Ex Prime Minister Jean Chretien's gay legacy -- not
November 2003
I'm embarrassed when speaking to Americans. They think Canada is the bee's knees, a homo heaven. Heck, lesbians and gay men around the world will watch Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien shuffle off to retirement in December and remember him as a gay rights hero. Same-sex marriage; progressive hate crimes laws; medicinal marijuana for AIDS sufferers (decriminalization of all pot, in fact); and cheap AIDS drugs for the Third World, where millions are dying.
But nothing could be further from the truth.
Jean Chretien has fought gay and lesbian rights for years. He has been our enemy throughout his career, and naive admiring gay people around the world must not be taken in by his last few months of PR doublespeak.
These last few months have been all about Jean Chretien's search for "legacy."
He portrays HIMSELF as a hero, folks. And we shouldn't buy into it. Supporting gay marriage despite his own Catholic beliefs, Chretien says he's torn but he believes in Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which protects minorities from discrimination.
He goes on and on about how proud he is of this charter, introduced when he was in government and which he says he championed.
These are the weasel words of someone suddenly realizing he needs something in the history books that will set him apart from oh-so-many other caretaker leaders.
Because you see, I don't recall gay and lesbian people being protected against discrimination in the 1982 Constitution rewrite that Chretien is so damned proud of.
The frigging thing protected everybody but us. Race, ethnicity, etc, etc, etc, etc. But no homos.
Penney Kome's 1983 book,
"The Taking of 28," shows how hard it was just to get equality rights for women into the Canadian Constitution. A country-wide fight that took everything the movement had, including some quiet games played by women within the government, appalled at what was about to happen: A charter of rights that didn't place women's rights front and center! (Twenty-eight, of course, is the identifying number of the women's rights clause in the Constitution.)
Sounds to me like Chretien and his ilk had to be wheedled and pressured and practically blackmailed into it.
If this is how women were treated, imagine how gay people fit in.
"Sexual orientation" got into Canada's Constitution because the courts ordered it so.
And even so, Prime Minister Chretien dragged his feet. He left gay rights in that murky area of court-ordered law, without actually changing the law, for eons.
Our human rights protection finally got legislated when another crisis occurred. The GST -- a controversial tax -- was under fire. And, as noted in a 1997 issue of Saturday Night magazine, the prime minister's top aide, Eddie Goldenberg, used sexual orientation as a way to deflect the public criticism.
"Facing a political debacle, Goldenberg engineered a massive diversion from the GST with the issue of gay rights. Chretien had told the caucus earlier in the year that he was in no hurry to introduce the bill amending the Human Rights Act to prohibit discrimination against homosexuals. (Some sources say that, deep down, Chretien finds some of the bill's ramifications, like same-sex marriages, hard to swallow.)"
"Wishing to leave their options open, Chretien and Goldenberg 'were telling people they didn't want to proceed, but telling [others] to prepare a plan so that the amendment was doable,' says one player in the strategy."
But the heat on the GST was cranked.
"Fortuitously, a report by... the federal Human Rights Commissioner, scolding the government for its treatment of homosexuals, had recently been released. 'The decision came down from the [the Prime Minister's Office] to get ready to move on the legislation. The [report] was a good excuse for a move that would save us face on the GST,' says someone who [was on the inside]."
Simply put: Chretien used gay people -- and their rights -- to serve his own selfish purposes.
Fast forward to the present. Guess what? Gay marriage came as a result of the courts. And not because the prime minister gives a damn about gay rights.
In fact, as Chretien was nearing the end of his decade-long reign as prime minister (and a full 40 years in politics), he discovered all kinds of progressive causes.
I suppose that one might thank Chretien for seeing the gay issue as something that was, finally, worthy.
Or at least, the thought of it was worthy. Because he never actually saw it through. When Chretien steps down on Dec. 12, he leaves hate crimes, same-sex marriage, cheap drugs for Africa and marijuana decriminalization languishing on the order paper.
Legacy? I don't think so. A lot of smart-ass talk. And a great big pain in the ass for successor Paul Martin, the new prime minister who's gonna drop the ball and screw gay men and lesbians right over.
Seems to me that Jean Chretien used gay rights, yet again, as a way of manipulating others. In this case, as a way of looking good to progressive Canadians (a majority of whom support gay marriage), while also leaving behind a great big political mess in order to get back at Paul Martin, who pushed the reluctant prime minister right out of office.
Jean Chretien, gay rights hero? Nope.
We were just used.