Naomi Lakritz, a columnist for the Calgary Herald, epitomizes the totalitarian “progressive” group-think of your intellectual & moral betters (self-declared) amongst the Far-Left in Canada. Case in point is her latest screed vilifying Conscience Rights. Here’s a snippet:
For how can it be anything but wrong to discriminate against other people, to treat them as though they were much less than equal to others, and claim that your conscience somehow declares it right?
It can’t — and yet, the phrase “conscience rights” is being used to describe, for example, the refusal of a marriage commissioner to treat gays and lesbians the same as anyone else, and marry same-sex couples. It is also being applied to the case of a pharmacist who may not want to dispense the morning-after pill.
Lakritz would be a good apparatchik in the Obama regime, who recently declared there to be no problem forcing Catholic churches to betray their own core tenets regarding birth control.
For Lakritz and her ilk, there appears to be no limit to the amount of control the state can impose upon a religion or religious person. Such was the case in the Soviet Union and still is the case in Communist China.
A most interesting question to be posed of both Lakritz and Alison Redford would be this: “Do you support the Wildrose’s contention that Conscience Rights be paramount in Alberta or would you, for example, use the power of the state to force the Muslim owner of a private hall to hold a lesbian couple’s wedding reception, even though he initially refused their business? As another example, suppose that owner was Jewish. Would you force her to rent the hall out to a Neo-Nazi Party convention?”
US guy here. But liberals are the same everywhere…
I think that the same people who, as a matter of conscious, want to ignore marijuana laws, immigration laws, any laws restricting abortion (late term, etc), suddenly find “conscious” a problem when they make laws to push their agenda. I am not free to follow my conscious unless of course it agrees with their….
A Jehovah’s Witness doctor refuses to administer a blood transfusion on your child because it violates his religion…
There is a line there somewhere, I honestly don’t know where it is, between one person’s conscience rights and another person’s other rights.
Good God. You people out west have no clue. Neither of these parties has an economic plan that makes sense or any ideas of what to do when oil prices go back down to normal. I get the feeling there are a lot of Sarah Palins out there and no one who actually knows how to run a government.
Here is a good list of some blatant Liberal Hypocrisy, from Washington to Hollywood:
http://www.conservapedia.com/Liberal_hypocrisy
Rat, I take your point but if we’re going to remain consistent then yes, such a doctor would have the Conscience Right to refuse such a blood transfusion … just like an Amish person (if there were any in Canada) would rightfully refuse to get onboard a motorized vehicle, even if it were an ambulance.
You & I might think some of these reasons to be kooky but who are we to impose our religious beliefs (or atheist beliefs) on others?
What bugs me most about Leftists on this matter is that they’re simply using their opposition to Conscience Rights as cover to push their deeply entrenched agendas. Remember the old adage: “Anyone who repeatedly tells you they’re ‘open minded’ probably is the furthest from it.”
Is “Freedom Warrior” the latest pseudonym from one of our local Toronto trolls?! That’s pretty rich for a Leftard like you, living in McGuinty’s broke Ontario to be lecturing Western Canadians about how to run a government or manage an economy.
Your HYPOCRISY is so thick you should market it as a new spread for crackers.
So this is how totalitarianism starts. First they come for your religion. Then they come for you.
Robert, the point isn’t that we should force them to do the work, the point is that if they are employed by the government then they cannot pick and choose which duties they want to perform.
Would a trucking company have to employ said Amish dude if he refuses to drive a truck. Would it be reasonable to allow him to use a horse and buggy?
If I walk into an emergency room with my child I don’t want to have said JW as my doctor if his conscience means my child dies. His conscience rights end when he accepts the job.
I have some sympathy for marriage commissioners but I wonder why we even use them anymore. Why not have the couples register at some government office and let them have anyone perform the ceremony. Government doesn’t need to be involved in marriage but it definitely is in medicine.
There is a lot of gray area for me in private business.
The left sure likes to invoke conscience rights to get out of military duty.
Freedom Warrior >
Guess that’s why you’re not invited to the party.
As far as having a clue, we could just cut off equalization payments to the liberal provinces and try to survive on the savings.
Like Alaska, Alberta will fare better than the rest of the country as it always has, until as usual people who can’t mind their own f*cking affaires stick their noses in where it doesn’t belong.
The typical Liberal left can’t look after them but always have all the answers for everyone else, always at someone else’s expense. No thanks, you can keep your crappy way of life and we will stick to ours.
or sue;
Big tobacco
Big oil
whatever…
The government will still marry you.
The government health care will still blood transfuse you.
But why would you demand THAT particular Dr or marriage commish be the one to the work?
Again, the government is still doing these things.
Now, back the example. It is easy to say that a marriage commissioner has to marry you but no one…… NO ONE ever demands a Muslim open his (if its a mosque it probably gets government/tax breaks) to two lesbian or gay people for a party.
The fact is like th Amish or others who came here for Religious freedom.You should not have to give a pinch of incense to the Emperor. Least you end up in the Circus animal bis-quites.
We have retro graded right back to Divine right of Government. Over personnel beliefs. This is what Redford stands for.
Forget conscience. Its collectivism.
To these people God or individual thoughts are fairy tales. Unless of course your willing to fight back like Muslims. Nothing like the thought of their own blood shed frightens these grandees more.
Its why they only go after law abiding folk.
You can bet your check they would never impose the State on Muslims or Indians.
Yes, the point is that the services are readily available from multiple sources. And as the example of forcing a Muslim
to perform a gay marriage shows, the left simply wants to destroy religion. They will get around to Islam if they can.
There are by the way both Amish and Mennonites in Ontario – Southern Ontario.
Leftists are bullies and tyrants. End of story. Any church, group or philosophy that contradicts their own must be disposed of.
But why would you demand THAT particular Dr or marriage commish be the one to the work?
Because he may be the only doctor in the emergency room or the only marriage commissioner in a large rural area.
First of all the JW emergency room Dr. is a bit of a red herring. For one thing the JW is constrained from receiving blood not giving blood. Secondly how long would a Dr remain an ER specialist if he is opposed to doing blood transfusions? Yes he may practice medicine and he may even use his practice to further his religion by providing services to members of his faith in such a way as to not contradict said faith but then as a matter of freedom I don’t have a problem with that. That is between him his patients and his God. As a matter of conscience my wife dropped her OBGYN when she found out the doctor did abortions. My wife then sought and found an OBGYN who did not perform abortions. Once again freedom of conscience freedom of choice. The point is that there are enough differing opinions and beliefs that no one need be forced into doing something against his will simply because someone else demands it.
Secondly how long would a Dr remain an ER specialist if he is opposed to doing blood transfusions?
That’s the point! If he has conscience rights you can’t remove him. No one is saying we should force anyone to do a job but if one chooses to be an emergency room doctor, or marriage commissioner, or OBGYN in a Morgentaler clinic I think it’s reasonable that they do the job as described in the employment contract.
If one is to enforce doctors to perform things against their beliefs then one should allow the doctors to work for another employer. Its pretty rich when the state mandates that you work solely for them, then mandates that if you don’t like it why are you working for the state.
Alberta PC Party has made spending promised double what any other party has promised…
http://taxpayer.com/alberta/ab-provincial-election-spend-o-thon
Not socially conservative. Not fiscally conservative. Not conservative.
I think someone should try to make a mullah marry a same sex couple , maybe do it on Little Mosque on the prairie.
The Blubb and Wail have awakened to the fact that a true leftist, Alison Redford, is running in Alberta, and is losing. They are having conniption fits!
Evidently the only legitimate conscience is a progressive conscience.
My favourite example…
Can a convicted pedophile (who has served his full sentence and therefore, be “in the clear” from a legal perspective) sue for being denied a position as a teacher or daycare worker?
This is one of the easy topics when it comes to making liberal heads explode. They’re actually fine with discrimination…they just want the list made according to their prejudices.
Ok rat lets flip it around then your an anti Christian anti Jehovah whiteness atheist who happens to be an E.m.s ambulance driver paramedic and you come onto a scene the exact same time as the parents of the two kids who were in the accident one is a Jehovah’s whiteness ,and the other is an amish . Both kids have severe injuries …and both parents are telling you not to give care ……..who are you to force your will upon them and by kids I mean they are 18 and are also telling you to piss off. What do you do? This type of what if is so petty and stupid no matter what your answer is it is silly ….this is why the Christians in this country are eventually going to be slaughtered as they are so bad and immoral and only godles people have clarity …lol.
Sad very sad considering the administering of medical care and help to you’re
Hey, with a name like Naomi Klein Lakritz, what would you expect?
“I think someone should try to make a mullah marry a same sex couple , maybe do it on Little Mosque on the prairie.”
You are a little late to the party with that one. Apparently the 200 people in Canada that watched that program quite watching so the viewership requirements (even those as low as the CBC’s) weren’t being met.
Rat and Robert: were it a life threatening – time sensitive situation the JW doctor would have to deliver the transfusion or be charged with criminal negligence. In a situation where that was not the case then conscience “rights” would apply and the doctor could refuse. As everyone seems to be overlooking – this would be adjudicated within the courts – not some parallel legal system so the chicken littles on the left are fearmongering – pure and simple.
So worried about ie. hospitals doctors so on and so forth started and originated with Christians catholicscand before the Christians it was the joooooz the dirty dirty jooooooz!!!!!!
Athiests are all hypocrites so are libertarians . Fools all of you
It is because of your lack of accepting all of the good true facts about Christians and Jews that causes you to feel like your superior and some how smarter when in fact most of the medical advancements have been created by Christians who use science to be able to further help Athiests live lives to there fullest by slamming and bashing and picking on and specifically singling out Christians ….never a word about Muslims though cause you need to have spine to do that.
I just find it very hurtful and frustrating to see so many people so nieve and purposefully ignorant of facts…
I will say that not every single medical device or advanc,ent was made by a Christian but a whole heck of a lot of it has .
Christians want to help and I don’t think it is fair to walk into saint micheals hospital and tell a doctor to stick a seven inch needle into your child’s brain that has not even been born yet and then take a vacuumed and suck it all out …….these procedures are done out of ignorance, desperation, fear ,all of the wrong reasons to do them there is lots of support , just like it is not right for the government to force a church to pay for birth control or other contraceptives.
This is crazy all the way around …welcome to my world a world full of sin , yes even me a pathetic sinner as well no better or worse than the self righteous Athiests …I just recognize and accept that fact and I have redemption and a savior.
If “Conscience Rights” exclude some citizens of their right to pursue certain endeavors, isn’t the government infringing on your freedom of thought, or their freedom of belief?
The alternative is to hold those thoughts and beliefs dear to your heart, while you pursue employment elsewhere. Seems an economic injustice too.
… haven’t *actually* read Ms Lakritz in years.
Posted by: duffman at 8:11 PM
that shot through the foot must have realy hurt!!!
you have a choice in the work you choose, U don’t like the dictates of the job, seek other employment…full stop
The Herald has tried to give me a subscription thrice now. The office I work at gets a couple, so I know what it’s like and refuse. They can’t understand why I don’t want it, and only look puzzled when I say “I don’t have a parrot for editorial rebuttals.”
Rat @ 7:25pm: You do indeed make some good points. I do admit that my thinking was more centered around private institutions.
However, when it comes to your examples of public officials, if reasonable accommodation could be found for another colleague to do the work, I wonder if that might not work in most cases.
What would trouble me is if someone claimed that their religion prevented them from dealing with Blacks or Asians or Muslims or Jews or Christians or Caucasians.
It is not a simple issue but I do fall back on what I said earlier: The Left will do & say ANYTHING to push forward their agenda, no matter how offensive it is to other. They’re much like The Borg: “You will be assimilated.”
Lakritz is a lefty stooge doing the work for the apparatchiks.
This article by her is NOTHING but an attempt to change the channel… to redirect the narrative around a winning conservative and free market political group.
The WRP does scare the shit out of these lefticles … because they know who their enemies are.
So wise up … Naomi Lakritz and the people she supports and works for are YOUR enemy!
It’s war people … not some political or philosphical exercise being acted out on an imaginary field. It is your prosperity… freedom… future these commie clowns want control of. Keep you eye on the objective here and Fight Back.
The government has a responsibility to provide government monopoly services. For the rest of us however, we do have the right to do business with whoever we choose to or choose not to. It is called “freedom of association” and anyone who tries to make us do business with someone we choose not to is violating our basic human rights.
Gord Tulk @ 8:37pm: Excellent point. I hadn’t thought of that.
Related: Michael Coren interviews Monte Solberg
NME666
When the Government through policy or, outright theft like medicine. Has taken over. What choice of work can you do? They have the right to dictate all you do. Typical communism. It ends in Gulags with mass graves. There is no diversity in the socialist work. All must conform.All must have thew same ideology. That or your a social misfit.
You can’t take peoples choice away, than call it freedom.
Individuals are important. To Hades with collectives. They only bring conformity with murder.
Naomi is in for a big surprise.
NME – you mean that pacifists who will not hurt others at any times should not seek employment as snipers? I’m shocked, shocked!
You just gotta know that poor ol’ Naomi was a volunteer hallway monitor in grade school, and never got asked to a high school dance.
“For how can it be anything but wrong to discriminate against other people, to treat them as though they were much less than equal to others, and claim that your conscience somehow declares it right?”
The Catholic Church has been asking that question of those who perform or obtain abortions for 2,000 years.
Message to Naomi: just because some unborn children are unwanted, why should one be able ‘to treat them as though they were much less than equal to others, and claim that your conscience somehow declares it right?’ Just wondering.
I get the feeling there are a lot of Sarah Palins out there and no one who actually knows how to run a government.
Posted by: Freedom Warrior at April 11, 2012 7:12 PM
———————————
Considering how well Sarah Palin ran the Alaska government (With consistent approval ratings of 80-90%)your statement is both innaccurate and self-contradictory.
They’d better be preparing the hell out of Smith as I type this, because this is ALL Redford is going to talk about in the debates.
In the case of the JW doctor, a violation of conscience rights would mean he was being forced to save a life…versus doctors being forced to violate their conscience rights by being forced to kill. It is no longer possible to commonly agree that saving lives is the main goal. Which is quite a thing.
When it comes to gov’t dictates, there is no common sense.
Who the hell would want a doctor, who was being forced to do it, to do any procedure on them?
Although, it does point out that doctors actually work for the gov’t, not the patient. Just a higher class civil servant.
“For how can it be anything but wrong to discriminate against other people, to treat them as though they were much less than equal to others, and claim that your conscience somehow declares it right?” Er, hypocrite much? When is the last time you treated a conservative as an equal?
Just got in from putting up 4 by 4 Wildrose signs here in Edmonton have been doing that since last Saturday. Everyone else has been doing?
The can we snuff our kids debate is a loser this time around, the more hysterical they get the more they lose the Country vote. In Alberta if you do not have the country you lose.
Pluse the rat Queen is now at about 9,000,000,000 dollars in new spending and people are starting to notice. Also all those new Albertans that Miss – I really did apply for Citizenship in South Africa – redford thinks are different from us middle age white guys tend to be family oriantated folks.
She really did Appy for Citizenship in South Africa and they turned her down. I wonder if we could take up a collection to get them to reconsider. I mean if we gave South Africa a billion dollars to take her we would be 8 billion to the good.
Have a great day and go Wildrose.
“A Jehovah’s Witness doctor refuses to administer a blood transfusion on your child because it violates his religion…
There is a line there somewhere, I honestly don’t know where it is, between one person’s conscience rights and another person’s other rights.
Posted by: the rat at April 11, 2012 7:08 PM ”
Simple, go to another doctor.
It’s not that complicated.