, Kansas - including articles such as (heading) "All nations must immediately outlaw sodomy (homosexuality) & impose the death penalty!" - must not be allowed to extend into Canada. Nor should violence targeting lesbian/gay/bi/transgender be considered any less of a crime, than violence towards heterosexual people - all are citizens of our country and due the same protection.
We urge you to pass C-250 as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
The board of Pagan Federation/Fédération païenne
President - Gina Ellis (Ottawa)
Vice President - Pashta MaryMoon (Victoria)
Secretary - Cara Carr-Stewart (Halifax)
Membership secretary - Karen Rice-Leroux (Pointe-Claire)
Member at large - Geneviève Huot (Verdun)
Member at large - Lucie DuFresne (Ottawa)
CC: Svend Robinson