“Canada is a Christian country”

by | December 16, 2018

By Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Vice News reported on a recent conservative and Christian event, not always easy to separate in the current sociopolitical context. This was in, of course, Ontario, and Mississauga in particular. Canada Christian College hosted the event.

There was purportedly ‘eager anticipation’ for the appearance of Ontario Premier Doug Ford at the event. The evening in Mississauga was filled with “musical performances, prayers, and speeches.” All featuring Christian congregations of various flavors.

The president of Canada Christian College, Charles McVety, hosted the event. McVety, as you well know, remains hard-and-fast held to the socially conservative Christian religious tenor of the nation, as well as hyperbolic non-news outlets including Rebel Media.

As reported, “Christian leaders from Sri Lanka to Ghana all showed up to offer prayers onstage but the night’s biggest highlight was the appearance and speech by Ford, who attended the event with his wife Karla and their daughters” (Zhou, 2018).

McVety parroted Ford’s line of “true man of the people” because McVety did not know of a premier to come to “a Christian event like this one” before (Ibid.). He, McVety, praised Ford’s efforts to remove the modernized sexual education curriculum in Ontario, which was put in place by the Liberal Party.

McVety stated that the sexual education curriculum taught “radical teachings” (Ibid.). Unfortunate for Ford, he has several ongoing court challenges from LGBTQ parents, and young people, because of the repeal of the curriculum, where the interim material is the health and physical education curriculum from 1998 (Paling, 2018).

At a Christmas concert, McVety argued, “Gender is immutable. You can’t change gender” (Ibid.). The curriculum repealed in Ontario represented more diverse family structures including LGBTQ families, e.g., “two mothers or two fathers,” or other ideas including “that different people express their genders in different ways” (Ibid.).

Members of the PC Party, including Mississauga-Malton MPP Deepak Anand and Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff, welcomed Ford onto the stage. Following this, Ford began to boast about accomplishments of his party.

Ford exclaimed, “We’re reforming the education system and carrying out the largest public consultation with parents ever!… We’re listening to the parents out there for the first time ever” (Zhou, 2018).

Ford continued to brag on trashing cap-and-trade and working to have Ontario’s law enforcement given the ability to remove “guns and gangs” from the streets of the province (Ibid.).

In a potential presaging of political aspirations of the individual and the Evangelical community, McVety, at the finale of the event, called the wife of Doug Ford, Karla, the “first lady of Canada” (Ibid.).

In a historical note, Zhou (2018) brought forward the history of McVety focusing on sexuality and sex in sociocultural and political moves. For example, he started an online petition. He asserted that the Liberals, at the time, were attempting to repeal laws, which, in turn, would permit adult men to have anal sex with children as young as 16-years-old.

As well, McVety argued the Toronto Pride Parade was, or even is, sex tourism. Thus, none of these trends remain new to the grouping here. At the event, Ford called the people present “good Christian people” (Ibid.).

One pastor of Miracle Family Temple, David Loganathan, present at the event stated, “As premier, [Ford]he has visited Muslims and Hindus, but Canada is Christian and so are its forefathers, so it’s more important for him to come here to support us…The foundation of Canada is Christian and we have to work to maintain that…. Canada is a Christian country” (Ibid.).

So it goes.

References

Paling, E. (2018, December 10). Doug Ford Touts Curriculum Changes Alongside Charles McVety, Anti-LGBTQ Christian Figure. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/12/10/doug-ford-touts-curriculum-changes-alongside-charles-mcvety-anti-lgbtq-christian-figure_a_23614546/.

Zhou, S. (2018, December 10). Doug Ford headlines Christmas concert with controversial evangelical pastor. Retrieved from https://news.vice.com/en_ca/article/j5za8p/doug-ford-headlines-christmas-concert-with-controversial-evangelical-pastor.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen is the Founder of In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal and In-Sight Publishing. He authored/co-authored some e-books, free or low-cost. If you want to contact Scott: Scott.D.Jacobsen@Gmail.com.

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One thought on ““Canada is a Christian country”

  1. Indi

    And let’s not forget McVety’s associations with charming characters like Geert Wilders and Pamela Geller. May Ford be judged by the company he keeps.

    Reply

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