Ugandan parliamentarian blasts Canadian Foreign Affairs minister over gay ‘marriage’ remark

QUEBEC, October 24, 2012  - The Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, Ms. Rebecca Kadaga, took Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird to task at an international summit in Quebec City for his remarks criticizing Uganda’s ban on same-sex “marriage.”

Kadaga accused Baird of harboring a “colonial attitude” towards African nations and interfering in her country’s internal affairs, after Baird, in an address to the Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), denounced Uganda for violating gay rights and oppressing homosexuals.

Rebecca Kadaga

Moreover, Ms. Kadaga claimed, according to a report by the Daily Trust, that Canada refused to grant entry visas to most Ugandan parliamentarians, and that she was prevented from making a presentation at the conference by the organizers, due to Uganda’s ban on same-sex “marriage.”

Baird cited the brutal murder of homosexual activist David Kato as an example of the dangers faced by open homosexuals in Uganda. Kato died after being bludgeoned to death by a homosexual prostitute whom he failed to pay for his services. However, his murder has been widely cited by homosexualist activists as a case of “anti-gay” violence.

Uganda has consistently stood against pressure from international gay activists and the UN to accept Western sexual values.

In 2005, the Ugandan Parliament adopted a constitutional amendment that criminalized same-sex “marriage” and specified that “marriage is lawful only if entered into between a man and a woman.”

“If homosexuality is a value for the Canadian people, that’s not a problem for us, that’s it’s issue, but one shouldn’t force Ugandans to accept homosexuality because we’re not Canadian citizens,” Kadaga said to loud applause from parliamentarians from African and Arab countries at the IPU conference.

“Ignorance and arrogance, that is how I would describe Mr Baird,” said Ms. Kadaga according to a Globe and Mail report.

She added that the Ugandan people do not “share the same values” as Canada but pointed out that her government does not promote violence against homosexuals.

In September, Baird said in a speech to the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations that he will continue to promote homosexual rights as a key component of Canada’s foreign policy.

As part of that effort, Baird said, he will continue to work with western countries to promote homosexual rights in countries around the world where “violent mobs … seek to criminalize homosexuality,” and to make Canada a welcoming haven for homosexual refugees.

“We’re working with allies like the EU and the United States on encouraging the decriminalization of homosexuality,” Baird said. “We’re working with all political parties in the House of Commons to fight those who restrict the basic human rights, from Kampala to St. Petersburg.”

“This is a very high level of arrogance for him to attack my country,” Ms. Kadaga told the IPU delegates.

Baird was reported to have shrugged off the criticism, retorting, “Sometimes the truth hurts.”

Contact info:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper
House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6
Phone: 613-992-4211
Fax: 613-941-6900
EMail: stephen.harper@parl.gc.ca