Reposted from The Pagan Circle forum
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The Toronto Star
Miss Toronto Tourism officials reject reigning Miss Canada Plus because she reads tarot cards
Jan 28, 2008 04:30 AM
Jim Byers - Staff Reporter
She might be a witch, but Stephanie Conover says that’s no reason for officials at an upcoming Toronto beauty pageant to reject her as a potential judge.
Conover, who was crowned winner of the Miss Canada Plus Pageant last year, said she was recently invited to be a judge at the Miss Toronto Tourism pageant on Feb. 2.
“I said I’d definitely be there,” Conover told the Star yesterday.
“Then, last week, on Monday, they asked me for a biography. I told them everything I do, how I’m an entertainer and a singer and a dancer. I talked about my charity work and I said I also have hobbies, including songwriting, knitting, painting, yoga, reiki and tarot cards.”
That’s where things got sticky.
“We just got her bio a week ago and we don’t agree with it,” said Karen Murray, Miss Toronto Tourism pageant director. “We want someone down to earth, not someone into the dark side or the occult.”
“We need a judge who has an upright reputation and we would be proud to introduce to the audience,” noted a Jan. 24 letter to the Miss Canada Plus group from Murray and another official with the Miss Toronto Tourism pageant.
“Our board of directors has eliminated her as a judge as tarot card reading and reiki are the occult and is not acceptable by God, Jews, Muslims or Christians. Tarot card reading is witchcraft and is used by witches, spiritists and mediums to consult the dark world.”
The letter went on to quote a couple of passages from the Bible, including one from the book of Leviticus that warns, “Do not turn to mediums or seek out spirits for you will be defiled by them.”
“We hope that Stephanie Conover will turn from these belief systems and will repent from her practice of them,” the letter reads.
The Miss Toronto Tourism pageant was established in 1999 and is independent of the city of Toronto’s tourism branch.
Conover said she was stunned by the letter.”I was fuming. They said tarot cards are the occult and that I use them to commune with dark forces,” which she insisted is not the case. “They’re completely benign. I use them for healing, to give guidance. You can buy tarot cards at Chapters or the CNE.”
She also said reiki is a well-known Japanese healing system that allows people to transfer positive energy to a sick person. “It definitely goes against convention, sure, but anything that helps avoid use of prescription drugs is a bonus, I think.”
Conover said she practises Wicca, which to some means she’s a witch. But she said the Miss Toronto Tourism people didn’t know that and that they based their rejection of her on tarot cards and reiki.
“Some would call me a witch, yes. But we don’t believe in the devil. There’s no devil in Wicca. We believe whatever you send out, good or bad, comes back to you three times. Ninety per cent of those who practise witchcraft or Wicca do it for the betterment of themselves or others. It’s a religion and we’re trying to get it recognized by higher-ups in government.”
Conover said she also promotes diversity and multiculturalism as her mother is black and her father is white. Murray insisted Conover is “trying to stir up trouble” by raising the issue in the press. “She’s obviously a very vindictive person,” she said. Murray said her group doesn’t get government funding and has the right to decide who acts as a judge in their pageant.
Asked if her group is a religious one, Murray replied, “We adhere to God’s principles. We’re God-fearing. I wouldn’t say we’re religious.”
Conover said she’s looking into challenging the Miss Toronto Tourism pageant in court, or at a human rights tribunal.
“They said they wouldn’t be proud to introduce me and that I don’t present an upstanding character. I’m a very open-minded person and a very loving person. To say I’m not of upright character, it’s blasphemous.”
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January 27, 2008
Miss Toronto Tourism Not Welcoming Wiccans
Say, who’s that dude with the pitchfork selecting the next queen of Toronto’s tourism industry? Hmmm, could it be…SATAN?!!!
It seems that a Toronto woman was invited to judge a local beauty pageant, only to have the invite retracted because some of her hobbies were deemed a little too demonistic.
Stephanie Conover, an actor, singer, dancer, and current Miss Canada Plus 2007, was asked about three weeks ago if she would be interested in judging the 2008 Miss Toronto Tourism contest on February 2. She accepted, and sent along a brief bio detailing some of her interests, including knitting, reading, yoga, reiki, and tarot card reading. Last Tuesday she got a letter from pageant organizers revoking her invitation because the latter two practices constitute “the occult” and “witchcraft.” Reiki is a Japanese art that seeks to heal the body with energy, while Tarot cards are an ancient way of seeking spiritual guidance or entertaining friends when the cable goes out. (Yoga, another potentially diabolical pastime, passed the holy litmus test, although it’s possible that the upright folks at Miss Toronto Tourism may have confused it with yogurt.)
The rest of the letter was similarly absurd, in that fundamentalist religious way that’s both comic and terrifying at the same time. It notes that reiki and Tarot are not only unacceptable to “Jews, Muslims, or Christians,” but to God Himself, who is no doubt even now cursing his bad luck that he doesn’t get to call down hellfire on the pageant, thanks to organizers who had the wit to dump their Jonah overboard before the Big Guy took matters into His Own Hands.
The letter goes on to quote Leviticus 20:6, where God states: “I will set my face against the person who turns to mediums or spiritists to prostitute himself by following them, and I will cut them off from his people,” although fortunately for Stephanie, she’s apparently been exempted from the requirements of Leviticus 20:27, which mandates that “A man or a woman who is a medium…shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones.”
The Miss Toronto Tourism pageant has no apparent affiliation with the Toronto Convention & Visitors Association or other quasi-official tourism organization.
Stephanie, who is a practicing Wiccan, told Torontoist that she was shocked to receive the letter. “They’re attacking my character when they know nothing about me, and based on things that have nothing to do with the pageant. Reiki and tarot card reading are both positive practices that have nothing to do with ‘dark forces.’”
Even granted that beauty contest audiences in general are more likely be populated by Bible belters than by the be-pentacled crowd, the change of heart on Stephanie’s judging credentials still comes off as a little insane old-fashioned. Stepanie says that “they’re trying to burn me at the stake without knowing anything about my character,” a metaphor which probably leaves the anti-witch brigade yearning for the glories of days gone by.
The letter also hopes that “Stephanie Conover will turn from these belief systems and will repent from her practice of them.” However, in her conversation with Torontoist, Stephanie expressed no interest in repenting.
Ironically, one of the virtues that Miss Toronto Tourism trumpets on their website is their commitment to multiculturalism. Presumably they’re thinking of a limited kind of diversity, inclusive only of those who don’t engage in God-pissing-off practices like being gay, eating bacon, or believing in evolution. But hey, you can’t spell multi-culturalism without “cult.”
The Miss Toronto Tourism pageant did not respond to an email from Torontoist requesting comment.
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For anyone who wants to write letters objecting to this tourist organization’s poor public relations on behalf of the city of Toronto, here’s a list of
CONTACTS:
Miss Toronto Tourism
misstorontotourism@ yahoo.ca
Toronto Board of Trade
cwilding@bot.com
Ontario Chamber of Commerce
info@occ.on.ca
…and a few of Miss Toronto Tourism’s corporate SPONSORS:
Strickly Salsa
info@stricklysalsa.com
2 for 1 dining
corporate@2for1dining.ca
Toronto Disc Jockeys
torontodiscjockeys@hotmail.com
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