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A SUMMER VISIT WITH YOUR M.P. ABOUT SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
Parliament will recess for the summer at the
end of June. When it meets again in the fall, it will face,
as promised by Prime Minister Harper during the last election,
a debate on the thorny issue of same-sex marriage.
The debate will be in two parts:
- Is it the will of the House of Commons
that the debate on same-sex marriage be re-opened?
If the House of Commons agrees with this, then the second
question will be:
- Should the Civil Marriage Act (Bill
C-38), which redefined marriage to include same-sex partners,
remain in effect or should the Act be amended to permit
marriage to refer to opposite sex people only, as it was
before the enactment.
Homosexual activists have started to gear
up for this final debate by re-establishing their so-called
Equal Marriage Committee, to be headed up by the homosexual
former mayor of Winnipeg, Glen Murray.
On the other hand, twelve pro-family organizations
in Canada have established a Defend Marriage Coalition to
present the pro-family perspective nationally. The coalition
consists of the following organizations: REAL Women of Canada,
Catholic Civil Rights League, Campaign Life Coalition, Canada
Family Action Coalition, Enshrine Marriage Canada, Preserve
Marriage-Protect Children's Rights, United Families Canada,
United Mothers and Fathers, Marriage Canada, Equité-Famille,
Equipping Christians for the Public-square Centre, Association
des Parents Catholiques du Québec.
The first initiative of the Defend Marriage
Coalition was to send a letter to all the leaders of the religious
organizations in Canada, letting them know that religious
rights are not protected under last year's Civil Marriage
Act, which permitted same-sex couples to marry. This is
because, contrary to the former Liberal government's assertions,
religious groups are still subject to legal challenges under
the legislation.
This is based on the fact that the Supreme
Court of Canada in the same-sex marriage reference, handed
down on December 9, 2004, concluded that although the provisions
on the Civil Marriage Act purport to preserve religious rights,
this provision has no effect, and is superfluous, because
it deals with provincial rights and, therefore, is outside
the federal government's jurisdiction. The Supreme Court did
acknowledge that religious groups would be protected from
actually performing same-sex marriages, but the court also
stated that in situations where there is a "collision
of rights", the courts would be obligated to balance
and delineate these colliding rights. This is not reassuring
because in most cases in which the courts have adjudicated
religious freedoms versus homosexual rights, the latter's
rights have trumped religious rights.
Already, in less than a year since the same-sex
marriage law was passed in Canada, cases have arisen which
negatively affect religious rights in Canada:
- The BC Human Rights Tribunal, in
2005, ordered the payment of a fine for "hurt feelings"
caused by members of a Catholic Knights of Columbus Council
in Port Coquitlam, BC, when they refused to rent their hall
to a lesbian couple who wished to use it for their wedding
reception. That is, there was a collision of rights between
religious freedom and homosexual rights and the homosexual
/ lesbian rights triumphed. Although the decision acknowledged
the right of the Knights to refuse to rent the hall to the
lesbian couple because of the Knights' religious beliefs,
they nonetheless were fined and had to pay costly legal expenses
to defend themselves.
- A Mennonite-owned summer camp was
charged with discrimination by a homosexual male choir because
the camp refused to rent the camp premises to it. This case
is to be argued before the Manitoba Human Rights Tribunal
this spring.
- The Canadian Human Rights Commission
refused a complaint of a federal employee who wished to have
her mandatory union dues diverted to charity because her union
was actively supporting same-sex marriages. The federal employee
claimed that the use of her union dues contravened her freedom
of religion and conscience. The government employee is now
seeking a judicial review of the Tribunal's decision.
The Defend Marriage Coalition has been heartened
by the positive response it received from the religious leaders.
The letter is available on our web site www.realwomenca.com.
For those without access to our web site, please fax/write/phone
our national office for a copy of the letter (available in
French and English).
Please give a copy of the letter to your local
pastor\priest\rabbi, as all religious leaders should be made
aware that they are not protected under the present marriage
definition.
Also Very Importantly:
Visit your MP over the summer months about
this crucial same-sex marriage issue. We do not want the MP's
to return to Ottawa in the fall stating that it is not an
issue with his/her constituents. It must be an issue.
The Defend Marriage Coalition will be undertaking
other initiatives shortly in its effort to restore to Canada
the traditional definition of marriage, the union of one man
and one woman to the exclusion of all others.
This may be the last opportunity we have to
return Canada to the traditional definition of marriage. We
must not fail in this. It is not for our own sakes, but for
the generations to come.
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