http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/01/13/canadian-justice-minister-all-same-sex-marriages-legal-and-valid Comments On: Canadian Justice Minister: All Same-Sex Marriages "Legal and Valid" by Dan Savage en-us Copyright 2013 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Sat, 18 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Sat, 18 May 2013 03:30:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTYCLKaQc…

Urge you all to watch this. This kid (maybe 17 by now?) has got a brilliant grasp of this. I say brilliant. i mean he doesnt freak the fuck out before learning the facts.

I disapointed in dan also.
Posted by neil83]]> Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:33:51 -0800 The Stranger
By that logic, the modern GOP *loves* gays, especially the Family Values voters :D
Posted by undead ayn rand]]> Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:33:27 -0800 The Stranger While I agree with all that you say about the douchebag that is our PM, I do have to take issue with your assertion that, "He fucking HATES gays".
Two of of his most powerful Ministers are gay albeit self-loathing and firmly in the closet:
Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird & Minister of Immigration Jason Kenney are both gay and Harper, ever the control freak, certainly knows this.
Posted by just some guy]]> Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:50:16 -0800 The Stranger
Agreed!
Posted by mydriasis]]> Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:27:12 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty]]> Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:42:02 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Chris in Vancouver WA]]> Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:14:30 -0800 The Stranger
@9 Hey hey, let's not get ugly. I was born in Toronto.
Let's just say he's American and leave it at that. :p
Posted by mydriasis]]> Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:31:58 -0800 The Stranger Posted by agony]]> Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:32:46 -0800 The Stranger
I live in small town Alberta (not suburbs, but a real small town) Even here, social conservatism doesn't get much play. I have never heard anybody ever bring up issues like abortion, same sex marriage, etc, when talking politics. Immigration might get some interest, racial issues around first nations, but on the whole, when people talk politics here they are talking about taxes, regulations, and bureaucracy. That Harper is open about his religious affiliation is a strike against him for most Canadians, rather than in his favour. Most mainstream religious people don't approve of it being used politically, even though some fundies do. We haven't really got a whole lot of fundies, though.

I suspect even most Conservatives didn't like the taste of this - it smells of sharp practice and going back on your word, which in general Canadians aren't too fond of.
Posted by agony]]> Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:31:18 -0800 The Stranger Posted by BEG]]> Sat, 14 Jan 2012 07:50:23 -0800 The Stranger supportive readers.

However, I too am sufficiently paranoid to believe that the Canadian (or, to be more accurate, the repugnant Harper) government released this story as a trial balloon (whether accurate, intentional or ... whatever isn't the point) to see what kind of a reaction it'd create and whether they could get away with it.

Fortunately, the twitterati et alia got a hold of the story and boosted the signal so that more people would spread the word. AFAIC, I think that's a very good thing and hope it will make it so much more difficult for the CONS to con the Canadian public again when the time of the next federal election rolls around. ::crosses fingers:: OTOH, these results may just make the CONS act in a more devious manner (which would so NOT surprise me), so we'll all have to remain ever-vigilant.

Now I'm wondering what difference there is in electronic saturation levels between the Canadian and American populace. IMO I'd think there'd be a higher percentage of Canadians linked in this manner precisely because our population is spread across Canada as a narrow ribbon that hugs the border with the U.S. [Ooh, something for me to investigate.]

In any case, I hope that one day soon you and Terry will be HIA too.

Posted by Helenka (also a Canuck)]]> Sat, 14 Jan 2012 07:02:01 -0800 The Stranger
1) Harper is a right-wing evangelical Christ-freak fuck-the-poor-the-gay-the-women-the-ethnics-and-the-cripples.

2) Harper cares NOTHING for law, precedent, justice, or simple humanity, much like the US Repubs.

3) Unlike the US Repubs, Harper is an extremely intelligent and devious man who should NEVER be underestimated -- EVER.

4) Harper is a bully and a complete, I mean COMPLETE control freak. NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING comes out of the Federal gov't which has not been vetted by the Prime Minister's Office.

5) Harper has done this type of thing before, floated a trial balloon through different venues, often not seemingly connected directly to him, but in fact under his control.

6) Harper has achieved power and has remained in power even though he is disliked and distrusted by the majority of the Canadian electorate because, though he is a radical, he is a cautious, canny, and long-term thinker.

Harper deliberately floated this balloon. If he could have gotten away with it, he would have, ABSOLUTELY. He fucking HATES gays (Christer evangelical, get it?) The fact that he had to retreat precipitously doesn't bother him in the least, first, because he is perfectly willing to wait years to try again, second, because the failure solidifies his support amongst his sexist, racist, religious base -- he gets to say to them, "Look, we tried, but it didn't work. See, you still owe me your votes.", and third, because he has other goals is he is working towards simultaneously.

I repeat, I've watched him for fifteen years, and I knew right away how dangerous he was (and is). He is, unlike so many other right-wing nuts, highly intelligent, a really expert liar, devious, coolly and cannily manipulative, flexible, determined, clear-sighted, and non-distractable from his ultimate goal(s). His only real weaknesses are his egomania, his obvious cruelty, and his (common to the right-wing) propensity to promote and give power to thieves and idiots.
Posted by Hairhead]]> Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:26:33 -0800 The Stranger
I would agree that there wasn't a policy consideration undertaken in this case, which was a failure of how it was handled.

What should have happened is the lawyer in question would have recognized the fantastically bad publicity and iniquitous outcome that would result from a strict application of the common law dual domicile rule. The Minister or Deputy Minister (or possibly even the Prime Minister) would have been briefed, and realized that the best way to remedy that would be through legislation clarifying the validity of the marriages.

In the end, all of that did actually happen. It just happened after the issue was unwisely brought to court.
Posted by Ionian]]> Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:09:49 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Free Lunch]]> Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:09:42 -0800 The Stranger And you don't understand how our legal system works. The department of justice interprets the law (which was already like this) and puts forth an argument in front of a judge on how federal law should apply in certain situations. The DO NOT set government policy, they just try to make the most correct legal (not political or ethical, legal) arguments. This was never a case of policy, it was a a single argument of how to deal with a loophole in the law. The DOJ didn't have the option of just changing the law in question and then announcing they fixed it. That's not how the system works. Maybe the unhappy couple's lawyer shouldn't have told the media about this and thrown everybody into doubt. But that's not the government's fault.
Posted by Newf]]> Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:25:52 -0800 The Stranger Read this: http://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/kevin-k…
There is no conspiracy.
Posted by Newf]]> Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:15:32 -0800 The Stranger
But they also can be rightly condemned for first arguing in court that those 5000 marriages were void (though that appears to have been a very low-level decision, since neither the Justice Minister nor the PM appeared to have been properly briefed on the issue.) The proper response on recognizing this problem would have been to announce the fix, rather than throwing all of these marriages into a day of doubt.

They can also be fairly criticized (as Dan did excellently yesterday) for a rather cavalier response when this first came up, focusing on "not reopening the issue" without affirming the validity of these messages or saying anything that would have conveyed an ounce of concern for the persons affected.
Posted by Ionian]]> Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:08:46 -0800 The Stranger
What @2 said is right.

Incidentally: if you misunderstand at first, it's a human error, understandable if somewhat disappointing. If you do four updates and two further posts, and yet still tell the same "misunderstanding", it's now a lie.
Posted by Cow]]> Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:09:09 -0800 The Stranger
It's the sort of thing that our politicians do, I'm sure you can understand that we're sensitized to these possibilities.
Posted by undead ayn rand]]> Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:16:16 -0800 The Stranger Posted by a canadian fan]]> Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:55:32 -0800 The Stranger Posted by kevin11]]> Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:52:39 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Alanmt]]> Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:29:10 -0800 The Stranger
This was a non story from the start.
Posted by WanderingSoul]]> Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:19:45 -0800 The Stranger
I think a lot of Canucks got very very upset at this and did something.
Posted by Will in Seattle]]> Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:12:52 -0800 The Stranger
With all the conservatives stomping around America and braying about 'teh gheys', I think this Canadian turkey decided to run this up the flagpole and see who'd salute it. Result: international outrage, followed by furious back-pedaling. I think that's definitely a story.

Congrats on being still hitched, Dan! Y'all should celebrate with a fancy meal or something!!
Posted by merry]]> Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:06:21 -0800 The Stranger