Conservative on abortion: "Shut the *&#% up"

Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth has provided some controversial advice to aid experts and representatives of women's advocacy groups: "shut the f---- up" or it could get worse. Ruth's words were intended more as friendly advice as opposed to a warning. Ruth told a group of international-development advocates, gathered on Parliament Hill on Monday to raise the alarm regarding Canada’s hard-right stance against foreign aid abortion funding:

We’ve got five weeks or whatever left until G-8 starts. Shut the f--- up on this issue. If you push it, there will be more backlash. This is now a political football. This is not about women’s health in this country. Canada is still a country with free and accessible abortion. Leave it there. Don't make this an election issue.

Ruth fears that outrage will compel Prime Minister Harper to take further anti-abortion action both abroad and at home. Regardless, Ruth's advice was received with gasps of disbelief and anger by the 80 or so aid representatives who convened at Parliament to unite in their opposition against the Conservative government's assault on foreign aid abortion funding and therefore women's rights.

Today in Parliament, the opposition pounced on Ruth's "shut the f--k up" remark regarding the government's maternal health initiative, which demonstrates a "culture of intimidation" created by the prime minister. Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae said Senator Nancy Ruth's remarks were the "pithiest, sharpest description" of Conservative policy he's heard in a while:

If you have a disagreement with the government, just shut the F up. Canadians need to wake (up) to the fact that this is a government that has a problem with democracy...the pattern is clear and it is becoming more and more disturbing.

Transport Minister John Baird, answering for Harper who is away in Europe, said Ruth's remarks were "completely unacceptable and in no way, shape or form represents the view of the government." Baird ironically then tried to accuse the Liberals of dividing Canadians with a "culture war", instead of supporting the "admirable goal" of the Conservative government's maternal health plan:

That is something Canadians can unite behind.

Wow. Baird then went on to argue that Ruth does not speak for the government, nor is the government attempting to reopen the aboriton debate.

The opposition is accusing the government of doing exactly that: they're attempting to reopen the abortion debate with its G8 maternal health initiative, which calls for a focus on nutrition and strengthening health-care systems in the developing world, but omits funding for access to safe abortions. Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe said Ruth's language "revealed the true face" of the government, considering that the senator knows what at Conservative caucus meetings:

Will [Harper] finally come clean about his true intentions and admit he wants to reopen debate on abortion in Canada by putting an end to foreign funding?

Last week, Minister for International Cooperation Bev Oda said the federal government would consider funding family planning measures, such as contraception in its G8 initiative, but would not fund abortion under any circumstances.

So, essentially the Conservative government is attempting to reopen the abortion debate, and our government will no longer be providing funding for women overseas to have access to safe abortions. Prime Minister Harper has been systematically undermining Canadian women by denying tens of millions in federal funding to their advocacy groups and then lashing out at those critical of his anti-abortion stance. In just two weeks, the federal government has ceased funding to 14 women’s groups, as wellas a non-governmental agency which was supported by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for over 30 years.

The opposition, and a representative from the Ad Hoc Coalition for Women’s Equality and Human Rights, said the Conservative government is turning back the hands of time on women’s issues. The tipping point for them is the government's refusal to fund abortion in foreign aid, despite the fact that abortion is legal in Canada. NDP MP Irene Mathyssen said:

Women’s groups are saying we are not going to be intimidated anymore, and this is the group that is being told to go to the back of the bus and shut up.

Federal Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said:

It’s like moving back to the (Richard) Nixon era in a whole bunch of areas...it’s chilling to see Canada going backwards.

Judy White, the president of the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW), said that ceasing funding for women’s organizations "is an interesting way of silencing them. I think it is very short-sighted on the part of government."

Claire Tremblay, the coordinator for The Ad Hoc Coalition for Women’s Equality and Human Rights, which represents approximately 30 organizations, said that what the Conservative governemtn is doing:

is actually an attack on democracy in Canada. By defunding those women’s groups you are effectively silencing discussion, on women and women’s advocacy.

Since being elected to a minority government in 2006, Harper and the Conservatives have axed funding for women’s advocacy by 43 per cent, closed 12 of 16 Status of Women offices, and terminated funding of legal voices for women and minority groups, such as the National Association of Women and the Law and the Courts Challenges Program. Elizabeth May also said that the Conservative government will happily provide funding for women’s shelters, howver they will refuse funding organizations which examine the underlying social problems:

They will fund Band-Aids after the fact but they will not fund root causes, identification or elimination of root causes. That’s not their agenda.

MATCH International, a women's advocacy non-governmental group, previously received funding for 34 years. However, with only two days notice, was declined $400,000.