Minister Jason Kenney's radio interview with Charles Adler today regarding NDP MP Jinny Simms comments on the new citizenship guide:

ADLER: Okay. Thanks very much. All right, look, Minister Kenney we have been talking for years now about the differences between multiculturalism and pluralism and the idea of defending our culture, not treating our culture like all others, and the idea that some cultures involve themselves in certain practices that we don't appreciate, we don't approve, and sometimes those practices are, objectively speaking, called barbaric. And so we want people from all over the world to come here but there are aspects of barbaric cultures, aspects of those cultures which are barbaric. And we're talking about sexual abuse and we're talking about some other things that I think everyone thinks of as, objectively speaking, backwards or barbaric or hideous or un-Canadian. But unfortunately in this new pamphlet that you've got, 143 pages, or 146 pages, pointing out to newcomers to Canada what it is that we don't approve of, I guess there's always going to be an opposition. Some people don't like the idea that you're using the B-word, barbaric?KENNEY: Yeah, it's unbelievable. When we used the same language to condemn practices like honour killings and forced marriages, female genital mutilation, etc. in our citizenship study guide called Discover Canada three years ago, a Liberal member of Parliament, Justin Trudeau, accused us of being, quotes, insensitive for having characterized these crimes as barbaric. He thought this was too judgmental. And today we have a similar sentiment being expressed by New Democrat member of Parliament Jinny Simms who is my critic for immigration in the NDP. She's afraid that by condemning these practices as, quotes, barbaric that we are somehow stigmatizing certain cultures. I don't know what she's talking about or what cultures she is referring to but I am absolutely prepared to stigmatize culturally-based practices that treat women like property rather than people.

ADLER: Well, see I don't see you stigmatizing cultures at all. I don't see anyone who's stigmatizing if you want to use the word, or if she wants to use the word stigmatize. What you're saying is, you know, you've got to check your guns at the door. I mean you cannot involve yourself in genital mutilation in this country. It's not about your culture. It may be an aspect that some people in your culture practice. It's not the culture we have a problem with, it's the behavior.

KENNEY: Precisely. And the fact is some people may try to justify these as being culturally-based but they are not acceptable in Canada. And the reason we're using this clear and strong language Charles is because some people have misunderstood the concept of multiculturalism as giving a kind of an approbation, approval to do anything, to bring any practice that supposedly is rooted in cultural traditions to this country. And what we're trying to say is that multiculturalism is about celebrating what's best about our backgrounds while becoming fully Canadian and accepting our core Canadian values including the equality of men and women, equality before the law, that we use peaceful rather than violent means to resolve conflicts, that freedom of religion and conscience. These are uncompromisable values and it's useful I think to be clear with some newcomers who may not fully appreciate that. And that's why we're using this language.

ADLER: All right. Luring women from countries around the world into this country to have them as prostitutes and/or sex slaves. What aspect of that would the opposition have trouble with in characterizing as barbaric?

KENNEY: I cannot possibly imagine but we do see this happening both through forced marriages as well as human trafficking. You know there are sometimes young women in very vulnerable circumstances who are forced into marrying often an older Canadian man from the same community or background. They are then sponsored into the country as a spouse, coming in as a sponsored immigrant, and then of course these often young and vulnerable women are often subject to all sorts of exploitation. What we're trying to say is no, we will not tolerate this in our immigration system and we will condemn it clearly. You know what? Yes, there are in some traditions legitimate bona fide arranged marriages where the spouse and the... the bride and the groom both consent to the whole marriage but where you've got an 18-year-old girl who is being forced to marry some 70-year-old guy she's never met, and she has no choice or say in the matter, that is totally unacceptable in Canada and I don't mind saying it.

ADLER: Spousal abuse.

KENNEY: Yeah.

ADLER: Spousal abuse is in there. Now we've got spousal abuse obviously in this country; spousal abuse is not restricted to certain cultures.

KENNEY: Of course not.

ADLER: What specifically are you talking about?

KENNEY: Well it's true that of course domestic violence happens in families of all different backgrounds but it's also true that some people come to Canada from countries where there are different cultural expectations with respect to the treatment of women. And, you know, it's not a secret that recently there was a revelation about a book being published here in Canada giving guidelines about how precisely to beat your wife. You know, what we're saying is, I'm sorry, that does not belong in Canada, that is not acceptable here. And... You know there may be old stock Canadians who are involved in domestic violence, but at least they know that's against the law, that's totally unacceptable in this country. We simply want to make sure that everyone has that knowledge.

ADLER: Another one that I don't know how anybody could possibly oppose is honour killings. Download for me would you on what kind of feedback you get from political opponents on honour killings being anything but barbaric?
KENNEY: Well as I say when we referred to honour killings and so-called honour crimes as barbaric in our citizenship guide three years ago Justin Trudeau came out and said that he thought that this was insensitive. And I frankly still to this day can't comprehend what he meant.StarBuzzOnline.com