The Religious Right and Film Censorship

The Harper Conservatives have pulled some surprising rabbits out of the hat lately. In federal by-elections March 17, the current federal regime showed surprising strength. They nearly won in Liberal bastion Vancouver Quadra and won by a landslide in the formerly Liberal Saskatchewan riding of Desnethé Missinippi Churchill River. Of course the indecisiveness of the Dion Liberals and their desperate attempts to avoid an election which they may not win is just one of the risks which bears upon parliamentary 'democracy'. Harper's use of Afghanistan as a false flag may be undermined by continued and increasing resistance to the Chinese totalitarians in Tibet. Many tories hate mainland China for fairly good reasons as do many leftists especially the libertarian component. If the public begins to understand the neoliberals (as neoconservatives are referred to in the rest of the civilized world) as responsible in part measure for the strength of the Chinese economy and that consequently no government of "left" or "right" can easily oppose the regime then the tasks of libertarian socialists and anarchists will become less complicated. It is possible the Dion Liberals might find a little backbone and begin to fight a potential campaign on an antiwar platform. Its more a matter of which "flag" or "false flag" can garner the most public affection. Whatever the case the position of the social democrats, Jack Layton and the NDP is so pathetic, you'd think even their insiders would get the message and go for at least a leadership convention ... or something. Shit if I hear any more babbling about "working families" from happy Jack I'll puke!We'd better hope that some change in the overall climate is in the offing because a majority conservative government is a possibility. This is something to worry rational people as the following item from the Harper Index strongly suggests.


TORONTO, February 29, 2008: Evangelist Christian heavyweight and close friend to Stephen Harper, Charles McVety was in the news today taking credit for the Harper government's move toward film censorship by denying tax credits to TV and film productions containing content that offends official reviewers. McVety, president of the Canada Family Action Coalition, told reporters he lobbied public safety minister Stockwell Day, justice minister Rob Nicholson and officials in the Prime Minister's Office for this policy. McVety's comments serve as a reminder of the influence of the religious Right despite Stephen Harper's attempts to keep the extend of this influence under wraps. The following article was originally published on May 18, 2007 –

Stephen Harper is the third evangelical Christian in a row (from Alberta) to lead the Canadian political right, following Preston Manning and Stockwell Day. Reporter Marci McDonald wrote an account in The Walrus magazine of the many and tight connections between the Harper Conservatives and Canada's evangelical movements.

"[Charles] McVety and others on the religious right are equally convinced that Harper is one of their own. 'We've got a born-again prime minister,' trumpets David Mainse, the founder of Canada's premier Christian talk show, 100 Huntley Street. They see him as an image-savvy evangelical who has been careful to keep his signals to them under the media radar, but they have no doubt his convictions run deep, so deep that only after he wins a majority will he dare translate the true colours of his faith into policies that could remake the fabric of the nation. If they're right, it remains unclear whether those convictions would turn government into a kinder, gentler guarantor of social justice for all or transform the country into a stern, narrow-minded theocracy. And what would his evangelical worldview mean for international relations?"

McDonald documents how Harper's use of religion in politics has paid off.

"... According to an Ipsos-Reid poll in April, 64 percent of weekly Protestant churchgoers — the vast majority of them evangelicals — voted Conservative in the last election, a 24-point jump from 2004. For the first time in the history of polling in Canada, Catholics who attend church weekly also shifted a majority of their votes from the Liberals to Harper's party. While the Ottawa press corps has been preoccupied with Harper's ability to keep the most blooper-prone Christians in his caucus buttoned up, he has quietly but determinedly nurtured a coalition of evangelicals, Catholics, and conservative Jews that brought him to power and that will put every effort into ensuring that he stays there. Last spring, when Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty could barely wangle an hour with him, Harper made time for dozens of faith groups, including a five-woman delegation from the Catholic Women's League, which hadn't managed to snare a sit-down with any prime minister in 24 years. 'Smile if you're a so-con,' ran a headline in the Western Standard above a photo of the meeting. 'Canada's traditional Christian groups can't say enough good things about the Tories' social policies so far.'"