Drive For Justice 06: Rafe Mair, a Biography

“I don’t want Christian principles,” says Rafe Mair. “I want decent decisions, based upon justice for all and sound judgement in the public interest.

“But does that, for my vote, exclude the deeply religious?” He asks. Then he answers his own question:
“Yes. I don’t want criminal law or social laws or human rights based upon fundamentalists’ notion of Christian principles. Indeed, I don’t want government by people who, in order to get political support, must pander to the religious right…”

Note that in these statements, Mr. Mair makes some questionable assumptions:
• that Christian principles are incompatible with decent decisions or equal justice for all;
• that “Christian” equals “fundamentalist”;
• that Christians in politics “must pander to the religious right”—a term liberally used by Leftists to malign people of faith.

Rafe Mair similarly criticized Kari Simpson, actually comparing her to Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan, and alleging that she had written him a letter in which she accused him of defending pedophiles (which she denies).

But in an on-line Tyee opinion piece October 22, 2007, Mair himself wrote, “When oh when are we going to understand that pedophiles are sick people, and should be treated as patients and quarantined until doctors can state that it’s safe to release them? Putting them through the justice system merely ensures that they will be back on the street uncured.”

In short, he does not believe pedophiles should be prosecuted for their crimes, but should be medically treated—although psychological and psychiatric professionals state emphatically that a very low percentage of pedophiles will respond to such therapy.

Rafe Mair is a lawyer, former politician, political commentator and broadcast personality in British Columbia. He often labels his own opinions as “facts”, even though sometimes they are diametrically opposed to the real facts. And sometimes, to back up his so-called “facts”, he lies.

His political career began in 1975, when he was elected as Social Credit MLA for Kamloops. He held that seat, and also served as Minister of Health and then Education, until he retired from politics in 1981. During the patriation of the Constitution of Canada in 1981-82, he was BC’s chief delegate on constitutional matters.

In 1981, he left government to become a talk show host. Rafe soon landed the coveted morning commute time slot on CKNW radio. Despite high ratings, he was fired in June of 2003 after scandalous allegations were made public involving a female producer also employed at CKNW. Rafe then moved to CKBD, an oldies music station; his morning talk show ended in late 2005, after which he became a regular commentary guest on Omni Television‘s current affairs program, The Standard. Mair contributed three commentaries a week until January 2006, when the commentary segment of the program was deleted. However, he has continued his relationship with The Standard, guest-hosting the program from time to time. He remains active as a regular columnist for a chain of community newspapers and for the on-line magazine The Tyee, and he often appears as a political commentator for several broadcast outlets, including CBC Radio.

An avid fisherman, he has been an outspoken critic of salmon farming in BC. Although he has usually been considered politically conservative, Mair’s views have been very liberal on environmental and social issues.
Disillusioned with the three biggest federal parties, he has supported the Green Party; but he more commonly supports individual candidates, rather than parties—including Svend Robinson, NDP MP, who was convicted of stealing an expensive diamond ring for his “partner”.

Rafe Mair was the principal spokesperson for Save Our Rivers, a group organized to fight private run-of-river hydroelectric development. He is currently a contributor to The Common Sense Canadian, a news and opinion Internet site; and he also hosts a quasi-religious television program called The Search.