In British Columbia, the B.C. Conservatives are climbing steadily in the polls, and may have a chance to unseat the provincial NDP government in October. Thus, predictably, the smears have begun – and as always, Canadian Conservatives are falling for it.
Damon Scrase, the candidate for the riding of Courtenay-Comox (on Vancouver Island) has dropped out of the race after an “exposé” was released on X (formerly Twitter) by Jas Johal, a journalist and former B.C. Liberal MLA.
Johal released a series of tweets posted by Scrase with the caption: “1. If B.C. Conservatives want any chance at mainstream political acceptance, they need to dump some of their candidates with extreme views. For example, Damon Scrase, candidate in Courtenay-Comox, who says Pride is for ‘degenerates’ and part of a mental-illness factory #bcpoli.”
This is a complete mischaracterization, in almost every instance, of what Scrase actually said – and it’s worth going through these allegedly offensive tweets. The first one, from 2022, reads:
Degenerates were given tacit license to break public indecency laws at these parades. It has been invalidating the ‘love is love’ movement for over a decade. Sad because the result is countless children being MEMED into doubting their sexualities and the truth of gender binary.
Scrase followed that up by noting: “Post-modernity and it’s decadent beliefs, exacerbated by social media, is a mental illness factory.” That, you’ll notice, is very different than calling the Pride movement itself “a mental illness factory.” But the truth is that Pride celebrations are packed with people in fetish costumes, bondage gear – or nothing at all. It’s also true that this is done in front of children. In fact, Canada’s state broadcaster, the CBC, reported that children will see nude, adult men with their genitals hanging out in public – and suggested that it might be a good opportunity to have instructive discussions with the little ones.
In a sane country, political careers would end for supporting that. I’m against little kids being exposed to naked, middle-aged men flaunting their private parts in the street. How about you? That’s what Scrase should have said.
Here’s the thing with ‘pride,’ it was supposed to be about love and THAT is why it went mainstream. Since 2012 it has become a celebration of fringe sexuality where phallus-themed food is sold on every corner and perverts expose themselves to children for kicks. It won’t last.
Some on the left have claimed Ford’s description of Pride as an event where ‘middle-aged men with pot bellies’ run down the street ‘buck naked’ was evidence of homophobia. I’d say that was just an accurate description of what goes on. Disturbingly, more and more parents are bringing young children to watch the parade, exposing them to provocative displays of sexuality that no child should witness. If a politician believes in family values, why would he or she want to be associated with such debauchery?
Noting these things is not “phobic.” It is observant – which Johal is not. His third bit of evidence that Scrase is beyond the pale is a retweet from 2022, featuring a photo of three adult men, naked except for bondage gear and leather puppy masks, kneeling in the street in front of a little girl. It’s a real photo, from a real Pride event. What do you think offended Johal? The violation of a child’s innocence? Of course not. It was the fact that the photo was captioned: “You may live to see man-made horrors beyond your comprehension,” which he falsely characterized as saying that LGBT people are “man-made horrors.”
Johal ended with a call to the B.C. Conservatives to remove Scrase, and it appears that they asked him to stand down. Scrase made the announcement on X:
He had nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, there are worse photos from Pride celebrations he could have posted. But we live in a political climate where a grown man can defend children being exposed to sexual fetishes in the street – and do so proudly – while someone who decries this horror must step down and apologize. What a profoundly twisted political culture we’ve created.
