Castanet

Bell: Notley just won't say sorry

Rick Bell

Published:
November 1, 2017


Alberta Premier Rachel Notley.Codie McLachlan / Postmedia


She wouldn’t do it. She just wouldn’t do it.

Premier Notley was in the legislature Tuesday. She was asked to do it but she would not do it. She would not say sorry to Catholics.

We know the story. It is a sad one but bears repeating.

An interview with Premier Notley hits the streets last week. It talks about documents sent by Catholic school superintendents to the Notley NDP government.

The documents outline Catholic teaching on sexuality.

The story reporting the Notley interview says the documents show the Catholic educators “take issue with sexual consent by a partner in marriage.”

In the same story, after the consent issue gets a mention, Notley fires back with a warning.

Consent before sex is the law and under no circumstances will a child be taught they have to accept illegal behaviour in a sexual relationship.

Notley also says her government will never “enforce or condone a sexual health curriculum that normalizes an absence of consent.”

Who is doing that? Who is the premier talking about?

It is obvious Notley is talking about the Catholic sexuality document. It sounds like the premier somehow figures consent before sex, at least in marriage, is not being taught by Catholics.

In other words, Catholics allow spousal rape.

But it’s not true. It’s not in the Catholic documents. And Catholic school superintendents go public and say consent before sex is always necessary but they believe there is more to sex than just people consenting.

Beyond sex based only upon “ongoing consent and pleasure” they want to teach about the importance of sex within marriage. No surprise.

Notley knows all this stuff but still she sticks to her talking points. She did so last week. She does so Tuesday.

Notley says there were confusing statements about consent before sex in the Catholic documents without pointing out those statements.

Notley insists she wanted to clarify the law about consent. There was no need for clarification. No one was challenging the law.

And who in their right mind would think Catholic schools want to teach it’s fine to rape your spouse?

In the legislature Tuesday, Leela Aheer of the United Conservatives asks if the premier was misinformed, confused or malicious.

Whatever the answer, wouldn’t an apology be in order?

No, no, no. Notley says the Catholics “raised questions about the matter of consent.”

Yes, but not whether consent before sex is necessary. Catholics believe it is. The issue for the Catholics is whether consent alone is enough.

The premier is way off-base and she knows it. Instead, Notley feels she’s being smeared.

Ric McIver of the United Conservatives raised the issue Monday. The Notley NDP government would not budge.

On Tuesday, talking about the NDP digging in on this one, McIver is unimpressed.

“When the premier of Alberta maligns an entire faith community only the premier’s public apology will do as recompense. This isn’t a backbencher’s bozo eruption,” he says.

McIver figures there’s something to learn here, something about the NDP and their much-advertised tolerance for one and all.

“It actually pulls the mask off these people who try to say they’re the most tolerant and they’re the most accepting. It really lays bare the fact the NDP are not as tolerant as they say they are.”

The question remains. Why would Notley go off on her tangent? She must know the Catholic position isn’t condoning spousal rape. She could have read the documents from the Catholics. She could have got some background info from her education department staff.

SNIPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

“Honestly I think Jason Kenney is in the premier’s head,” says McIver.

“She’s anxious to say negative things about him so she was prepared to throw a whole faith community under the bus as collateral damage. Terrible judgment.”

And forget about the United Conservatives. This newsman has heard from Catholics across the province and country, disappointed and sometimes angered by the premier’s words.

That should be enough to warrant an apology. But oh no.

“I think they’re actually just hoping it will go away,” says McIver.

No kidding.


http://calgarysun.com/opinion/columnist ... -say-sorry

Trying to turn this into a "burning issue" is more a case of the anti NDP crowd "scraping the barrel" looking for something to use against Notley, than a genuine concern. Because I don't think she's anti Catholic at all, merely a Premier trying to clarify the law.

Kathleen Wynn of Ontario has had far more run ins with the Catholic School Board regarding sex education than Notley has, over far greater issues, yet because Wynn isn't NDP she seems to have escaped much of the criticism currently aimed at Notley.

Those who dislike the NDP need to come up with far more substantive issues to discuss if they want to see a change of Government in Alberta. Because attempting to use trivial stuff like this to discredit them merely ends up discrediting the accusers instead.

Merry wrote:Trying to turn this into a "burning issue" is more a case of the anti NDP crowd "scraping the barrel" looking for something to use against Notley, than a genuine concern. Because I don't think she's anti Catholic at all, merely a Premier trying to clarify the law.

Kathleen Wynn of Ontario has had far more run ins with the Catholic School Board regarding sex education than Notley has, over far greater issues, yet because Wynn isn't NDP she seems to have escaped much of the criticism currently aimed at Notley.

Those who dislike the NDP need to come up with far more substantive issues to discuss if they want to see a change of Government in Alberta. Because attempting to use trivial stuff like this to discredit them merely ends up discrediting the accusers instead.

Wynne's in the same boat as Notley.

They're taking on water, fast. Neither will be re-elected.

I didn't expect the Ontario Libs to get re-elected the last time either, but they did. Voters can make strange choices sometimes.

Merry wrote:I didn't expect the Ontario Libs to get re-elected the last time either, but they did. Voters can make strange choices sometimes.

They certainly can and we are prime evidence of that.

Only two more years of Nutley and her band of psychopaths in Alberta.

“the documents show the Catholic educators “take issue with sexual consent by a partner in marriage.”

I think we need to see the documents in question to better understand what is happening here, the quote from the opinion piece must be incomplete or out of context.

Ranger66 wrote:“the documents show the Catholic educators “take issue with sexual consent by a partner in marriage.”

I think we need to see the documents in question to better understand what is happening here, the quote from the opinion piece must be incomplete or out of context.

Yes, we do need to see the documents, certainly.

Oh, and since when did these issues EVER arise for any other premier in the history of time? Did any Catholic body send any BC Premier documents on what they are teaching? Seems odd to me this is even happening at all.

Queen K wrote:Yes, we do need to see the documents, certainly.

Oh, and since when did these issues EVER arise for any other premier in the history of time? Did any Catholic body send any BC Premier documents on what they are teaching? Seems odd to me this is even happening at all.

Notley is rewriting the Alberta curriculum to put her socialist slant on everything from amoeba to parsing French verbs.

Je suis un commie, tu est un commie, nous sommes des commies......

That means she's forcing her radical far left views on the children today. The curriculum didn't new a rewrite, but Notley jumped at the chance to use NDP revisionist history in place of truth.

I know you guys like to pick on Notley, but she is going to take Horgan and the idiot Heyman to task. For that I applaud her.

You should grab some popcorn, and watch the scrap

hobbyguy wrote:I know you guys like to pick on Notley, but she is going to take Horgan and the idiot Heyman to task. For that I applaud her.

You should grab some popcorn, and watch the scrap

I will watch, but in the end, even if Notley wins we still lose, as we are the ones definitely with the dumber government. It's not even close. That I will give Notley.

For some reason saying sorry by politicians is a huge taboo, rarely does it ever happen.

hobbyguy wrote:I know you guys like to pick on Notley, but she is going to take Horgan and the idiot Heyman to task. For that I applaud her.

You should grab some popcorn, and watch the scrap

And she did!

Hobbyguy, you won the bet, you Won!

Gone_Fishing has published Notley's statements in the BC Govt thread.

BRB.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley isn't pulling any punches after her western neighbour threatened to introduce a basket of measures that could jeopardize the future of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

"Having run out of tools in the toolbox, the government of British Columbia is now grasping at straws," Notley said in a statement Tuesday.

“The B.C. government has every right to consult on whatever it pleases with its citizens. It does not have the right to rewrite our Constitution and assume powers for itself that it does not have."

British Columbia put Notley on edge after announcing five proposals intended to limit risks tied to oil sands spills. Most notably, the province said it will consider restricting any increase in shipments of diluted bitumen through the province.

That proposal is being viewed as another hurdle facing the Trans Mountain expansion, which has received go-aheads from the federal government and National Energy Board, but has faced mounting opposition in British Columbia.


“Rash actions like send a message to the world that in B.C. and in Canada the rules are not what they might seem," Notley said, "and therefore jeopardize investment decisions and hundreds of thousands of jobs across of range of important industries."

B.C. says it's aiming to release an overview of its regulations by the end of next month.

Opponents of the project in B.C. -- including numerous environmental groups -- welcomed the move.

West Coast Environmental Law executive director Jessica Clogg said it was a clear threat to the project.

"What this really is, is an enormous sword hanging over Kinder Morgan," said Clogg.

"It's a wake up call of what's coming, and really I think has to be taken very seriously, because it's a signal that if the science is not there to show that a spill can be cleaned up safely and effectively, Kinder Morgan may not be in a position to turn on the tap, even if they can get their project built."