Juno News - The Liberals are screeching about abortion again

00:00:00.000 Hi, everyone. A couple of weeks ago, I interviewed Dave Gardner, the Executive Director of World

00:00:10.840 Population Balance. They're the group that launched the One Planet, One Child ad campaign

00:00:15.680 in Vancouver that ran from mid-September to mid-October of this year, and their ads and

00:00:21.240 billboards promoted one-child families. I really enjoyed that conversation. The ads were causing

00:00:27.060 quite a stir, firstly just because of the nature of the message, voluntary population control,

00:00:33.220 and then there was a second controversy over how one of the ads that promoted fewer children

00:00:39.440 featured the image of a Black infant, which some declared as racist, and eventually the organization

00:00:45.480 removed that particular ad. But now there is a third residual controversy stemming from those

00:00:53.660 One Planet, One Child ads. Allow me to explain. One of the voices criticizing the One Planet,

00:01:00.580 One Child ads and denouncing them as racist was conservative MP for Sherwood Park, Fort Saskatchewan,

00:01:07.740 Garnett Jenis. Jenis wrote an op-ed in the Postmillennial titled,

00:01:12.120 Racial Minorities Targeted in Ad for Population Control. So he argued against the idea of overpopulation.

00:01:19.100 He argues there is a racist underbelly to the population control movement and says that the One

00:01:25.540 Planet, One Child ads featuring the image of the Black infant were explicitly racist. Now I totally

00:01:32.560 disagree with his line of argumentation that the ads were racist or targeting minorities just because

00:01:40.400 they included the image of a Black infant. I actually covered this topic in my interview with Dave Gardner.

00:01:45.680 The ads that his organization puts out, they have a range of ethnically diverse families and infants.

00:01:53.400 So, but again, he ended up pulling those particular ads that Garnett Jenis called racist.

00:01:59.520 But in response to the One Planet, One Child campaign, Jenis sponsored his own ads to run on Vancouver buses.

00:02:08.600 And these ads featured a picture of his own four children, along with a Mother Teresa quote that says,

00:02:16.560 how can there be too many children? That is like saying there are too many flowers.

00:02:21.480 Now I like that response. Jenis, he disagrees with the One Child ads, so he runs his own ads.

00:02:29.360 And I think his ads are actually very positive minded. If I happen to see this ad featuring the four

00:02:35.840 children and the quote when I was out and about in Vancouver, I'd be like, oh, that's kind of a nice

00:02:40.900 quote. And some people were saying online, why is an Alberta MP sponsoring ads in Vancouver? That

00:02:47.580 doesn't make any sense. His constituents are probably so mad about spending money in a different

00:02:53.380 province. But Jenis confirmed that he crowdfunded this ad campaign. And also, this is all going down

00:03:02.380 in Vancouver because that's where the original One Planet, One Child ads were. And World Population

00:03:07.360 Balance is actually an American organization. They're based in Minnesota. But they had a staff

00:03:13.300 member who was based in Vancouver, which is why the original billboards ran in Vancouver. So that's

00:03:18.360 why all this is happening in BC. But I'm not even at the meat of the third controversy yet.

00:03:23.120 So record scratch, Liberal MP Headey Fry says in Zoom Parliament this week,

00:03:31.100 Mr. Speaker, it has recently come to public attention that the Conservative Party is paying

00:03:36.200 for anti-abortion advertising on Vancouver public transit. Women's History Month ended on Saturday.

00:03:43.500 It is disheartening to see the official opposition actively attempt to limit the reproductive rights

00:03:49.040 of Canadian women. The leader of the opposition claims to be a defender of the rights of Canadians,

00:03:54.740 yet he continues to support the member for Hastings, Lennox, and Addington, and many others

00:04:00.780 in his caucus who deny women's right to choose what happens to her body. The opposition leader must 0.93

00:04:06.520 remove these ads today and defend the rights of Canadian women. 1.00

00:04:11.020 Anti-abortion and anti-choice. This is so dishonest. When I was explaining the world population

00:04:17.460 balance ads as well as the response ads, did any of that scream to you that this is about abortion

00:04:24.580 and about taking away a woman's right to choose? No. World population balance said, hey, for environmental

00:04:31.580 reasons, consider having one child or a small family. And Garnett Genis responded by saying, actually,

00:04:38.480 larger families are wonderful. So why are the liberals trying to make it about abortion? It's not about

00:04:43.720 abortion. Why would advertisements promoting the beauty of a larger family need to be removed from

00:04:50.400 public sight? And it wasn't just Hedy Fry participating in this obfuscation. Catherine McKenna

00:04:56.240 retweeted the clip and said, without question and without hesitation, we will always stand up for a

00:05:01.660 woman's right to choose. What will you do, Erin O'Toole? And Harjeet Sajjan tweeted, a woman's right to 0.99

00:05:08.760 choose is a human right. Enough of this advertising campaign to undermine women's rights over their own 1.00

00:05:14.940 bodies. Is it not also my right over my own body to have a large family if I want to, though?

00:05:23.240 Liberal MP Pam Damoff retweeted the clip and said, this is awful and unacceptable. Thanks for highlighting

00:05:31.080 it, Hedy. Nothing in this situation is awful or unacceptable. One organization put out ads featuring

00:05:38.120 one worldview. And an MP crowdfunded to respond with an ad campaign that promoted another viewpoint to

00:05:45.920 consider. So I think this was all actually very nice to see. It was all very respectful. And then

00:05:53.480 when a Twitter user asked Hedy Frye, what is anti-choice defined as? Liberal MP Adam Van Couverden replied,

00:06:02.940 anti-choice refers to opposing a pregnant woman's choice to have a medically induced abortion.

00:06:08.320 It's so interesting that an ad that merely features a picture of four children and a Mother Teresa quote

00:06:14.500 about the beauty of children is seen as anti-choice. I support people who want to have zero children, who

00:06:21.220 want to have just one child, or who want to have many more. And that's called respecting diversity of life

00:06:27.580 choice. TransLink, the Vancouver bus company, is keeping the Mother Teresa quote ads up because they found

00:06:35.500 them to be in compliance with their guidelines. So let's hope that TransLink doesn't cave or take down

00:06:42.680 the ads due to the liberal obfuscation of this issue. I'm Lindsay Shepherd with True North. Thanks so much

00:06:50.280 for watching. If you are enjoying the coverage and commentary from True North, please consider supporting

00:06:57.180 our work.

Juno News - November 07, 2020

The Liberals are screeching about abortion again

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