The recent appointment of Dalton Camp, and the news that he (un-elected by anyone other than Brian Mulroney) will sit in the cabinet and act as an advisor on government policy has outraged many staunch Progressive Conservatives, including not a few MPs. It is an understatement to say that Dalton Camp is neither universally loved, nor trusted in conservative circles. Far from it!

For those who are concerned about pro-life issues and pro-family values in government policies there is even less joy in his appointment. Anyone who has taken the trouble (and, admittedly, it requires trouble) to read his newspaper columns will know that any policy, which he might advocate is not going to strengthen the family.

Some time ago Camp sent out a newsletter (using some other organization’s mailing list) requesting support for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. Like its American counterpart, the CCLA favours abortion on demand. In his letter Dalton Camp pointed to the “dangers” to the American Civil Liberties Union, dangers coming supposedly from religious groups. Canadians, he felt, must be on their guard!! (It may be noted that both the ACLU and CCLA oppose prayer and teaching of religion in the schools.)

Camp was particularly scathing about parents who objected to some of the types of “literature” that their children were forced to read and discuss in class. The reference here is not to request that books be banned from libraries but to objections that, despite a wealth of literature to choose from, children were being forced to study novels which contain the type of gutter language forbidden in any good home, and dealing with sex in a manner offensive to the family’s moral standards.

Apparently the CCLA idea of civil liberty does not grant parents the “right” to protect their children from this kind of poison.

Some years ago, the well- known American writer, Joseph Sobran gave an address at a Symposium at the American Family Institute in Washington, D.C. He said that the American Civil Liberties Union publishes a series of useful handbooks on the legal rights of all sorts of people: homosexuals, mentally retarded people, convicts, soldiers, etc., etc. “But there is no handbook on the rights of parents. There is no handbook on the rights of worshippers.” Apparently parents and worshippers are not worthy of rights. He added “so-called rights are increasingly claims made against the freedom of other citizens, with the state acting to abridge those freedoms…. The current invocation of new-fangled rights involves an assertion of expanded state power over us and over our most fundamental rights of private association.”

We can only hope that the cabinet, the P.C. caucus, and the opposition will keep these threats in mind if any policy appears to be tainted by its counterpart on this side of the border.