December 3rd, 2020

Ford’s PC vote to back McVety amid uproar — even while editing bill for others

QUEEN’S PARK — Despite the uproar, PC MPPs voted to plow ahead Wednesday with a bill that gives Charles McVety the right to grant university degrees — even while editing the bill to appease others.

“Charles McVety claims that Muslims are planning a ‘hostile takeover,’ that Haitians are ‘satanists’ and he has attacked the gay and trans community. Thousands of Ontarians have spoken up to say that Ford’s plan to give his pal McVety more power and more authority is devastating,” said NDP MPP Catherine Fife. “In committee Wednesday, PC MPPs unanimously backed Charles McVety and Doug Ford’s deal, refusing to amend the McVety section of the bill.”

After voting no on NDP amendments to remove the McVety section of the bill, the PC MPPs used their majority to scrap a section of the bill that adds a Code of Conduct for marriage officiants.

Jack Fonseca, political operations director for Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) told LifeSiteNews that he believes the Code of Conduct could coerce marriage officiants to preside over homosexual marriage ceremonies.

“The government can no longer credibly claim this is about process,” said NDP LGBTQ+ critic Terence Kernaghan. “Yesterday, Conservative MPPs removed a section from Bill 213 because groups like Campaign Life Coalition complained it would promote same-sex marriage. Why did the government happily amend the bill for these groups, while they continue to ignore the thousands of people who will be deeply hurt, and even put at risk, if Charles McVety’s hate, homophobia, transphobia and racism is empowered and legitimized by Doug Ford?”