Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Hiding Agendas: Cindy Silver, North Vancouver: summary thread

Over the last week we've been re-examining Cindy Silver's positions on social issues over the last decade or so and the degree to which she has either abandoned her agenda or is hiding it.

We have seen that Ms. Silver has
  • organized petitions urging Parliament not to include homosexuals under human rights legislation lest it imply approval of homosexuality;
  • argued before a Senate committee against outlawing discimination against homosexuals in matters of employment;
  • testified as a private individual before the Justice Committee, arguing that allowing gays to marry will marginalize those opposed or cause them to change their views;
  • written articles that encourage people to lobby politicians to endorse a social conservative agenda, which (among other things) included condemnations of sexual education in schools, rights for homosexuals, pre-marital sex, abortion, birth-control (here).
This list is by no means an exhaustive account of Ms. Silver's efforts for the social conservative movement over the last decade. What is interesting now is that Ms Silver is distancing herself from her record.
  • She now suggests that these positions were as a lawyer representing her clients -- she was in-house lawyer for Focus on the Family and legal counsel for other groups in this period: see here.
  • She is also removing the endorsements of social conservatives from her campaign website: here, here, and here
I will keep this post updated with new developments on the Cindy Silver front.Cindy Silver West Vancouver

Update. Over at E-blogs Canada, Koby raises the question of blood-libel. In 1995, Focus on the Family circulated a letter accusing China of (among other things) serving aborted fetuses. Koby asks the question whether Silver, as Focus on the Family Canada's legal counsel, was involved in the circulation of this letter.

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