Immigration Minister takes 'full responsibility' for citizenship guide
Jason Kenney says he doesn't believe ‘new Canadians are potential gay-bashers' but sheds no light on who ordered same-sex rights cut from study manual
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Dean Beeby
Ottawa — The Canadian Press Published on Thursday, Mar. 04, 2010 7:31PM EST
Canada's immigration minister says he takes “full responsibility” for a citizenship study guide that had all references to gay rights removed.
But Jason Kenney's response to questions in the House of Commons on Thursday shed no light on who ordered the material cut from the document – whether it was the minister himself or an aide in his office.
“I take full responsibility for the content of that document,” Mr. Kenney said after the issue was raised by opposition MPs.
Records obtained by The Canadian Press show that an early draft of the guide, meant to prepare immigrants for citizenship tests starting March 15, contained sections citing milestones in gay rights, including decriminalization of homosexuality in 1969 and the same-sex marriage law of 2005.
But Mr. Kenney's office ordered those sections removed from the draft, and rebuffed an effort by bureaucrats to have them re-inserted last August. The new guide was released with fanfare in November.
A spokesman for Mr. Kenney said last week the minister made the edit because the booklet, which reviews Canadian culture, politics and history, could not be “encyclopedic.”
On Wednesday, though, Mr. Kenney denied ordering the cut, providing no explanation of who in his office was responsible.
The Immigration Minister's acknowledgment of “full responsibility” Thursday was again without explanation, though he said the document was far more comprehensive than the previous version published in 1995.
“The guide published under the Liberal government made zero mention of gays or lesbians, women's voting rights, equality of men and women, aboriginal residential schools, the Chinese head tax, wartime internment, the Quiet Revolution, Louis Riel, responsible government, Canadian sports, artists, heroes, Remembrance Day or even the 110,000 Canadians who died in the two wars in the last century,” he said.
New Democrat MP Olivia Chow said new Canadians need to know about gay rights in Canada, to which Mr. Kenney responded: “I do not believe that new Canadians are potential gay-bashers.”
Egale Canada, a gay-rights group, has said Mr. Kenney promised in a December meeting to restore references to gay rights in a revised guide, expected in about a year.
Mr. Kenney has been a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage both as an opposition MP and a government member.
