MPs barred from
speaking about same-sex Mountie wedding

Canada's Conservative members of parliament have been prohibited from commenting on the high-profile marriage next month of two gay Royal Canadian Mounted Police constables, according to a gag order issued by the prime minister's office this week. The gag order went to all MPs but was aimed at "the small minority who might say something stupid," one caucus member said, according to a report by the Candaian Press.

The order is the latest in a determined effort by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to control and limit his new government's public messages. It follows party strategists' successful suppression during the election campaign of outspoken social conservatives whose opinions might have harmed the party's climb to power.

At one of Harper's campaign events in January, party officials spirited a well-known anti-abortion advocate into a back kitchen--in full view of bemused reporters--rather than risk the local Tory candidate's views being aired by the media.

Now the marriage of RCMP constables Jason Tree and David Connors in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, appears to be causing some unease in the prime minister's office. Several Conservative MPs quietly confirmed they had received the gag order after the story of the Mountie wedding received widespread media coverage last week. ( The Advocate )