Spectre of Hitler invoked by Tories, Liberals
Updated Mon. Jan. 16 2006 8:03 PM ET
Canadian Press
OTTAWA — The ghost of Adolf Hitler haunted the election campaign Monday as Liberals and Conservatives battled over which party's candidates have made the most incendiary remarks in the past.
The Liberal war room got things rolling, circulating a CD of controversial comments by a British Columbia Conservative candidate. Among other things, Darrel Reid, the Tory hopeful in Richmond riding, once compared Canada to Nazi Germany, warning that Christians could face imprisonment for speaking out against homosexuality.
Reid issued the warning as Parliament was debating legislation to include homosexuals as a protected group in the hate crimes provisions of the Criminal Code.
"I think there is good reason for Christians to be deeply, deeply concerned about this,'' Reid says on the CD released in 2003 by Focus on the Family, a socially conservative group he formerly headed.
"You know, this isn't the first time in human history where tyranny has been imposed on people. You know it happened in Germany in the '30s and frankly I see some real parallels there because, you know, Adolf Hitler and his bunch really didn't care ultimately what you thought personally but they really cared about what you said because that became dangerous.
"And, therefore, when people spoke up about things like freedom or spoke up about their religious values, that was when the power of the state started coming down.''
Reid also warned that Christian advocates of the traditional definition of marriage could be convicted of a hate crime and were "in dire peril.''
He railed against the "court-led coup'' that legalized same-sex marriage and talked approvingly of using the notwithstanding clause to overrule the courts and re-establish the "supremacy of Parliament'' on the issue.
Liberals drew attention to Reid's remarks as they desperately attempted to reverse a Conservative surge in the polls only a week before the Jan. 23 vote.
They clearly hope to reprise the final week of the 2004 campaign, when the intemperate musings of another B.C. Tory, MP Randy White, helped fuel fears that the Conservatives harboured a hidden socially conservative agenda.
White's musings about using the notwithstanding clause to overturn court rulings on same-sex marriage were caught on tape by a documentary film maker. They helped the Liberals stage a come-from-behind victory last time. White is not running for re-election this time. However, the Conservative war room was evidently prepared for a replay of the Liberal tactic. Within minutes of being advised of the Reid CD, the Tories began churning out examples of similar quotes from Liberal MPs.
"If this is their ace in the hole, they should look in their own back yard,'' said Tory strategist Yaroslav Baran.
Among the Liberal quotes dug up by the Conservative war room:
Kitchener-Waterloo MP Andrew Telegdi compared Canada to Nazi Germany in 2001 while criticizing immigration law that allows politicians to determine whether a person can become a citizen. "Canada is acting like a Nazi-style regime ... That's what Hitler used to do,'' Telegdi said.
Transport Minister Jean Lapierre just last month accused Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe of employing "a little bit of a Nazi tone'' after Duceppe boasted about making the Liberals "disappear'' in Quebec.
Toronto MP John McKay echoed some of Reid's concerns about the hate crime legislation, telling the House of Commons in 2003 that "those who wish to speak publicly about the morality of homosexuality and other sexual orientations had better check with their lawyers first.'' McKay called the bill "criminalization of the Bible'' and warned that it would "be like the sword of Damocles hanging over the head of every person brave enough and foolish enough to comment on the morality of homosexuality.'' The Tory war room also provided a CD-ROM with clips of several McKay speeches to the Commons.
Toronto MP Tom Wappel said in 1994 that homosexuality is "statistically abnormal, physically abnormal and morally immoral.''
Toronto MP Jim Karygiannis said last June he might never have become an MP without the help of the anti-abortion group Campaign Life Coalition. "I think in 1988 when I was first elected, Campaign Life probably turned things in my favour.''
