CANADA: Gay Talk Show Host Christopher Hyndman Found Dead In Toronto Alley

CBC News reports:

The body of Christopher Hyndman, co-host of the afternoon talk show Steven & Chris on CBC-TV, was found in an alleyway in Toronto's east end Monday night, police confirm. "It is with profound sadness that we share the news Christopher Hyndman died," said the public broadcaster in a memo distributed to staff Tuesday afternoon. "We extend our deepest sympathies to Steven [Sabados], family, friends and colleagues; our thoughts are with them all." Toronto police told CBC News on Tuesday that Hyndman, 49, was found without vital signs in an alleyway near the intersection of Queen Street and Broadview Avenue shortly after 11 p.m. ET Monday. CBC arts reporter Eli Glasner said the scene was near the apartment where Hyndman lived with Sabados, his off-screen partner and television co-host. Toronto police Det. Terry Wray said the investigation remains "completely open." He added that police would not comment further until completing interviews.

More from the Toronto Star:

Hyndman was co-host of the show with Steven Sabados, who was also his real-life partner. They were co-stars of the original Designer Guys show in 2001 as well as Design Rivals (2003) and So Chic with Steven and Chris (2005) before launching their afternoon talk show. The pair formed the Sabados Group Inc. in 1992, specializing in event planning, product launches and set design, his CBC biography says. A 2013 profile of Hyndman and Sabados by Xtra, then Toronto’s gay newsmagazine, called them “Canada’s gay-lifestyle TV guru couple” whose show Steven and Chris was “a bona fide hit for CBC” and aired in more than 70 per cent of the market on ABC’s Live Well Network. The couple told Maclean’s magazine the same year that they had met in a bar in 1988 when they both were working at CityTV.

Reruns of Steven & Chris have been pulled off the air. Below is the most recent clip posted to the show's YouTube channel.

(Tipped by JMG reader Edward)

Ebola Vaccine Trial: 100% Effective

Via Science Magazine:

A highly unusual clinical trial in Guinea has shown for the first time that an Ebola vaccine protects people from the deadly virus. The study, published online today by The Lancet, shows that the injection offered contacts of Ebola cases 100% protection starting 10 days after they received a single shot of the vaccine, which is produced by Merck. Scientists say the vaccine could help to finally bring an end to the epidemic in West Africa, now more than 18 months old. "This will go down in history as one of those hallmark public health efforts," says Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy in Twin Cities, Minnesota, who wasn't involved in the study. "We will teach about this in public health schools."

The vaccine was developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada.

CANADA: College Professor Fired After Saying "Queers Should Be Hanged"

CBC News reports:

An Ontario college announced one of its professors "is no longer an employee" at the school after he allegedly posted a homophobic comment on Facebook. St. Lawrence College said it had received a complaint about the recent comment that business professor Rick Coupland allegedly posted on Facebook. Spokeswoman Kelly Wiley called the comment "deeply concerning." "As a result of complaints about comments made on social media that were brought forward to the College, this matter was investigated internally. Mr. Coupland is no longer an employee at St. Lawrence College," the school tweeted on Tuesday. Screenshots of an alleged post by Coupland circulating on social media purport to show him sharing a link to a story about a rainbow flag being raised in St. Petersburg, Fla., accompanied with the comment, "It's the queers they should be hanging, not the flag."

Coupland's Facebook page has been deleted.

Carly Rae Jepsen - Run Away With Me

I believe she performed this last week at Freedom To Marry's "going out of business" gala.

Meanwhile In Winnipeg...

(Via Mashable)

TORONTO: Religious Groups Stage Anti-LGBT March Against Sex Education

Telesur reports:

Furious over what they say are radical changes to sex education curriculum, protesters direct their anger towards openly gay Premier Kathleen Wynne. Demonstrators in Toronto chanted “Kathleen, loser, lesbian loser!,” as they protested on Sunday against the revised sexual education curriculum in Canada's largest city. Comprised mainly of concerned parents and federal conservative activists, this growing anti-sex education movement strongly opposes the inclusion of topics such as consent, gender identity and sexual orientation in the province's public education system. Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne has accredited the movement's offensive tone to her own sexual identity as a lesbian and her involvement in the curriculum amendments. In defense of the revisions, which are the first since 1998, she stated that they are grounded in pedagogical research and diverse consultations with parent representatives.

The video is really something.


(Tipped by JMG reader Chaz)

CANADA: Ontario Bans "Ex-Gay" Torture

Ontario has become the first Canadian province to ban "ex-gay" torture. Via the Toronto Star:

Ontario has passed a landmark law banning so-called “conversion therapy” on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender children and preventing medical practitioners from billing OHIP for it. The legislation proposed by New Democrat MPP Cheri DiNovo won unanimous support from all three parties at Queen’s Park on Thursday, in time for Pride week, which begins June 19. It’s the first law of its kind in Canada and goes further than conversion therapy bans in several U.S. states by including protection for the transgender community. “We’re sending an incredibly strong message . . . there’s absolutely no room in an inclusive society for trying to change somebody’s sexual identity or their gender expression or their gender identity,” DiNovo told the Star. She said LGBTQ children are sometimes forced into the therapy by anxious parents and noted transgender people have an attempted suicide rate of 50 per cent. Susan Gapka, founder and chair of the Trans Lobby Group, called the bill “huge progress” while Health Minister Eric Hoskins, a family doctor, called conversion therapy a “dangerous treatment” and said people have the right “to be who they are.”

In the US "ex-gay" torture is banned in California, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington DC.

Viral Video Of The Day

The guy with the sunglasses just got fired.

CANADA: Irish Ex-Pats Say Yes Equality

"Egale proudly supports Ireland’s Yes Equality Campaign for marriage equality in the upcoming referendum on May 22nd. On behalf of all Irish Citizens living in Canada and all over the world, who can’t get home to cast their vote: VOTE YES!!"

TRAILER: Being Canadian

Now playing on VOD.

Stunning PFLAG Canada Ad Remembers All The Weddings That Never Happened

Holy crap, this is gorgeous. Get the tissues, seriously.

(Via Good As You)

Stephen Harper: Canada Is Israel's BFF

Bill Whatcott Flees To The Philippines

Infamous Canadian ex-gay crackpot Bill Whatcott has announced that he has permanently moved to the Philippines. Whatcott has been hauled into court multiple times on charges of hate speech, but in January he won a defamation suit against the CBC over their report that he was distributing the lyrics to a song titled Kill The Homosexuals. One wonders what he's running from in Canada or what he's running to in the Philippines. (Tipped by JMG reader David)

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: Last year Whatcott and Porno Pete LaBarbera were arrested at a Canadian university after they refused to stop distributing anti-gay materials. When they returned for their trial in October, they preceded their court appearance by picketing the courthouse with anti-gay signs. They were found not guilty in December. Also last year Whatcott infiltrated Vancouver's pride parade under a false name and handed out fake condom packets which featured anti-gay screeds and a photo of an emaciated AIDS patient. In May last year Whatcott filed a complaint against a computer repair store which he claims refused him service on the basis of his religious beliefs.

CANADA: Anti-Gay Crackpot Bill Whatcott Wins Defamation Suit Against CBC

A Saskatchewan judge has ordered Canada's national broadcaster to pay $30K to infamous anti-gay crackpot Bill Whatcott over a report on his distribution of anti-gay flyers which included the lyrics to a song titled "Kill The Homosexuals."

In 2011 the CBC aired a national report on Bill Whatcott as he took his appeal of a Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission decision to the Supreme Court of Canada. The news report included video shots of a flyer Whatcott distributed in Alberta that had the lyrics of a parody song titled “Kill the homosexuals.” In his ruling, Justice Richard Elson of Court of Queen’s Bench says the second page of the flyer had a paragraph explaining that Whatcott didn’t actually want to kill homosexuals — he wanted them to “repent of their sins and turn to Jesus Christ.” Whatcott argued the CBC defamed him when they showed the lyrics of the parody song, but did not show the statement on the next page, thereby making his views seem more extreme. The CBC had argued it provided no comment on the flyer and that taken in the context of the whole broadcast the video shots wouldn’t cause viewers to believe that Whatcott advocated killing homosexuals.

 Whatcott claims to be a former prostitute.

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: Last year Whatcott and Porno Pete LaBarbera were arrested at a Canadian university after they refused to stop distributing anti-gay materials. When they returned for their trial in October, they preceded their court appearance by picketing the courthouse with anti-gay signs. They were found not guilty last month. Also last year Whatcott infiltrated Vancouver's pride parade under a false name and handed out fake condom packets which featured anti-gay screeds and a photo of an emaciated AIDS patient. In May last year Whatcott filed a complaint against a computer repair store which he claims refused him service on the basis of his religious beliefs.

An Astronaut's Guide To Optimism

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield became an internet sensation last year when he posted his performance of David Bowie's Space Oddity from the International Space Station. Today Hadfield posts an optimistic view of the coming year in a clip that appears to have been produced with some help from the Gates Foundation.

CANADA: Porno Pete Found Innocent

Via the CBC News:

Anti-gay activists Peter LaBarbera and Bill Whatcott have been found not guilty of mischief. In April, LaBarbera, a U.S. citizen with a group called Americans for Truth about Homosexuality and Whatcott, a longtime anti-gay crusader in Saskatchewan, got into trouble while distributing literature on the campus. A university official asked the two to leave. They refused, police were called, and they were taken away in handcuffs. Later they were charged with mischief under the Criminal Code. Today, Bill Whatcott reacted to the not guilty ruling by saying he'll return to the campus some time next year.

Denmark: We Own the North Pole

Via the BBC:

Denmark has presented a claim to the UN, arguing that the area surrounding the North Pole is connected to the continental shelf of Greenland, a Danish autonomous territory. Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard said it was a "historic and important milestone" for Denmark. Canada and Russia have already asserted their own sovereignty over the energy-rich Arctic territory. Arctic nations have agreed that a UN panel will settle the dispute. The focus of the dispute is the Lomonosov Ridge, a 1,800km-long (1,120 miles) underwater mountain range that splits the Arctic in two. Back in 2008, a US Geological Survey report estimated that as much as 22% of the world's undiscovered and recoverable resources lay north of the Arctic Circle, but the North Pole itself is unlikely to have much oil or gas beneath its deep waters.

A panel of UN scientists will evaluate Denmark's claim.

Canada Joins Twitter

I wonder how much they paid the person who's been sitting that handle all this time. Twitter officially bans the sale of its handles, but some are known to have gone for upwards of six figures.

HOUSTON: Ted Cruz Declares Victory

Via Breitbart:

Cruz was a swift and effective leader in the backlash against the subpoenas, which should earn him quite a bit of goodwill from social conservatives in the 2016 presidential primaries, where he's likely to be a contestant. This is especially true given that some of his likely competitors are nervous about getting drawn into the gay marriage debate, or any of its peripheral controversies. And yet, the big-picture significance of Subpoena-geddon seems completely lost on the Beltway crowd, which treated the whole story as a tiny background hiss in the cacophony of 2014 midterm election coverage.

Cruz sent the below clip to be played at Sunday's hate rally.  According to the Washington Post, the clip is a "victory lap" in celebration of his "big win" over Mayor Annise Parker.

CANADA: Christian Law School Won't Be Accredited Due To Its Position On Gays

A Christian law school due to open in British Columbia won't be accredited due to its position on homosexuality. Via Global News:

The Law Society of British Columbia has voted against accrediting a proposed law school at Trinity Western University. In a binding decision, 74 per cent of lawyers voted against TWU’s program, with 8,039 ballots cast in total – more than 60 per cent of all lawyers eligible to vote. The society says the decision means that “the proposed law school at Trinity Western University is not an approved faculty of law for the purpose of the Law Society’s admission program.” Trinity Western University is a private institution in Langley with around 3,600 students. The school requires all students to abide by a covenant that forbids intimacy outside heterosexual marriage, which some argue discriminate against those in the LGBT community. They plan to open the law school in 2016. The Law Society’s council originally approved the school, but was asked to reconsider by members. Last month, they formally approved a referendum.

More from CBC News:

TWU president Bob Kuhn expressed his frustration with the recent vote as he left a ratification meeting at the law society on Friday morning. "They had to choose between the principles upon which they made the initial decision and the popularity of that decision among lawyers in the province," says Kuhn. "We're disappointed of course they chose the latter. But that's the reality of people in an elected position." British Columbia is now the third province, after Ontario and Nova Scotia, to officially reject the university's law school. Kuhn says it's not clear whether the Christian university will move ahead with its 2016 opening date, and the school will decide in the coming weeks whether to file a judicial review.