Stephen Taylor notes that Liberal MP Hedy Fry 1) called the Canadian ambassador to Poland the “Polish ambassador” and 2) elevated refusing to fly the rainbow flag abroad to an affront to the Charter of Rights. From Fry’s letter to Ambassador Daniel Costello and Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon:
The refusal of the Canadian Embassy in Poland to fly the rainbow flag during the Euro Pride Festivities in Warsaw is an affront to Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, rule of law and stated values.
Even if refusing the fly the rainbow flag was wrong (which it wasn’t), Fry clearly overstates the case: an affront to the Charter? To the rule of law? Stated values? (Whose values?)
Fry continues?
We are proud to be one of the first countries in the world to legalise same-sex marriage. As a Minister for six years, I took this issue to all international and multilateral fora for inclusion in official action plans.
I urge you to respect Canada’s leadership in the arena of human rights and minority rights and to fly the flag, proudly, in support of a minority group whose rights have been denied and who still face violence and death in many parts of the world.
If Canada cannot lead by example, as has been our tradition, we have lost our way as a global citizen and a nation respected for fairness and principle.
Again I’m not sure why this matters and I don’t believe that the issue “reverberated across Canada” as the Liberal MP from Vancouver Centre claims. Canada should not become involved in highly contentious policy debates abroad and flying the rainbow flag is clearly taking sides in the culture wars of a foreign country. Of course, this is about scoring political points at home, painting the government as “homophobic.” I doubt that Ms. Fry will be successful in harming the Tories with this pathetic partisan shot.
Perhaps next from the Liberal Party’s far-left is a demand that Parliament open with the national anthem and a song from the Village People.
