RE/MAX fires agent for flyer promoting traditional family; kids better off with a mom and dad
MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, May 7, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An independent contractor was fired by RE/MAX on Thursday after the media took note of a real estate flyer he had distributed that included an excerpt of an article on the back about how children do best in a household with their married mother and father.
Andrew Ciastek, who immigrated to Canada years ago and speaks with a heavy Polish accent, came under fire after some Mississauga area residents complained to RE/MAX, Peel Regional Police, and the Ontario Human Rights Commission about the flyer he had handed out in April.
The realtor has frequently sent market-related flyers to the community, filling the reverse side with interesting trivia. Previous flyers had included information about how trans-fat intake increases the risk of depression, how to choose quality paint, how to maintain an air conditioning unit, and why a home owner should insulate the attic.
But it appears his latest flyer hit a nerve.
“[They’re] trying to destroy an innocent person,” Ciastek told LifeSiteNews.com. “I want to have the same life I was having a week ago, with small pleasures and small troubles. This is what I want. I don’t want nothing more, nothing less.”
“Why am I the most hated person in Ontario today?”
On the backside of the offending flyer, Ciastek had posted an article from a Polish news source, which said: “Traditional family is the best for the future of the kids.”
Drawing on a recent study by sociology professor Mark Regnerus, the article said: “[Regnerus] discovered that among offspring of homosexual couples unemployment is three times higher than among offspring of heterosexual couples.” A picture of a man and woman with two children at the beach filled half the page.
The day The Toronto Star broke the story about the flyer, Ciastek was fired.
"The views and opinions expressed in the piece obviously do not reflect those of RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic Canada or the other RE/MAX agents," said spokesperson Christine Martysiewicz. "It was a poor choice on (Ciastek's) behalf and we sincerely apologize."
“We're offended by the insensitivity shown here just as much as the community is. We take pride in the diversity of our workforce and our clients,” she said.
While Ciastek has been labeled ‘homophobic’ and ‘anti-gay,’ he is not the traditional family crusader that homosexual activists have made him out to be. He has admitted to attending Toronto’s Gay Pride parades. He told Yahoo! News Canada that he “probably would be a very good neighbour” to homosexuals since he believes that “everybody, no matter what colour or gender, has a right to love and be loved.”
“I don’t hate anybody. I’m not anti-gay or anything,” he told LifeSiteNews. Ciastek has since issued an apology, offering to make a donation to charity in the hope of appeasing his critics.
But he says he doesn’t understand the backlash against the flyer.
“Right now, I am the victim and my family,” he said.
In the social study Ciastek referenced, University of Texas sociologist Mark Regnerus had found that children raised by homosexuals have significantly more social and mental-health problems than children raised by heterosexual parents.
Regnerus’ research methods and findings were firmly upheld by university officials after homosexual activists accused the researcher of crafting a study “designed so as to be guaranteed to make gay people look bad, through means plainly fraudulent and defamatory.”
Gwen Landolt, national vice-president of REAL Women Canada, called the backlash over the flyer an “attack” that serves as a “prime example of the viciousness of political correctness”.
“Political correctness has exceeded any standards of reasonableness,” she said.
“The pro-homosexuals are the most intolerant group we have in Canada,” she added. “They are intolerant because they don’t want anyone who doesn’t accept their agenda to have any say, to be involved in society. They want to marginalize them. They want to control society. They are totally, utterly, and completely intolerant.”
Jack Fonseca, project manager for Campaign Life Coalition, called the response to the flyer “more shocking proof that soft-totalitarianism has arrived in Canada, under the banner of ‘gay rights.’”
“We see now that when gay activists talk about ‘honouring diversity,’ it’s political double-speak for ‘imposing uniformity in thought, belief and opinion’. They tolerate no dissent,” he said.
“The moral authority granted to homosexual activists by legalizing gay ‘marriage’ is being used as a stick to beat those with whom they disagree,” he said. “It’s being used not only to silence Christians and people with traditional values, but also to destroy their lives. This poor Mississauga man was not being ‘anti-gay’ in the least, as he was caricatured in media reports. He was merely supporting the traditional family.”
“Before the true definition of marriage was abolished, gay-activists marginalized the concerns expressed by pro-family advocates by accusing them of ‘sky is falling’ alarmism. Well, the sky is now falling… at least on the heads of those who dare to publicly exercise their constitutional right to freedom of speech and freedom of religion.”
Mississauga residents who took issue with Ciastek’s flyers decided not to file a human rights complaint after receiving legal advice.
Contact info:
Christine Martysiewicz
RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic Canada
Ph: 905.542.2400
RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic Canada
Ph: 905.542.2400
Find online e-mail form here.
