Congratulations to letter carriers at Depot F in Vancouver and their local leadership for standing against hatred and standing up for human rights. On Thursday, October 26, sixty sisters and brothers refused to deliver homophobic flyers from an Ontario-based religious group.  They have sent a message, reported widely here and internationally, that CUPW members consider discrimination and homophobic hate a serious matter.

Many messages of support

The union received quite a few comments about this incident through the feedback feature on our national website. Almost all of the comments were positive and most of them were from non-CUPW members.  We haven’t gotten this much feedback since negotiations in 2003. A few examples follow:

“….I was outraged to hear that Canada Post is asking its postal workers in Vancouver to deliver anti-gay hate mail brochures [...] are profits more important to CP than human rights?”

“….Shame on Canada Post! The workers were courageous and should be congratulated. I stand in solidarity with them!”

“….I just had to write to tell you I am bursting with pride and gratitude over this display of integrity and solidarity. I warmly congratulate everyone involved and I thank you for doing the right thing.”

This message was received from a gay man in South Africa.  “I would just like to be a voice in the wilderness and congratulate our comrades in Canada for taking a stand against delivering homophobic literature...without actions such as these by comrade workers, we would be without hope.”

Support in the House of Commons and elsewhere

Total strangers have approached me on the street to tell me how much they appreciate the actions of our members. Many people have left messages of support on the general voice-mailbox at national office.

On October 27^th, Vancouver Member of Parliament and NDP labour critic Libby Davis told the House of Commons:

“Mr. Speaker, yesterday in Vancouver, hard-working letter carriers took a courageous stand and refused to deliver anti-gay literature. The so-called literature amounts to a homophobic rant calling HIV-AIDS a homosexual plague comparing gays and lesbians to fleas on rats and blaming homosexuality for the global spread of this devastating disease.

[...]This hate mail would never meet the standards of any newspaper, TV or radio station in Canada and yet Canada Post, I would point out, says that it meets its standards. Why does it have such low standards and why does it not have a policy against this?

Again I ask the parliamentary secretary to make it clear that he will instruct Canada Post to bring in rules that will ensure this kind of hate literature is not distributed through our postal system.”

Canada Post’s response

Canada Post’s spokespeople claim that they are required to deliver the homophobic flyers.

The regulations governing Canada Post say that mail is considered to be non-mailable if it is "in contravention of an Act or a regulation of Canada." The Canada Postal Guide says that mail is non-mailable when it is "prohibited by law (e.g., illegal, obscene, fraudulent)."

CUPW thinks that Canada Post needs to provide its managers and spokespeople with a better understanding of what may and may not be mailable.

The Vancouver police say that the B.C Hate Crime Team is currently investigating to determine whether the homophobic flyers are hate literature as described in the Criminal Code

In spite of this, Canada Post is threatening to discipline letter carriers who refused to deliver the flyers.  The union believes these workers should never have been asked to deliver literature that is tantamount to harassment and intimidation based on sexual orientation (and a violation of Article 5 of the urban operations collective agreement).

The CUPW National Executive Board supports the courageous actions of our members and leaders in Vancouver.  Today, I wrote to Canada Post President Moya Greene demanding that no discipline be imposed and that immediate steps be taken to ensure that the corporation's employees are not used to spread hatred and intolerance.