“It is shocking that such insensitive, hurtful and uninformed comments could come from an elected Member of Parliament,” said Gilles Marchildon, Executive Director of Egale Canada. “His outrageous comments would be laughable if they were not so harmful and outside Canada’s usual civil discourse.”

 

“It’s remarkable that despite the progress made to ensure full equality for all Canadian citizens, a Member of Parliament suggests that we undo it all,” continued Mr. Marchildon. “Canada is a world leader when it comes to equal treatment of minority groups. Mr. Spencer would drag Canada back to the stone-age of human rights.”
Mr. Spencer has been fired as the party’s family issues critic and has temporarily resigned from the Alliance caucus. But Egale feels that he should be expelled from the Party.

 

“Such views are unacceptable to the Canadian public and they should be unacceptable to Mr. Harper as well,” said Laurie Arron, Egale’s Director of Advocacy. “So far, Mr. Harper has only given Mr. Spencer a slap on the wrist until the furor dies down. That’s just not good enough. Mr. Spencer should be permanently expelled.”

 

“One of the age-old myths about gay men is that we sexually abuse children,” continued Mr. Arron, Egale’s Director of Advocacy. “It’s an insidious claim frequently made against unpopular minorities and it has been completely discredited by expert studies.”

 

“A review done by the American Psychological Association of research on the subject of gay and lesbian parenting leads us to conclude that there is no evidence in the scientific literature that the children of gay and lesbian parents are at greater risk for sexual abuse,” said Dr. Karen R. Cohen, Associate Executive Director of the Canadian Psychological Association. “Research has shown that: 1) the great majority of sexual abusers are male; 2) adult women rarely sexually abuse children; 3) the great majority of sexual abuse cases involve an adult male abusing a young female; and 4) gay men are not more likely than heterosexual men to sexually abuse children.”

 

For more information:
Gilles Marchildon, Executive Director, Egale Canada: 613.230.1043, gilles@egale.ca
Laurie Arron, Director of Advocacy, Egale Canada: 416.839.7178, laurie@egale.ca
Karen Cohen, Associate Executive Director, Canadian Psychological Association:
613.237.2144 x 44, kcohen@cpa.ca
See also:
egale.ca and www.cpa.ca