Realtor behind ‘homophobic’ newsletter fired, says attention is ruining his life
 

An Ontario real estate agent has been fired by his agency after distributing newsletters promoting the value of traditional families, but says he is not homophobic and would be a “very good neighbour” to a gay man or woman.

Andrew Ciastek says he did not intend to offend anyone when he mailed a newsletter to residents of a Mississauga, Ont., neighbourhood that included a note entitled “traditional family is the best for the future of the kids.”

The article is said to have been taken from a Polish weekly newspaper called Sieci and pointed to research done by Texas sociologist Mark Regnerus. Regnerus suggests children of same-sex couples are more likely to be unemployed, depressed and get in trouble with the law.

“I put a few sentences from reputable polish (sic) weekly. I did not suggest in any way that this is my opinion," Ciastek wrote in an email to Yahoo! Canada News.

"If I only knew that some people were so much hurt by the statistics I included I would never do it and for that I really wanted to apologize."

A RE/MAX spokesperson confirmed that Ciastek had been "terminated and is no longer affiliated" with the agency. His profile had been scrubbed from the RE/MAX website on Friday.

A statement released by Christine Martysiewicz said the company "cannot and will not tolerate any form of discriminatory behaviour."

Ciastek claims the the affair was a misunderstanding. He said when he first moved to Canada more than 20 years ago, he lived in Toronto and participated in gay parades because they were colourful and he loved dancing. He said he was concerned about the impact that news coverage of his newsletter would have on his family.

"If I had a gay or lesbian neighbour I probably would be a very good neighbour and I would defend my neighbour if somebody wanted to offend him/her verbally or otherwise for the simple reason that everybody, no matter what colour or gender, has the right to love and be loved," he wrote.

Ciastek sends frequent newsletters to the community that included details on agency as well as information about the real estate market. Three recent flyers forwarded to Yahoo! Canada included some topics that could be useful to homeowners, such as information about paint and how to maintain air conditioning units, as well as tips on insulating an attic.

Other, more general, details were also occasionally included, such as an article on trans-fats and the study about traditional families.

Reaction to Ciastek’s newsletter has been strong, with residents complaining to local police and the Human Rights Tribunal. No charges are expected. A profile for Ciastek real estate agent ranking site currently contains 12 comments, all posted after the controversial letter came to light.

Most of them were anonymous, all of them were negative, and only one suggested the reviewer has business dealings with Ciastek.

“I regret my business relationship with him but it’s too much work,” said the one anonymous user who claimed a connection. “I cannot believe he would put out a flyer slagging one group of potential buyers without thinking about the harm it would cause to my listing. Moreover some potential buyers would definitely choose another house vs. mine if they are already fence sitting. He doesn't represent my values. But I realized this too late.”

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/daily...160030598.html

I hope some others had the chance to see Gord Downie and The Tragically Hip's final performance. It was awesome. Broke my heart a little bit.

Here, in my little town, they live streamed the performance and invited one and all down to the beach to watch the performance....
You are absolutely right....it was heartbreaking...

I :hk19: Canada!

I just found this out when reading about Brazil, the water, and the olympics. The article talked about how Canada is also guilty of dumping raw sewage into the ocean. I checked it out cause I figure it might be something worth knowing in case the opportunity to change it presents itself. It's hard to change things we aren't aware of.

http://environment.about.com/od/wate...nadasewage.htm

Canada flushes some 200 billion liters of raw sewage directly into natural waterways every year, from the St. Lawrence River to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean. That’s only a fraction of the three trillion liters of sewage Canadians produce annually—about 6 percent, in fact—but it’s still enough to fill more than 40,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

According to Macleans, Canada’s leading news magazine, the sewage is a mixture of water, human waste, microorganisms, toxic chemicals, heavy metals, excreted pharmaceuticals and, potentially, pathogens such as cholera, typhoid and hepatitis B.

"It is widely recognized that inadequate or no waste water treatment have negative impact on aquatic life, human uses of water, fisheries and human health,” Environment Canada told Macleans. “Therefore it is unacceptable and shortsighted not to maintain and upgrade infrastructure."

A number of municipalities throughout Canada persist in this practice that the Sierra Legal Defence Fund calls a “national disgrace,” particularly coastal cities where for many years the sewage could be dumped in open water and remain out of sight and out of mind for many people.

Unlike the European Union and the United States, Canada has no national standards for sewage treatment that cities and towns must follow. So while some Canadian cities have top-notch sewage treatment facilities, others have none.

Even Montreal, a seemingly world-class city, pumps 900 billion liters of sewage into the St. Lawrence River. Most of it receives primary treatment, which reduces the number of solids somewhat by means of a settling process, but 3.6 billion liters of that total enters the river as untreated raw sewage.

According to many environmentalists, however, the worst offender in the Canadian landscape is Victoria, the picturesque provincial capital of British Columbia. Not only does Victoria pump its raw sewage directly into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, an arm of the Pacific Ocean, but city officials also claim they are doing the “right and responsible thing” for their community and the environment. They see no reason to change.

Anyone else fuming about Trudeau supposedly trying to back track on electoral reform? :explode: Hopefully people will come together to hold him accountable if he continues to try to, instead of just fawning over his hair or whatever.