One of the few pro-life columnists in Canada has been dropped from the Ottawa Citizen. Claire Hoy, 51, not only spoke to publicly against abortion, but he was also highly critical of birth control programs in schools and Ottawa mayor Jacquelin Holzman’s proclamation of “gay pride day” (see related story).
Quoted in the Citizen , May 2, Hoy left no doubt about why he believed his column was not being continued. “A different point of view frightens some people and it seems to have frightened the editors of the Citizen,” he said, “It was also not a politically correct point of view, and the Citizen is trying to be very politically correct.
Citizen “politically correct”
The Citizen cited a number of reasons for the cancellation, one being the presence of a regular column written by John Ibbitson. This excuse only served to further highlight the unfairness of the paper’s move.
Mr. Ibbitson’s views are the reverse of Hoy’s. On one occasion, Ibbitson ridiculed people who expressed opposition to explicit “gay safe sex” pamphlets being distributed to children at the annual Ottawa Exhibition.
In editorial after editorial, Citizen editor Jim Travers has strongly supported homosexual rights.
He has attacked even the right of Christian churched to exclude homosexuals from pastoral positions in their communities. In an April 27 editorial, the paper slammed those churches which it said “blithely persecute homosexual clergy and worshippers in the name of doctrinal purity.”
Ottawa homosexuals undoubtedly played a large role in getting Mr. Hoy silenced. After his column on “gay pride week” appeared, the paper received some frantic and outraged letters from homosexuals demanding something be done.
Ottawa’s most prominent homosexual activist, Graham Haig, described Hoy in the now traditional manner, namely as a writer of “hate literature.” This appeared to be little more than the settling of an old score on Haig’s part. In July, 1990, Hoy had slammed Haig for a column on “gay pride” he wrote for the Citizen on Fathers’ Day. Haig had praised Body Politic, a now defunct Toronto magazine prosecuted in 1977 for publishing an article encouraging pedophilia. “He (Haig) may think it’s ‘courageous’ to advocate sex with little boys,” Hoy wrote, “but I don’t.”
Hoy’s columns
In his columns, Hoy never shrank from exposing how homosexuals use human rights arguments to justify depraved behaviour. In May of 1991, the militant homosexual group Queer Nation created a furor in an Ottawa restaurant by harassing employees, sporting shirts with obscene messages and engaging in what Hoy described as “mauling and kissing.” The restaurant owner threw them out, but the matter didn’t end there. They rallied in front of the restaurant shortly afterwards, claiming their rights had been violated.
Lesbian activist Cecily McWilliam asked, “What’s next? Are they going to decide blacks aren’t dressed right?” In response Hoy shed light on McWilliam’s “respect” for rights, especially those of children.
“This is the same person,” Hoy wrote, “who as co-host on a show on Carleton University radio station CKCU, was generally supportive of the North American Man Boy Love Association, an organization representing pedophiles.”
Hoy’s reference was to the bi-weekly program featuring militant male and female homosexuals written up in The Interim, September 1989. On the program McWilliam had denounced parents who would interfere in allowing a15-year-old boy from committing sodomy with a 30-year-old man.
Often Hoy attempted to counter the propaganda and false claims of homosexuals. When homosexuals claimed that there were 10,000 gay people in Ottawa, Hoy informed his readers that homosexuals always exaggerate their numbers. “We consistently see the claim repeated over and over again that 10 per cent of the population is homosexual,” he said. In actual fact, Hoy stated that studies have shown the real figure is around four per cent.
Write the Citizen
Those who wish to express opposition to this latest silencing of a pro-life voice in Canada should write to James Travers, Editor, The Ottawa Citizen, 1101 Baxter Road, Box 5020, Ottawa, Ontario, K2C 3M4. Southam News, of which the Citizen’s is part, must be sensitive to the criticism. In the first quarter of this year the newspaper chain lost millions.
