On Wednesday, Sept. 9, CBC-TV aired a video that was leaked to The National. It depicted Prime Minister Stephen Harper at what was supposed to be a closed-door session, speaking to supporters. Among Harper's targets were ''left-wing fringe groups'' whose constitutional challenges resulted in landmark decisions with respect to reproductive and religious freedoms, pay equity, workplace discrimination, same sex and immigrant rights, anti-Semitism, hate speech and much more. Here's an edited version of that video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWaxTotsqrE As The Star's Antonia Zerbisias wrote on Friday, September 11, Harper's speech was a direct attack on women, gays and lesbians and the disabled. Here's part of that column: ''Thank you (Mr. Prime Minister) for finally admitting that your government shut down the Court Challenges program in 2006 not just because, as then-Heritage Minister Bev Oda claim- ed in Parliament, you "recognize the importance of women" but because you believe that that women's rights are "left-wing fringe" rights. ''Truth is, you only "recognize the importance" of some of the women some of the time. Members of fringe groups such as R.E.A.L. Women, which opposes women's rights and same-sex rights, plus just about everything that doesn't hew to the "family values" one-man, one-stay-at-home-woman and lots-of-babies fantasy. ''But they are not "fringe" to you, Prime Minister. At least not judging from how everything your government attempts to do comes right out of R.E.A.L. Women's playbook. So thank you for, once again, opening that not-so-hidden agenda, the one that you would impose if you ever won a majority government. ''The agenda that thinks women's work is not as valuable as men's. ''The agenda that would treat lesbians and gays as less than equal. ''The agenda that would curb the rights of people with disabilities. ''The agenda that would discriminate on the basis of race and religion. ''The agenda that would leave women without reproductive freedom. ''That's because that Court Challenges program your government deemed "wasteful," was, according to its website, "a national non-profit organization which was set up in 1994 to provide financial assistance for important court cases that advance language and equality rights guaranteed under Canada's Constitution." ''Not just "important" cases, but landmark cases, many fought by LEAF, the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund – a group clearly overrun by rabid fringe feminists. ''They intervened in "left-wing fringe" court cases such as Torres v. Minto Management (2002), which prevented a landlord from increasing a single mother's rent by 41 per cent just because her husband had left the building. ''Then there was the "left-wing fringe" case The Queen v. Keegstra (1990), which kept a Holocaust denier from teaching his anti- Semitic ideas to Alberta schoolchildren. ''Or how about that "left-wing fringe" case Brooks v. Safeway (1989), which forced employers not to discriminate against pregnant staffers. ''And here you are, Mr. Harper, such a champion of "childcare choices" that, last week, you boasted of your government's failure to create a single daycare space. "We need to win a majority," you told your enthusiastic audience. "If we do not win a majority, this government will have a Liberal government propped up by the socialists and the separatists." ''And later, you added: "Imagine how many left-wing ideologues they would be putting in the courts." ''Frankly, I think more Canadians would find the alternative a scarier proposition.'' Read the rest of Antonia's column: http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/693897 Her blog Broadsides contains more information, plus links to these Supreme Court of Canada decisions: http://thestar.blogs.com/broadsides/2009/09/fringe-benefits.html In her column, Antonia proposed making T-shirts which would proclaim that she's ''Proud to be a member of that 'left-wing fringe group'called 'Women'" The reader response was so overwhelming that she started this group. With a little help from her friends Francesca Dobbyn, who came up with the original t-shirt design, Pale Cold, who tweaked it to make it more inclusive of a diverse range of women, Michael Hanna-Fein, who represents the supportive men and gays, and Jude MacDonald, who will be managing this page from now on, Antonia asked LEAF if it would be interested in taking on the t-shirt idea as a fundraiser. LEAF said yes! Thanks to Antonia who inspired this. Please share this group on your wall, and invite your friends! (read less)

On Wednesday, Sept. 9, CBC-TV aired a video that was leaked to The National. It depicted Prime Minister Stephen Harper at what was supposed to be a closed-door session, speaking to supporters. Among Harper's targets were ''left-wing fringe groups'' whose constitutional challenges resulted in landmark decisions with respect to reproductive and religious freedoms, pay equity, workplace discrimination, same sex and immigrant rights, anti-Semitism, hate speech and much more. Here's an edited... (read more)