My two cents on Bruinooge's secret group

The Globe and Mail reports (here) that Rod Bruinooge has recently become the chair of a secretive, parliamentary anti-abortion caucus. Why the secrecy?

Mr. Bruinooge declined to provide details about the membership of the caucus – which he described as “sizable” – on the basis that MPs from other parties fear internal repercussions if their activism is known.

Bloggers have not been silent. Lulu points out that the deception implicit in the secrecy is not new for Bruinooge; Impolitical wonders whether Rod Bruinooge has gone rogue; JJ points out the ridiculousness of it all.

Add me to those who disapprove. A secret AA chapter? Fine. A quilting klatch? No problem. A Dungeon-and-dragons cell? Whatever. MPs have a right to keeping their personal lives personal. But Bruinooge's caucus advocates a change to public policy, and as such it should be operating out in the open.

Indeed, it is rather surprising that they do not want to operate in the open, because they can hardly hope to change public policy otherwise. If they are not going to argue their case in public, how do they expect to persuade anyone? win any votes? pass any laws?

What is one to make of all this? The point is surely that the pro-life movement is not only exceptionally weak in this country, but largely disfunctional. I've already pointed out that the prolife backlash to Morgentaler's Order of Canada award was surprisingly anemic: a handful of returned awards, a couple hundred protesters, an online-petition that immediately stalled (details here).

At one-time the Campaign Life Coalition identified prolife candidates so that prolifers could support them at the polls. Not recently, however, and the reason is not to guess: being prolife is a political liability in most parts of the country.

Which is presumably why Bruinooge's fellow caucus-members are so shy about identifying themselves: the issue loses more votes than it wins.

Another McVety front (taking us to 25)

The 12th item in Rushfeldt's list is the Canadian College of Christian Councilors (sic). If you type the name correctly into google you'll find your way to Canadian College of Christian Counsellors, which is an accreditation agency (as you may have guessed) for Christian counsellors.

Membership doesn't seem very demanding:

• A minimum of a Bachelor's degree in counselling or related field.
  
• Complete and submit all sections of the CCCC application forms, with references.
  
• Be willing to adhere to CCCC ethical standards for practice.
  
• Attend the CCCC general meetings
  
• Support the goals and objectives of the CCCC
  
• Maintain high educational standards
  
• Pay the required fees

Where is the check to be sent?

Canadian College of Christian Counsellors
50 Gervais Drive
Toronto, Ontario
M3C 1Z3
(416) 391 5000

For those of you who have been paying attention, you'll recognize that address as the home of several McVety fronts (here and here):

• Canada Christian College
• Evangelical Association
  
• Institute for Canadian Values.
• Christians United for Israel

So, McVety's now got at least five organizations in the list. We have, however, established the principle of only one front per customer. This takes the list to 24?

Update.  Follow the link for an up-to-date listing of Rushfeldt's list of 42 organizations calling for the impeachment of Justice Beverley McLachlin.

One meeelion members! (but no more than 26 groups)

Dr. McVety says one million members, but this is difficult to substantiate, or determine its relevance.

In some of the groups, one assumes that the membership is behind the leadership. (McVety's Canada Christian College, which has an enrolment in the hundreds, presumably accept his leadership in such matters).

But another in the list is the Catholic Diocese of Calgary, and while constitutionally this is a dictatorship under the bishop appointed by the Church, the weight of the Bishop's statement within the Canadian political context depends on whether or not he is communicating the views of the rank and file Catholics under his charge. Although one might assume that many if not most Catholics accept the Church's teaching that abortion is sin and therefore would oppose Morgentaler's Order of Canada. But even among those how many will back the extreme demand that the Chief Justice be sacked because she chaired the committee that granted this award? And does McVety's one meeellion members count all of them? Because not all of them agree with their Bishop on this.

And then, of course, we have the problem that many of these 42 organizations are tiny, tiny, tiny. Consider the group named Active Christians Engaging Society (A.C.E.S.), the 5th organization named in Rushfeldt's list. Who are they? According to the Sudbury Christian Messenger, A.C.E.S. is a Sudbury group established to facilitate communication between church groups in Sudbury. The members of the A.C.E.S. team are named on this page. All four of them. ... Four.

The question, of course, is how large an "organization" has to be before it's worth including in a national news story claiming to show seething unhappiness in the masses. Four clearly misses by a couple orders of magnitude. Which leaves us at 26.

Update. Follow the link for an up-to-date listing of Rushfeldt's list of 42 organizations calling for the impeachment of Justice Beverley McLachlin.

On the merits of the complaint

In the last days, I've been looking at the 42 groups that signed Brian Rushfeldt's letter demanding the impeachment of the Chief Justice for chairing the committee that awarded the Order of Canada given to Morgentaler.  

An extensive review of the merits of that letter has been undertaken by Christopher Bird at the court.ca that is well worth reading.

Update. Follow the link for an up-to-date listing of Rushfeldt's list of 42 organizations calling for the impeachment of Justice Beverley McLachlin.

Real real women women doublet (27)

In case you're turning in late, Brian Rushfeldt, president of the theocon pressure group Canadian Family Action Coalition has stepped on a rake or two in leading the call for the impeachment of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

The list has some problems, however, to which another can be added.  

Canadian Cynic has pointed out (in the comments here) that there is a duplication between Real Women of Canada (Rushfeldt's 35) and Real Women of BC (Rushfeldt's 34). 

That these two groups are not truly independent is implied both by their name and by their shared graphic designer:

Thus of Rushfeldt's 42, 27 are left.

Update. Follow the link for an up-to-date listing of Rushfeldt's list of 42 organizations calling for the impeachment of Justice Beverley McLachlin.

♬ We're goin' to the chapel ...♬ (28, I suppose)

JJ gives a nice overview of the developments to Brian Rushfeld's list of organizations calling for the impeachment of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. She asks (among other things) "how low will it go"?

At least one more lower, I guess. I point out to you the 40th group in Rushfeld's list: Together for Life Ministries.

If you check out the website, you'll find this nice lady, Rev. Anne Welker, M.Div., who can for the low, low price of $350 marry you ($100 extra for the rehearsal). She also runs a marriage counseling service (here: $60-$80 per hour) and marriage workshops (here: no price given).

Now, I quote these prices not because there is anything wrong with her making her living this way. The labourer is worthy of his hire, as it says in the Good Book, and Rev. Welker's customers seem happy.

But Together for Life Ministries is essentially a one-woman operation, a portable wedding chapel, if you will.

And as such, it doesn't really belong in Rushfeld's list, which was at 29, but which should now be trimmed to 28.

Update. Follow the link for an up-to-date listing of Rushfeldt's list of 42 organizations calling for the impeachment of Justice Beverley McLachlin.

The thing about cockroaches ... (31; no, 30; no, 29)

... is that there is never just one.

In our last post (here), we saw that Life Canada was included in Rushfeldt's list of 42 organizations demanding that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court be sacked for chairing the committee that gave the Order of Canada to Henry Morgentaler. (It is 26th in the list.)

We also saw that the list also included one of Life Canada's subsidiaries, Canadian Physicians for Life. (9th in Rushfeldt's list.)

Amongst Rushfeldt's list are more of Life Canada's subsidiaries. For example:

• the "Alberta Pro-Life Alliance Association" (4th in Rushfeldt's list) is clearly identical to Alberta Prolife, one of Life Canada's sub-organizations. That they are identical can be established by comparing the phone numbers here and here. Indeed, Life Canada president, Joanne Byfield is a former president of the Alberta section (here).
  
• the 37th group listed by Rushfeldt is the Right to Life Association of Newfoundland and Labrador. This is listed by Life Canada as the Newfoundland and Labrador Right to Life Association;
• the "Saskatchewan Prolife Association" is 38th in Rushfeld's list. It, too, is listed as one of Life Canada's subsidiaries.

This, however, takes Rushfeldt's list (which was at 32) down to 29.

Update. Follow the link for an up-to-date listing of Rushfeldt's list of 42 organizations calling for the impeachment of Justice Beverley McLachlin.

If you can't trust a doctor, who can you trust? (32, then)

There's also a problem with the Canadian Physicians for Life (CPL), the 9th organization listed among Brian Rushfeld's "42 Canadian organizations" that demand the impeachment of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

One of the countries larger anti-abortion groups is Life Canada (26th in Rushfeld's list). At its webpage it has a page dedicated to its provincial and affiliate sites.

Among them you will find (you guessed it): Canadian Physicians for Life.

Indeed, the contact given for the CPL is ddoherty@lifecanada.org, again suggesting that this is part of the Life Canada rather than an independent organization.

It should therefore not have its own place in Rushfeld's list, which is now trimmed to 32.

Update. Follow the link for an up-to-date listing of Rushfeldt's list of 42 organizations calling for the impeachment of Justice Beverley McLachlin.

No, wait, that's 34 -- umm, 33

We have already seen that there has been some double counting in Rushfield's claim that 42 groups demand the impeachment of a Supreme Court justice (here and here and here and here).

Another example is with Rushfield's own organization, the Canadian Family Action Coalition (CFAC). This is the first group listed. The 3oth group listed is the "Niagara Chapter — CFAC". CFAC here clearly abbreviates Canadian Family Action Coalition — if you have any doubt, look at this pdf, where this chapter had petitioned Pelham town council to regulate local internet providers.

But surely we must assume that when Rushfield speaks for the CFAC he does so for the whole organization — both the central office and all its chapters. That is the whole point of having a central office. (Otherwise, we'd have to assume that some chapters disagreed with the head office position — which would negate whatever force Rushfield had when he spoke for the organization.) Thus, again, the judicious referee must rule against including the Niagara chapter. So we are down to 34.

The CFAC website, however, has pages for each province listing their chapters. Ontario is here. The 36th group on the list is the Renfrew County Family Action Coalition, which is listed by CFAC as one of its chapters. Striking it brings us to 33.

Update. Follow the link for an up-to-date listing of Rushfeldt's list of 42 organizations calling for the impeachment of Justice Beverley McLachlin.

Only one front per customer, please (let's make that 35, shall we?)

The 19th group listed in among Rushfeld's "forty-two Canadian organizations" is Christians United for Israel. Its web page (here) gives its address and phone number as 50 Gervais Drive, Toronto, and (416) 391-5000, which are identical to Canada Christian College, the Evangelical Association, and the Institute for Canadian Values (as I showed here).

According to a page at its site, "Charles McVety is President of Canada Christian College and Canada Family Action Coalition. He is also Chair of Christians United for Israel - Canada."

Given that McVety has two or three other organizations in the list, and that as none of these are independent enough to have their own phone number, these really all can't be counted as separate institutions.

Update. Follow the link for an up-to-date listing of Rushfeldt's list of 42 organizations calling for the impeachment of Justice Beverley McLachlin.

more astroturfing for Christ (perhaps 37 or 36?)

To continue.

Among Rushfeld's 42 39 38 socially conservative groups demanding that Supreme Court Justice Beverley McLachlin be dismissed are these three (they are 8th, 24th, and 25th in the list):

• Canada Christian College
• Evangelical Association
  
• Institute for Canadian Values.

Canada Christian College is an evangelical bible college and seminary (wikipedia article here). The college and its president, Charles McVety, have been at the vanguard of the social conservative movement in recent years. The College is located in Toronto at 50 Gervais Drive, and its phone number is 416-391-5000.

The Evangelical Association, as you can see if you follow the link, is a credentialing organization directed by Rondo Thomas, who is VP of Student Affairs at Canada Christian College. For $50 per year and a processing fee, you can be ordained or licensed as a pastor, provided you are of good moral character and either have a theological education or are open to classes at the Canada Christian College. The Association's address is 50 Gervais Drive, Don Mills, Toronto, and its phone number is 416-391-5000.

If you follow the link for The Institute for Canadian Values, you'll see that it has the same address (50 Gervais) and same phone number (391-5000) as the CCC and Evangelical Association. In addition, the president of the ICV is Charles McVety, president of CCC.

Now, this rather looks like between the two of them, McVety and Thomas have attempted to make one organization (CCC) look like three. The Evangelical Association seems to function as a credentialling department for the College, while the Institute is a think-tank located there. The fact that they share an address and phone-number makes them look too closely related to be listed independently.

Update. Follow the link for an up-to-date listing of Rushfeldt's list of 42 organizations calling for the impeachment of Justice Beverley McLachlin.

Astroturfing for Christ, or: Make that 38 groups

As we have seen, a number of socially conservative groups have called for the dismissal Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, Beverley McLachlin because of her role in chairing the committee that awarded the Order of Canada to Morgentaler.

There seems to be some double counting; as we've already seen, three of the businesses listed have the same address.

The same point can probably be made about this pair, which are 22nd and 23rd in the list.

• Eternally Yours Radio and Telecast Ministry.
  
• Eternity Club.

As you can see if you click on the links, these are both part of the same ministry, run by faith healer Rev. Audrey Mabley, who is (are?) the nice lady (ladies?) to the right.

Now, it is perfectly appropriate for Ms. Mabley to express her opinion about the Chief Justice (even though she is, ahem, wrong). But should she be counted twice?

Update. Follow the link for an up-to-date listing of Rushfeldt's list of 42 organizations calling for the impeachment of Justice Beverley McLachlin.

Make that 39 groups

Birthpangs and Unrepentant Hippy have pointed the bizarre turn the controversy that the controversy surrounding the Mortgentaler award has taken:

Conservative Christian groups smarting from abortion activist Henry Morgentaler's appointment to the Order of Canada have now filed a complaint against Supreme Court Justice Beverley McLachlin, demanding she be removed from her post over her role in the awarding of the honour.

A long list of groups backs the call -- 42 in all-- led apparently by Brian Rushfeldt of the Canadian Family Action Coalition.

Forty-two groups may seem impressive. But as is often the case with these people, there is less here than is claimed. You can see the list and complaint in a pdf here, or over at Benediction, and if you look you'll find "David Murrell, Phd, UNB, Economics" -- who is clearly not a group, but an individual.

And some of those listed aren't groups, but private businesses. Consider these three:

• A.J. Slinger Service
• Can Am Fabricating and Welding
  
• Can American Stone Spreader

That's not all. If you click on the links you'll see that these three businesses share the same address: 156 Berryman Ave, St. Catharines.  Presumably this is one pro-life business owner. 

I have already complained about the dishonesty that some of Canada's social conservatives have indulged in. This apparently another example.

Update. Follow the link for an up-to-date listing of Rushfeldt's list of 42 organizations calling for the impeachment of Justice Beverley McLachlin.