Liberals table same-sex marriage bill despite protests, opposition

Liberals table same-sex marriage bill despite protests, opposition

By Meghan Wood

CANADIAN justice minister Irwin Cotler tabled legislation to allow same-sex marriage in the House of Commons Tuesday.

If passed, Bill C-38 would redefine marriage as a "union between two persons." As a result, consequential amendments would also have to be made to the Canada Business Corporations Act, the Civilian War-related Benefits Act, the Divorce Act and the Income Tax Act.

"What will be the social effects of refashioning a fundamental social institution -- to marriage itself, to spouses, children and society?" responded Bruce Clemenger, president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC). "It is a sad day when the language of husband and wife is removed from federal legislation. Is this what Canadians want? It is a distorted notion of tolerance and respect that eclipses this distinctive relationship."

If the bill is passed, the Liberal government would not use the Constitution's notwithstanding clause to preserve the current definition of marriage, as between two people of the opposite sex. The notwithstanding clause allows the government to create laws that will operate in spite of some Charter rights that the laws appear to violate. Though these declarations last only five years, they can be re-enacted indefinitely.

Focus on the Family Canada president Terence Rolston said "there will be consequences" if the legislation goes through. "If passed, [this] experiment will be on the backs of our children," he said. "But God puts our governments into power and he is sovereign over them. I believe in the power of prayer. Now's the time for Canadian voices to be heard in the democratic process."

Foreign affairs minister Pierre Pettigrew has said that churches and other faith-based organizations should not intervene in matters of government and that Canadians need to "distinguish between civil and religious marriage."

Responding to Pettigrew's remarks, Rolston said, "How marriage is recognized is important as to how society values the institution of marriage. The law should underline and support the institution that God ordained. It is a covenant."

Janet Epp Buckingham, director of law and public policy at EFC, said more than 75 percent of marriages in Canada are performed by clergy.

"It is clearly a deeply religious constitution," she explains. "It is naive and impossible to say that you can change civil marriage without it having an impact on religious marriage and religious institutions."

Gilles Marchildon, executive director of Egale Canada, a gay and lesbian rights group, said it is a "dangerous blurring of the lines" between church and state "when any faith wants its view of the world and its view for its own institutions imposed on society at large."

But Rolston disagreed. "This is one of the most significant issues to hit the government in the past 30 years. We do live in a free and democratic country. We have the opportunity to vote and be involved in the democratic process. We shouldn't neglect the freedom of speaking out here for the truth of God's word, proclaiming it to those in authority."

Bill C-38 does state that "officials of religious groups are free to refuse to perform marriages that are not in accordance with their religious beliefs." However, since only provincial governments have the authority to legislate protection of religious freedom to the solemnization of marriage, Buckingham said this issue is "a political football" being tossed between the federal and provincial governments.

"We have not seen any action by the provincial governments to protect religious freedom," she says. "Churches and religious institutions are being set up for endless court cases."

The Vancouver Chinese Evangelical Ministerial Fellowship, representing 95 Chinese Christian churches that includes 25,000 individuals, released a declaration opposing the bill January 28.

The declaration stated that "changing the tradition of marriage in the manner proposed by the Federal Government goes against the intention of God's creation and it runs counter to the moral traditions deeply held by Chinese and people from other ethnic backgrounds . . . the government has no right to ignore the will of the people in order to be politically correct."

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