In an unusual foreign-relations move, Canadians have bombarded the U.S. Senate with letters and petitions opposing President George W. Bush's nomination of Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci as ambassador to America's northern neighbor.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee meets this morning at 9:30 a.m. to consider the nomination. Confirmation is expected to be a slam-dunk in spite of voluminous opposition from American and Canadian citizens alike.
Joining Canadian critics of Cellucci, more than 100,000 Americans signed petitions stating they oppose the governor's appointment. The petitions were delivered to the U.S. Senate last week and are in addition to letters from several prominent Canadian traditional-values organizations expressing strong opposition to Cellucci.
The controversy centers on the governor's treatment of homosexual issues, and specifically, his involvement in last year's homosexual sex conference for youth at Tufts University. Funding of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth was continued by Cellucci when he took over as governor in 1997 after fellow Republican and commission founder William Weld resigned from the governorship to accept a Clinton nomination as ambassador to Mexico. The commission's budget, which Cellucci doubled to $1.5 million annually, is used to contract with homosexual advocacy organizations, such as Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network -- the homosexual activist group that sponsored the March 2000 sex conference –- as well as Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. Both groups provide sex-education services to public school students.
Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects homosexuality as a fundamental human right that may not be infringed. The issue, though firmly resolved in federal law in favor of homosexual rights, is a divisive one and has the country roughly split geographically. Generally, western Canada is more in favor of traditional values as compared to eastern Canada, which is home to the federal government.
Real Women of Canada is a non-partisan, non-denominational national women’s organization that has formally opposed Bush's nomination of Cellucci. In a letter to Bush and members of the U.S. Senate, Real Women National President Jeannine Lebel called the nomination "insensitive."
"The appointment of Mr. Cellucci would appear, with respect, to reflect an insensitivity to Canadians and to the internal struggle that is now taking place here. Canada is clearly divided between the western provinces with its conservative cultural and social values and the eastern part of Canada, dominated by the federal government, with its liberal views. The latter is attempting to impose its views on all Canadians, including the already alienated west, ..." wrote Lebel, who describes the organization as a promoter of the "equality of women, as well as the family which we regard as the foundation of society."
"It is recognized that Mr. Cellucci has strong liberal views and his appointment would be highly divisive to Canadians. As American Ambassador to Canada he would bring to this position an unnecessary controversy which may prove ultimately to be detrimental to American-Canadian relations. Also, the appointment of Mr. Celluci as Ambassador to Canada would indicate that the Bush administration is partisan in the dichotomy engulfing Canada, by appearing to side with the federal government and its values. This would be regarded by many Canadians as a direct intrusion into our internal affairs," continued Lebel.
The Canada Family Action Coalition joined other Canadian organizations in signing a similar letter of opposition. Coalition President Roy Beyer stated, “The evidence of Mr. Cellucci’s longstanding loyalties to the most radical groups in his state, to the detriment of Massachusetts children and their families is impossible to overlook.”
“The decision of taking the unusual step of objecting to another nation’s ambassadorial appointment is not taken lightly.” Beyer added, “We are directly aware of at least three dozen groups in the U.S. having alerted all 100 members of the United States Senate of their serious concerns and objections to the Cellucci nomination. We support the tone and content of the letter that they have delivered to the office of each senator. We note also the submission to the U.S. Senate of 100,000 signatures from American citizens asking for the nomination to be withdrawn.”
The "three dozen groups" Beyer referred to include the Eagle Forum, Concerned Women for America, the Traditional Values Coalition, the American Family Association and the Family Research Forum, to name just a few. Local organizations in Massachusetts have also raised red flags concerning the Cellucci nomination, including the Parents Rights Coalition, the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts and the state chapter of the Christian Coalition.
“When your neighbors, who know the man, raise such flags of concern, it gets your attention. We have looked at Mr. Cellucci’s moral and ethical legacy in his own state and we share the alarm at the person being sent to Canada,” said Brian Rushfeldt, executive director of CFAC.
Another Canada-based group opposing the Cellucci nomination is Focus on the Family Canada. Pointing out the governor's pro-abortion stance in addition to the issue of homosexuality, President Darrel Reid, Ph.D., wrote to Bush yesterday asking him to reconsider the nomination.
"Given Mr. Cellucci's record on these highly divisive issues and the controversy his activism has caused, it may be unrealistic to expect him to remain above the debate here in Canada," wrote Reid. "While we may disagree strongly with his politics on these issues, they are not our primary interest. Rather, we are chiefly concerned that Canadians be left to debate and decide these vital issues on our own. Such a courtesy is but fundamental diplomatic protocol and is no more than you, our neighbours and allies, expect of Canada with regard to American internal affairs. Again, given his track record on these issues, it is uncertain that such a courtesy will be assured should Mr. Cellucci be appointed the next ambassador to Canada."
Bush has stated he supports Cellucci and calls him a "friend." The governor helped raise funds for Bush's presidential campaign, and critics believe the nomination is the president's expression of gratitude. But the move confuses observers who otherwise agree with Bush in matters of policy.
A letter signed by 10 Canadian traditional-values groups states, "Given the broad, unrelenting moral assault on children and families within both our nations, the President’s nomination of Mr. Cellucci is both a disappointment and a mystery to many Canadians. Many of us are asking why the President would choose a person who is likely to undermine the efforts of the President himself on important social policy issues? It may not have occurred to the President that in appointing Mr. Cellucci, he is ‘aiding’ and ‘abetting’ an increasingly authoritarian government in Canada that is adamantly opposed to the most fundamental goals of his own administration.
"Undoubtedly, Mr. Cellucci will be at home in Ottawa, but that is the problem. His presence would serve to alienate many Canadians who believe that our current government in Canada very much needs some sensible pressure applied to moderate its radical anti-family, and pro-UN/internationalist policies. Canada’s policies on these issues are already amongst the most radically leftist in the world."
But it isn't just traditional-values groups that are speaking out against Cellucci. The Wall Street Journal's lead editorial yesterday shined a harsh light on the governor's "altogether telling evasions of responsibility in what has now become one of Massachusetts' most notorious and long-running travesties of justice."
Gerald Amirault is currently incarcerated for what the Wall Street Journal describes as "thoroughly discredited child sex abuse charges." Having already served 15 years in prison, Amirault has 20 years ahead of him as a prison inmate. In April 2000, Amirault's attorneys filed a petition for executive clemency with Cellucci, who expressed the view, while on a talk show, that justice had not been done in the Amirault case. Yet, a year later, the prisoner still waits for word from a board legally required to respond by last October -– six months from the date a sentence commutation request was made.
"That silence has, we suspect, everything to do with Governor Cellucci's hopes for political appointment -- hopes that the Governor doubtless considered endangered by any decision he might take, especially a decision to commute the sentence of a convicted child abuser, Gerald Amirault. Who knew what the reaction would be from some hostile quarter of the press or what some senator might say? You never know," the editorial states.
In spite of the WSJ editorial and reports from WorldNetDaily and Boston media outlets, as well as numerous letters, phone calls and e-mails of opposition, members of the Senate have yet to acknowledge that opposition to Cellucci's confirmation -– in either country -- exists.
Read these stories about the Canadian homosexual rights issue:
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