Canada's Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, denies he had any part in the removal of gay rights info in a citizenship study guide released last fall. When a reporter challenged him and asked why he had removed content relating to same-sex marriage and charter rights protecting sexual orientation, Kenney said: "I did no such thing. No, no, you are wrong" before scarpering off to the Conservative caucus room in Centre Block.

This would be the same Jason Kenney who has a history of opposition to same-sex marriage. Back in 2005 when he was engaged in opposing the Civil Marriage Act (Bill C-38) Kenney told Toronto-area Punjabi journalists that gays had every right to marry - as long as it wasn't someone of the same sex.

When it comes to the truth of who removed gay content from the guide Kenney has either fallen victim to temporary amnesia or has a doppelganger working behind his back. The evidence would suggest that he or a body double ordered the gay content removed last June.We know this because senior department officials made a plea for him to reconsider. A memo from deputy minister Neil Yeates reads in part:

“Recommend the re-insertion of the text boxes related to ... the decriminalization of homosexual sex/recognition of same-sex marriage... Recommend the addition of ‘equality rights’ under list of rights. Had noted earlier that this bullet should be reinserted into the list as a means of noting the equality of all based on race, gender, sexual orientation etc ...”

Kenney overrode the requests by the department and the report was released without important information on gay rights.

Toronto Star coverage of the story notes that the omissions didn't go unnoticed:

The gay-rights group Egale Canada met with the minister in early December after learning the booklet made no reference to gay and lesbian rights, and is negotiating with the department to have them included in the next printing, about a year away.

Executive director Helen Kennedy said Kenney told the group that gay rights had been “overlooked” when the guide was being prepared. She expressed surprise when told draft versions contained references to gay rights and that they were ordered removed.

"Overlooked" makes it sound as though Kenney and co had left out some trifling detail.

Kenney's sidekick, Alykhan Velshi, in a lame effort to explain removal of gay content said it was to avoid the guide becoming "encyclopedic". While gay references have been expunged it's hard not to notice that sections on Canada's military past have been expanded. I'm sure there would be a fanzine section devoted to Stephen Harper in various leadership poses if they thought they could get away with it.

As Liberal MP Scott Brison rightly points out: “It’s becoming very clear that Minister Kenney never intended this to be a Canadian citizenship guide but instead a Conservative citizenship guide,”

The guide is less about the Canada we know and more about the Canada Tories-would-like-it-to-be. Not only have gay references been removed but a section that included a reference to church-run residential schools where aboriginal children were abused has also been deleted.

When he was asked about the gay deletions Kenney made a point of noting that there was a picture of Olympic gold medal swimmer Mark Tewksbury with the caption "prominent activist for gay and lesbian Canadians."

A cynical interpretation would be that anything gold medal or podium related is likely to get the Tory nod, and the accompanying caption of course is a handy line of defense against the red inking of gay content elsewhere. On principle Mark Tewksbury should demand that his photo be removed.