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."
Related stories:
Cotler
announces same-sex bill for next week, moves to silence Liberal
critics
The Liberal government will defiantly push ahead
with
plans to introduce a same-sex marriage bill next week in the face of
increasingly vocal opposition from critics outside and inside the
party.
Canadian Press, January 26
Liberals
will introduce same-sex bill next week
The matter dominated
the
three-day Liberal caucus winter retreat again yesterday and government
whip Karen Redman predicted that the bill will pass with a comfortable
margin.
CanWest News Service, January 27
Also: Vancouver
Sun
Manitoba
MP likely to be only New Democrat to vote against same-sex
bill
NDP member of Parliament Bev Desjarlais said yesterday
she
will vote against her party's line on gay marriage and will accept the
consequences.
CanWest News Service, January 27
Also: Vancouver
Sun
Lesbian
couple pleads with Harper
Tory leader not swayed by
emotional
appeal
Vancouver Sun, January 27
Lunch
with a same-sex dissident
After watching her breeze through
another series of television interviews, you ask Belinda Stronach if
she's
sick of the same-sex issue. "You can't have too much sex," the
camera-friendly Conservative MP grins. Hot-blooded males within earshot
react by clutching their chests in cardiac arrest. She watches my pen
hit
the notebook. "Um, I didn't say that." OK, fine, but the moments of
silence during our subsequent lunch speak volumes about a party now
proudly and loudly aligning itself as the last defender of marriage's
traditional opposite-sex definition.
Don Martin, National
Post,
January 27
B.C.
Catholics urged from the pulpit to write their MPs on same sex
marriage
"Some within society, supported by judges and
legislators, are trying to turn the marriage debate into a human rights
issue," writes Vancouver Archbishop Raymond Roussin in a three-page
pastoral letter to be read from the diocese's pulpits and sent out on
Friday. "But that is not what marriage is about. As a social
institution,
marriage is concerned with the common good, not individual
rights."
Canadian Press, January 28
Stay
out of marriage debate, church told
Same-sex law not your
business, Pettigrew argues, but archbishop insists he can say what he
wants
Ottawa Citizen, January 28
Also: National
Post | Edmonton
Journal
Liberal
admits it's futile to fight same-sex bill
Issue dominates
party
agenda
CanWest News Service, January 28
Tories
riled by Harper's tactic
Activist quits riding post over
campaign against same-sex marriage, another urges leader to drop
issue
Ottawa Citizen, January 28
Nanaimo
MP says Liberals split on same-sex debate
If Prime Minister
Paul Martin goes ahead with his vote on same sex marriage, he'll find
there's a whole lot more opposition to the idea than he bargained for,
says Nanaimo-Alberni MP Dr. James Lunney.
BC Newspaper Group,
January
28
Polygamy:
a challenge to multicultural fans
The homosexual lobby and
its
allies insist that same-sex marriage can't possibly lead to polygamy,
because, you see, gay sex is legal but polygamy is forbidden by the
Criminal Code. How stuffy. How arrogant. That might be the gay lobby's
view. That might be the lofty liberal-left view. That might be the
columnists' view. But they aren't the ones who would decide whether to
launch a constitutional challenge. That would be the polygamists'
decision.
Trevor Lautens, North Shore News, January 28
Anti-same-sex
side strikes back
Even though the battle appears about over
in
Canada, a new book offers some intellectual counter-punching
Douglas
Todd, Vancouver Sun, January 29
Belinda's
tune off key
Belinda Stronach is busy telling the media that
the Conservative Party should not become involved in the gay marriage
issue. Belinda has views on things? Who knew!
Michael Coren,
Toronto
Sun, January 29
What
is family?
Forget concerns that same-sex marriages will
destroy
traditional marriage and the traditional family. Heterosexuals have
already taken care of that
Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun,
January 29
Pettigrew
puts boots to religious Canadians
If any Canadian cabinet
minister were to announce that all citizens who believe in God should
be
forbidden to vote, not only would he be out of the cabinet, he might be
put into an insane asylum. Such a thing is, in other words,
unthinkable.
Yet a senior Canadian cabinet minister said something last week that
amounted to exactly this, and nobody (nobody in the cabinet anyway)
said
anything.
Ted Byfield, Calgary Sun, January 30
Parties
expect heated session of Parliament
Budget also coming
up
National Post, January 31
Religious
groups mobilize to support traditional marriage
'What are
you
willing to sacrifice to defend the Church?'
National Post,
January 31
Defining
marriage is a job for Parliament
In 1982, Canada's legal
system
was fundamentally changed by the adoption of the Charter of Rights and
Freedoms. Before that time, Parliament and the provinces, acting
pursuant
to the jurisdiction granted under the British North America Act of
1867,
were legislatively supreme. Although the courts did have the authority
to
strike down legislation, their right to do so extended only to
situations
in which a particular legislature strayed into the jurisdiction
assigned
to another.
Vic Toews, National Post, January 31
A
perverse vision of church-state relations
I expect the irony
was lost on him. The Liberal Cabinet having just returned from a
lengthy
Asian tour, Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew announced that religious
leaders should not involve themselves in the gay marriage debate. The
Prime Minister had just been chatting up the gay marriage issue in
India
and China. The government enthusiastically wants to talk about gay
marriage, even overseas, but thinks that Canadians should shut up about
it
at home. Or more to the point of Mr. Pettigrew's remarks, that Catholic
bishops should keep silent. "I find that the separation of church and
the
state is one of the most beautiful inventions of modern times," said
Mr.
Pettigrew. The authoritarians of China do not find the invention quite
so
fetching; their aesthetic judgment favours a different modern invention
--
communism. And they have more effective ways of silencing their
bishops:
putting them in jail.
Fr. Raymond J. de Souza, National Post,
January 31
Same-sex
marriage debate is over
I support equality. And so, I
support
same-sex marriage.
Basil "Buzz" Hargrove, Financial Post,
January 31
Same-sex
bill hits house
Religious group warns MPs of political
price
CanWest News Service, February 1
Also: Vancouver
Sun
Same-sex
bill introduced in House of Commons
The Liberal government
introduced its long-awaited and controversial same-sex marriage bill in
the House of Commons Tuesday, containing two carefully worded sections
providing protection for religious groups. The wording was aimed at
calming opposition to the bill from some churches and the Conservative
Party.
Globe and Mail, February 1
Casting
marriage as a panacea
Let's not be too tough on columnist
Maggie Gallagher. If marriage's primary cheerleader says she can't
remember getting US$21,500 from the Bush administration in 2002 to
consult
on its initiative to promote marriage among the poor, why not believe
her?
In the current political climate, the demands on a "marriage expert"
extolling the virtues of "traditional" marriage resemble those faced by
air traffic controllers at O'Hare.
Anne Kingston, National
Post,
February 1
Tories
vow to amend new bill
Justice critic Toews says his party
wants
more protection for religious groups
CanWest News Service, February
2
Also: Vancouver
Sun
Most
want referendum
Canadians back gay rights but want marriage
preserved as is, National Post/Global National poll
finds
National
Post, February 2
Religious
groups divided over legislation
As parliamentarians now
begin
what could be several months of debate, some observers vowed to use
that
time to prove how similar laws in other countries have led to wide
social
problems. Meanwhile, supporters of the bill lashed out at Conservative
leader Stephen Harper, who has led opposition to same-sex marriage in
Parliament, accusing him of trying to scare this country's immigrant
communities into opposing the legislation by appealing to their
traditional religious beliefs.
National Post, February 2
Majority
of B.C. MPs to battle same-sex bill
A clear majority of
B.C.'s
36 MPs in the House of Commons are part of a campaign to defeat Liberal
legislation tabled Tuesday aimed at legalizing same-sex marriage across
Canada. All but two of the 22 B.C. Conservative have stated publicly
they
will vote against the bill, even though several opinion polls have
suggested that a majority of British Columbians back the thrust of the
Liberal legislation.
Vancouver Sun, February 2
A
few questions for Stephen Harper
How, precisely, do you
intend
to protect traditional marriage?
Peter McKnight, Vancouver
Sun,
February 2
Rights
crusade continues apace
Most Canadians, it seems, are of the
view that progress is wonderful -- if only it would stop.
Unfortunately,
Irwin Cotler, Canada's Justice Minister, is not one of them.
John
Ivison, National Post, February 2
Getting
beyond same-sex marriage
In March, the Conservative Party of
Canada will hold its founding convention and policy forum in Montreal.
This is a historic juncture, an opportunity for the new party to set
its
course and take a key step toward winning the trust of
Canadians.
Belinda Stronach, National Post, February 2