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Anti-homosexuality brochure held up at Canada Post
Nov 3, 2006
Focus: GLBT
Action Request: Various
Location: United States
Plain Brown Envelope
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2006/10/26/bc-postal.html

Anti-homosexuality brochure held up at Canada Post

Last Updated: Thursday, October 26, 2006 | 12:23 PM PT
CBC News

Canada Post says a controversial religious brochure that condemns homosexuality will be delivered to hundreds of homes in East Vancouver, despite the objections of letter carriers.

The 28-page pamphlet is published by a fundamentalist Baptist group based in Ontario, and condemns homosexuality as ungodly, unhealthy and unnatural.

Vancouver mail sorter Andy Henderson was the first person at his postal station to notice the pamphlet, and was shocked by what he read.

"The first words I saw when I picked it up were: 'The plague of this 21st Century: the consequences of the sin of homosexuality (AID.' "

He and the other postal employees say they consider it hate mail and have refused to handle it.

"You wouldn't be able to find one television station that would accept this ad mail as a 30-second advertising spot," said Henderson. "And yet Canada Post will take it. And their point is, 'If it's legal, we'll deliver it.' "

Canada Post management told the workers on Wednesday that it's not in the business of censorship, and said the letters would be delivered.

That stance prompted about 60 postal workers at the Canada Post plant in downtown Vancouver to hold a short protest Thursday morning.

"So the employees walked out of this facility because most people are deeply offended by the nature of the literature," said union local president Ken Mooney.

He told CBC News that the workers have since returned to their jobs, waiting to see what management is going to do next.

"I'm now told they're not going to force us to handle this mail. So they've backed off a little bit. So we're just waiting to see how this plays out."

Canada Post spokeswoman Colleen Frick says the company has a contract to deliver the brochure and it will do just that.

She notes that it was "deemed acceptable and appropriate for mailing under the Canada postal guide.

"The criteria is very specific. And if something is not deemed obscene in nature, then the item will be acceptable for mailing. And this particular item was deemed appropriate. So it will be delivered."

The union says management has now indicated that the brochures will be put in envelopes and delivered by management personnel.


Interesting... the crime here seems to be that the text of the pamphlet was visible, so that any sorting-plant worker or letter carrier could read it and so be offended.

If the Biblethumps had just taken the time to stick the pamphlets in envelopes, no one would have noticed, at least until someone at home opened one such (presumably unsolicited) admail and possibly complained to Canada Post. But that's different, that's a consumer complaint.

I wonder - would a militant animal-rights letter carrier one day refuse to carry brochures for M+M Meat Market, because advertising meat for eating is aiding and abetting speciesism and murder? A rad-fem who won't deliver girlie magazines (or at a stretch, Chatelaine or Vogue, since they also objectify)? What about a fundie-nutty postie who won't even touch copies of, say, Herizons because it contradicts what the Bible/Koran/Talmud says about the station of women in proper society?

Further reinforces my belief that Canada Post is just not that interested in people using the mails as a means of personal communication - the real money is in pizza flyers and barking-mad junkmailers. I'm sure they are awaiting the day when the mail no longer needs to be addressed at all, so they can hire chimps to stuff the boxes.
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Posted: Nov 3, 2006 7:28am

 
 
 
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