Evangelical lobbyist Charles McVety is issuing a new warning to the Conservative government, saying that it will “pay a price” in the way of a grassroots rebellion if it gives in to pressure from the film and television industry and amends or waters down its provision to deny government tax credits for offensive screen productions.In an interview with The Hill Times, Rev. McVety issued the new warning as the Senate Standing Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce studies the legislation, Bill C-10, and hears from the film and television industry about the so-called “censorship” provision.Rev. McVety said that the controversy over the provision has been generated largely by “a powerful lobby like the film industry and the arts industry” and that he is now concerned the governing Conservatives may “lose their minds” and give in to public pressure on the provision.

Six weeks ago McVety, the president of Canadian Christian College, told The Globe and Mail that he claimed credit for a  C-10 (omnibus bill) clause that would deny tax credits to TV and film productions that contain graphic sex and violence or other offensive content. Grass roots action online and in the film and TV industry was incredibly swift and the Senate sent C-10 to committee hearings.

see prior post

McVety is appearing before the Senate banking committee this week, and plans to go public again with another statement.

It is possible The Canadian Family Action Coalition has 40 thousand members, hard to say. And it’s possible every single one of them would believe every thing the leaders of the group says. Possible.   A half hour of research uncovers facts.
As soon as he spoke six weeks ago, his Ottawa political friends publicly distanced themselves. So now he is doing what he does best:

-  blaming others (media)
-  threatening (we’ll retaliate)
-  playing the martyr/persecution card (I’m misunderstood)
-  posturing (we’re doing this for your well-being Canadians) 
-  bragging (I can access Cabinet, have clauses put in bills, and make you notice my followers) 
-  using common fear tactics (if you don’ t listen and obey Canada will slide into a moral morass of no return)  
-  using outrage (if you don’t do what we want you’ll all pay)
-  fracturing  (only we have the moral smarts to stop this now -impending doom) 
-  and incredulity (surely 90% of Canadian agree with me)
-  polorizing (you are for us or against us) 

McVety is not registered as a lobbyist, although Brian Rushfeldt, the executive director of The Canadian Family Action Coalition is.

Rev. McVety has become a bit of a conversation piece for lobbyists around town, who are wondering whether he should have been registered as a lobbyist and how he managed such access to government.

Rev. McVety’s name was raised at a recent board meeting of the Government Relations Institute of Canada, an organization considered as the voice of the lobbying industry in Canada, with members concerned about the perception that one unregistered lobbyist can almost single-handedly influence public policy. It gives a bad name to those who play by the rules, say some lobbyists.

“He’s gone out and claimed that he influenced Bill C-10, and he’s been a one-man, lobbying wrecking machine,” one registered lobbyist told The Hill Times last week.

Conservative lobbyists are also said to be somewhat bothered by his access, having met with Cabinet ministers such as Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day (Okanagan-Coquihalla, B.C.), Justice Minister Rob Nicholson (Niagara Falls, Ont.) and a number of officials in the PMO, because when Rev. McVety makes headlines, he “scares the hell out of voters.”

And that is precisely what he is happiest doing and what he has done in the past, his approach is classic US religious right.  I see public interest over McVety and his comings and goings as a good thing; wide open.  Informed media giving him his bully pulpit gives voters an opportunity to understand  he is very much on the fringe in Canadian evangelical circles. This is not social conservatism, although  attempts continue to be made to package it that way. I haven’t seen any reputable group endorse his latest cause.  The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada carefully distanced themselves Saturday in The Ottawa Citizen’s When lobbyists speak in tongues. EFC Director Don Hutchinson:

“There’s a broad spectrum on the evangelical meter. Charles may be representative of one end, probably one extreme end, of that spectrum,” Mr. Hutchinson says.

In Canada, however, those beliefs simply fall well outside mainstream evangelism, Mr. Hutchinson says. “Public-policy development is not based on whether or not there’s a strong Biblical argument for it; it’s based on whether there’s a sound public-policy reason for the initiative.”

Still, Mr. McVety manages to project a public profile disproportionate to the segment of Christianity he champions, Mr. Mackey says.

“It’s easy to get a colourful quote from Charles. Some of the other major spokespersons for evangelical Christianity aren’t nearly as colourful.”

The swift response of voters, the film industry and the Senate six weeks ago was very grass roots.
Notice McVety doesn’t say what his ‘40,000′  followers are planning to do. 

Canada Family Action Coalition
The <meta> Ball:  All aquiver for God’s arrow (I disagree with the author the CM&A is a sect, or fundamentalist, and not a cult - it is an orthodox branch of evangelical conservatism. Why a  successful number of Reform politicians appeared from this denomination is a good question)
Pulpit and Politics - Dennis Gruending - Charles McVety in Harper’s halls of power