[imc-vancouver] Fwd: Scary Day Quotes

[Carolyn]

Horrifying reading - includes quoted sources to use for the next [shudder] 
federal election, or to post widely in printed or electronic newsletters!

Carolyn

-------------------------------------------------------------

INTRODUCTION

Hi there - Dave Clarke from Edmonton, Alberta writing. I've lived here for 
nearly ten years. Watching Stockwell Day move onto the national stage 
alarms me. Most people I talk to don't think he has a chance of becoming 
Prime Minister. I don't agree. If not this election, what about the next one?

Voters outside Alberta don't have a sense of  who Day is and where he comes 
from. As he woos a national constituency, Mr. Day stresses his fiscal 
record and downplays his social conservatism and evangelical background. 
And he has an excellent advisor and spin doctor: Rod Love, Premier Ralph 
Klein's associate for two decades. Mr. Day frequently points to his past 
record and suggests it speak for him. If you have friends or family living 
outside Alberta, may I suggest that you forward this email so that they may 
be better educated about Mr. Day's past record. My comments are in italic 
text, citations are in typewriter text.

JUSTICE

In 1994, Mr. Day advocated the death penalty for teenagers convicted of 
first-degree murder. Alberta Hansard: April 1994 emergency sitting of the 
Alberta Legislature to propose amendments to the Federal Young Offenders Act.

Title: Emotional pleas on youth crime; politicians suggest boot camps,  the 
strap.
Byline: Diana Coulter Provincial Affairs Writer Citation: The Edmonton 
Journal, April 21, 1994,  Final Edition, p.B1

Title: Ottawa rejects Klein proposal of death for young offenders
Citation: Vancouver Sun, April 21, 1994, Final Edition, p.A6

He has advocated American-style work camps for some young offenders.
Source: Alberta Hansard - April 1994

In 1997, he drew condemnation from all political stripes when, in a speech, 
he suggested serial-child killer Clifford Olson should be dealt with by 
fellow prisoners, as quoted below:
"People like myself say, 'Fix the problem. Put him in the general (prison) 
population'. The moral prisoners will deal with it in a way which we don't 
have the nerve to do."

Title: Let 'moral prisoners' punish Clifford Olson, Day urges
Byline: Journal News Services; Journal Staff
Citation: The Edmonton Journal, October 18, 1997, Final Edition, p.A1

Title: 'Prison justice' remark blasted: Day accused of subverting  justice
Byline: David Trigueiro; Calgary Herald
Citation: Calgary Herald, October 18, 1997, Final Edition, p.B1

ABORTION

In 1988 Mr. Day said granting greater access to abortion would prompt a 
rise in child abuse, as quoted below: "The thinking is," he said, "if you 
can cut a child to pieces or burn them alive with salt solution while 
they're still in  the womb, what's wrong with knocking them around a little 
when they're outside the womb."

Mr. Day fought hard to have abortion in Alberta de-insured by Medicare.
Labor Minister Stockwell Day's comments arising out of the legislature's 
all-Tory community services committee may have provided a defining moment 
in the debate over abortion funding in Alberta.

The Red Deer Tory, who proudly wears his Christian fundamentalist 
principles on both sleeves, declared Alberta health care should only pay 
for abortions required to save the mother's life. Asked if that excluded a 
pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, he did not waver, answering that 
medical necessity is the only grounds he would accept.

Calgary Herald, June 12, 1995

  In September 1995 the Committee To End Tax-Funded Abortions surveyed the 
Alberta conservative caucus to see how Members of the Legislative Asssembly 
would vote on the issue of tax-funded abortion. Mr. Day supported 
de-insuring medically unnecessary abortions - "medically unecessary" 
defined as an abortion performed to save the mother's life. Other 
Conservative MLAs included qualifiers for additional medicare coverage, 
such as abortions for victims of rape and incest. Mr. Day did not.

Title: A very short list: Ottawa's bizarre dictate on abortion funding  has 
imperilled Klein's whole plan for refinancing health care
Citation: Western Report, v.10(36) September 25, 1995 [10(35)] pg 6-10

Title: Abortion: why are you paying for it? An Alberta committee asks 
government to stop using public dollars to subsidize private choices
Citation Western Report v.10(6) March 6, 1995 pg 6-9

GAYS

Mr. Day, a leading opponent of gay rights, was bitterly opposed to the 
Supreme Court's decision to force Alberta to include homosexuals in its 
human rights act. He tried to get his government to invoke the 
notwithstanding clause to overturn the Supreme Court decision writing 
protection of gays in the human rights code.

In 1994, Alberta's Individual Rights Protection Act was reviewed and  the 
panel recommended that the act be amended to include protection for gays 
and lesbians. In response, Stockwell Day suggested that the IRPA be 
repealed and the Human Rights Commission abolished. He declared, "we don't 
need them and nobody will suffer without them".
Source: "One Ruling Too Far" Alberta Report Newsmagazine, Vol. 21, Issue 
20, 5/2/94, pp.6-11)

On what he considers the inevitable result of allowing sexual orientation 
into human rights laws: "What about the next step--those who lobby for sex 
with children? These are very large and active national interests."
In: Red Deer Advocate, April 15, 1994)

"Stories are one thing. Facts are another. I'm so tired of dealing with a 
few scant, fabricated stories. [Discrimination against homosexuals] just is 
not happening."
In: Red Deer Advocate, May 11, 1996)

  "The freedom for homosexuals to choose their lifestyle is there. But when 
I'm asked to legislate, in some way, approval of their choice, then I have 
a problem,'' he says. "How can I do this without a mandate to alter in 
public policy a centuries-old definition of what a natural family is?'' 
"The homosexual issue is a real source of concern because they don't know 
how far it's going to go,'' Day says. "There is a concern, yet to be 
determined, that it can't be stopped. These type of unknowns have people 
alarmed."

"The same people who don't want to see homosexuality in their sex education 
curriculum and same people who don't  want to see gay parades in their city 
also say people shouldn't be fired just because they're homosexual. You 
know what? People miss this, but people are not being   fired because they 
are homosexual.''

Title: Stockwell Day faces personal decision with heavy heart: Deeply held 
convictions about homosexuality put provincial treasurer at odds with Klein.
Byline: Don Martin
Citation: Calgary Herald, April 9, 1998, Final Edition, p.A23

"Homosexuality is a mental disorder that can be cured by counselling."
References: Quote from 1992 - recently denied
Christian Week vol.11 No.1

In 1996 Mr. Day suggested that human rights legislation be defined by 
religious precedent. Mr. Day called on fellow legislators to consider what 
"fundamental characteristic...can be upheld and used across jurisdictions, 
across political lines, across partisan lines, and down through history by 
which rulers, be they dictators or elected people, can actually be held to 
account."

At the heart of Mr. Day's appeal is the belief that our "fundamental source 
of dignity" is that "we are created [by] a higher being, a creator." Only 
from that source, he argued, can mankind claim  "inalienable 
rights...worthy of being protected at all costs...That forms the 
fundamental instrument by which we can measure [what] is truly a right that 
reflects our dignity as humans."

Title: The deeper roots of human rights:

Alberta's Day delivers a vision of human dignity based on divine law
Citation: Western Report, v.11(21) June 10, 1996 pg 12-13

Alberta Treasurer Stockwell Day wants the Red Deer museum to 
return  $10,000 in lotteries money because it is doing a study on gays. 'We 
all make mistakes and they made a mistake in pursuing a project which 
purports to reflect the sexual choices of one per cent of the population,' 
Day said in an interview.

Some statistics suggest between four to 10 per cent of the general 
population is homosexual.
Title: Gay study bogus, says treasurer
Citation: The Guardian (Charlottetown), August 16, 1997, p.A5

Mr. Day was appointed minister of family and social services in 1996.  For 
several years he enforced an unwritten policy not to approve 
"non-traditional families'' for adoption.

Title: Sexual Politics: Foster parenthood rules discriminatory and hurtful
Byline: Robert Bragg; Herald Columist
Citation: Calgary Herald, March 20, 1997, Final Edition, p.A21

Title: Province will abide by court ruling; But will look at changing laws 
to bar same-sex marriages, spousal benefits;
Gay Rights; FENCE-BUILDERS
Byline: Larry Johnsrude; Legislature Bureau Chief
Citation: The Edmonton Journal, April 10, 1998, Final Edition, p.A1

EDUCATION

> From 1979-85, Day was administrator of the Bentley Christian Training 
Centre, an independent school of 100 students and six teachers run by the 
Bentley Christian Centre, a fundamentalist Pentecostal church, 25 
kilometres northwest of Red Deer. The Bentley Christian School taught the 
Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) curriculum.  The ACE program was 
American-based and was rooted in a literal interpretation of the Bible. It 
taught creationism over evolution, for example.

A 1985 government audit of the general curriculum concluded ACE students 
were rarely called upon to be creative,  original or critical. The 
auditors  were concerned the program created 'a degree of insensitivity 
towards blacks, Jews and natives.'  In newspaper articles at the time, Day 
vigorously denied the curriculum was bigoted in any way. 'God's law is 
clear,' an angry Day told Alberta Report in 1984. 'Standards of education 
are not set by government, but by God, the Bible, the home and the 
school.'  Day refused in an interview recently to say if he still believes 
that."

Title: Day caught in his own conundrum
Byline: Paula Simons
Citation: Edmonton Journal, April 2, 2000, Final Edition, p.E10

South MLA Victor Doerksen created a stir when he called on the government 
to remove all books from Alberta's school curriculum that demean God or 
Jesus Christ. He produced the award-winning novel Of Mice and Men as a 
novel he considers unacceptable.

The book was brought to his attention by a Wetaskiwin man who was 
unsuccessful in getting it banned from schools. Doerksen introduced a 
petition from 881 Albertans wanting all education literature removed that 
is intolerant of religion, and profanes the name of God or Jesus Christ. 
Labor Minister Stockwell Day, MLA for Red Deer North, supported the 
move.  (This happened in the middle of the national Freedom to Read Week, 
1994.)

Title: Education minister wouldn't step in to save classics
Byline: Diana Coulter Provincial Affairs Writer
Citation: The Edmonton Journal, March 3, 1994, Final Edition, p.A7

Mr. Day on the need to ban or censor "Of Mice and Men" in public schools: 
"Most Canadians profess to be of the Christian faith and I think we need to 
be sensitive to the fact it bothers Christians when the name of Jesus 
Christ is used in a blasphemous way."
- Red Deer Advocate, March 24, 1994

DEMOCRACY

Mr. Day's sneering, high-handed behaviour in the Legislature is 
well-known  to Albertans who have attended a sitting. The Alberta 
Legislature has a sad history of limiting debate, too much to go into here. 
The recent Bill 11 Private Healthcare Bill was just the latest example. 
Here's an    editorial from 1995's Edmonton Journal. So Stockwell Day is 
fantasizing "in kind of a blue-sky way'' about cancelling the fall sitting 
of the legislature.

The government house leader knows that too much democracy is a dangerous 
thing. "The longer we're in here, the temptation is too great to come up 
with more laws and more regulation,'' he says.

Even if the Conservatives resist the urge to work, Day believes the 
Liberals will fill up the empty hours with yelling. Those pests. His ears 
hurt. He wants to go home. Why not shut down the legislature altogether, 
Mr. Day? The Alberta taxpayer would save $15,000 for every day the door was 
locked. The new dictatorship would never have to listen to questions, 
answer questions or debate public concerns. The opposition would not exist. 
It would be so quiet in Alberta, wouldn't it? You could go home to Red Deer 
North, and stay there, and never come back. Think of it.

Title: A dilly of a Day-dream
Citation: The Edmonton Journal, May 19, 1995, Final Edition, p.A8

HEALTHCARE

Frankly, there's far too much to quote or cite under this topic. It's my 
strong personal belief that Alberta's Bill 11 was the first step towards 
opening up Canadian healthcare to profit-making private enterprise from the 
U.S.A. Mr. Day was part of the Alberta Cabinet that decided to cut  the 
Health Care Budget by over 30% while at the same time hiking up "premiums" 
so that "fees" paid by individuals to government were made to cover all the 
actual costs without resorting to any tax funds whatsoever.

CULTURE

"Government should only fund those things the public gives them an 
overwhelming consensus to fund." (SD)

Title: A little initiative might go a long way (Citizen-sponsored votes)
Citation: Western Report, v.8(2) February 8, 1993 pg 6

Stockwell Day added he would eventually end all taxpayer financing of CBC 
television and eliminate all cultural subsidies to all cultural 
institutions and individuals.

Title: Day's economic blueprint targets job grants, culture: Low-tax system 
would also privatize VIA Rail
Byline: Norma Greenaway
Citation: The Ottawa Citizen, June 8, 2000, Final Edition, p.A11

OTHER TOPICS

When elected in Red Deer North in 1986, Mr. Day made an evangelical-style 
speech that made explicit his literal believe in the Bible. Mr. Day is a 
Creationist.

In 1987, he raised the hackles of women's groups when he disputed a poll 
indicating one million women had been abused  physically, emotionally, 
sexually or economically.

Mr. Day was appointed minister of labour in 1992. He made Alberta's minimum 
wage the lowest in the country.

He has called official bilingualism an 'irritant'

Title: Alberta's Stockwell Day faces an . . . Extreme Challenge
Byline: Jim Cunningham and Grant Robertson; Calgary Herald
Citation: Calgary Herald, March 7, 1999, Final Edition, p.C2

He also questioned the effectiveness of sex education in the schools. 
"There is a growing body of literature suggesting that, as sex education 
becomes more comprehensive, there is a corresponding increase in sexual 
activity."

from Stockwell Day -- His Life and Politics -- a biography by journalist 
and admirer Claire Hoy.

See also: Condoms in the legislature: Alberta's ill-controlled adventures 
in sex ed divide the cabinet
Citation: Western Report, v.5(42) November 5, 1990 pg 7-8

Alberta Labour Minister Stockwell Day is an enthusiastic proponent of  Teen 
Ed. "Teen pregnancy rates, STD infections, abortion and sexual promiscuity 
all drop where abstinence - based programs are used," he says. "Wide open, 
no holds - barred discussions of sexual activity with teens 
don't  work,"  he adds. "And taxpayers shouldn't be expected  to pay for them."

Title: Too much, too soon: sex-educators fight to teach homosexuality and 
promiscuity to preschoolers
Citation: Western Report, v.9(8) March 14, 1994 [9(7)] pg 28-30+


FOOTNOTE
I'm not a journalist or a member of any political party. Most of this 
research was done using Virtual Online Resources at the Edmonton Public 
Library. This does require an Edmonton library card, but these resources 
are available via different internet portals across the country. Check your 
local library. Canadian Newsdisc contains Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal 
and a wealth of other newspaper archives. Canadian Business and Current 
Affairs - Western Report and Alberta Report archives.  If you have problems 
obtaining the text of particular articles, email me, and I'll try to help.
Although these quotes are selective and partisan, I've tried hard not to 
misrepresent these quotes, and tried to provide some of the original 
context in which they were said. I'm not trying to present a balanced 
picture or Mr. Day. He frequently points to his fifteen year record as a 
public servant and suggests it speak for him.

Dave Clarke
Edmonton