A stir over a labeling error  in a book excerpt in the Toronto Star this weekend regarding  the Canadian Constitution Foundation spilled over to a politically conservative site called No Apologies.

No Apologies found the error in The Toronto Star excerpt May 8, 2010

Click here to read what appears to be a lengthy excerpt from Marci McDonald’s book, “The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada,” due to be released Monday. One of the many illustrations of the absurdity of Ms. McDonald’s conspiracy theories is her labeling of the Canadian Constitution Foundation as a “Christian advocacy group.” One of CCF’s leading representatives and in-house lawyers is outspoken atheist libertarian, Karen Selick. How much credibility is Random House Canada going to get for publishing this book?

Book author Marci McDonald responded:

You were right about the mistaken reference to the Canadian Constitution Foundation as a “Christian” advocacy group in the Toronto Star’s excerpt of The Armageddon Factor. The book itself states no such thing and, in fact, describes the foundation as “legal advocacy group,” which has occasionally acted on behalf of Christians such as Stephen Boissoin. The error occurred when the newspaper was editing the text for excerpting and in no way reflects on the accuracy of the book. – Marci McDonald No Apologies comment May 8, 2010 Marci McDonald May 8, 2010

The Canadian Constitution Foundation’s Litigation Director was not convinced and responded:

Marci, that’s not a very convincing explanation. The Star’s reference to the CCF arose in connection with a reference to Shona Holmes, the plaintiff in litigation challenging the Ontario government health care monopoly. Shona’s case has nothing whatsoever to do with Christianity or any other religion, so why would you have mentioned her at all, except because you wanted to introduce some tie-in to the allegedly Christian advocacy group, the CCF?

Would the Star not have let you proof-read the “excerpt” before they publish it? The National Post always lets me proof-read any changes they propose to make to my op-eds.

I’ll be checking your book when it comes out to see what you really said.

Karen Selick, Litigation Director, the Canadian Constitution Foundation (and atheist)

Perhaps we can help clear this up.
On pages 342-343 The Armgeddon Factor in the chapter Here to stay:

Moreover, pundits who predicted those networks would vanish in the wake of the same-sex marriage defeat have instead seen them proliferate. Amid the stormy U.S. health-care debate of 2009, most Canadians were stunned to discover that one of their own was the star of a 2- million-dollar television campaign warning Americans about the perils of this country’s publicly funded medical system. Shona Homes, the poster girl for that attack, turned out to be fronting a lawsuit against Ontario’s health ministry spearheaded by a Calgary-based legal advocacy group named the Canadian Constitution Foundation. Orginally created by Conservative MP John Weston, the Foundation was at first not considered part of the Christian Right, but one of it’s board members, Dr. Will Johnston, is president of Canadian Physicians for Life, and Weston himself is an evangelical who once told christian law students that what set his Vancouver law firm apart was ” the regularity and informality of prayer practised by the partners.”  Although Weston’s initial focus was on pet libertarian peeves like medicare, since he stepped down to run for Parliament, the foundation has devoted many of it’s resources to defending evangelicals like former Alberta pastor Stephen Boissoin, in freedom-of-speech cases against another perceived incursion of the state: human rights commissions.

Nor is the foundation the only new presence on the evangelical political scene. In 2008, it was joined by the Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) founded by Mark Penninga, a Laurentian Leadership Centre alumnus and former spokesman for Focus on the Family Canada, whose mission is to ” bring a biblical perspective to  civil governments.” Both ARPA  and the Canadian Constitution Foundation are working with more established evangelical groups in a new push to co-ordinate their campaigns for greater effect. Nowhere has that joint strategizing been more evident than on the issue that has been pegged as the next flashpoint in the values wars: the de-criminalization of assisted suicide, or, as the religious right prefers to call it, euthanasia.

I commend No Apologies for bringing this to the public’s attention and the swiftness of author McDonald in providing an explanation and correction.