by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
December 23, 2004
Prime Minister Paul Martin and Stephen Harper, leader of the Official Opposition, engaged in a slinging match last week over same sex marriage. Martin accused the Conservative Party leader of being a coward for not saying whether his party would use the notwithstanding clause of the Charter of Rights to prohibit the institution of marriage from being extended to same sex couples.
The Prime Minister did have a point. Harper wants legislation to be introduced that would retain the traditional definition of marriage as being the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others. But, as Martin pointed out, the traditional definition of marriage has been found to be unconstitutional in six of Canada’s ten provinces, making same sex marriages legal in those provinces. It is impossible to see how that could be changed without resorting to the use of the Charter’s notwithstanding clause.
after Martin made his attack, the leader of the opposition responded in kind by calling Paul Martin a coward. Harper accused Prime Minister Dithers of refusing to legislate on the issue of same sex marriage, preferring to leave those decisions to the courts. and while the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the proposed Liberal legislation allowing for same sex marriage was constitutional, the court did not make an express finding that the traditional definition of marriage violated the equality section of the Charter of Rights. Despite the best efforts of Liberal hack and Minister of Justice, Irwin Cotler, the court, in a judgment that must have riled the Liberals, left the matter of defining marriage to Parliament.
Harper had a point too. To take the heat off of the government, the Liberals were hoping that the Supreme Court would decide on the constitutionality of same sex marriage so that the government could absolve themselves from the fallout of the many Canadians, including members of the government caucus, who believe that marriage should be restricted to a man and a woman.
So this is what politics in Canada has degenerated into; both the Prime Minister of Canada and the leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition calling each other cowards.
Sadly for Canadians, they are both right.
There is no doubt that the Conservative Party is moving to the centre. The parties of Sir John a. Macdonald and Preston Manning are becoming the party of Belinda, who as a proud Tory is going to vote in favour of same sex marriage because it is a "human right". Not only is Harper moving closer to the Liberal Party of Canada, but he is engaging in the same mumbo jumbo that Paul Martin is. Both men refuse to say where they stand on same sex marriage lest they offend some of their supporters. How exactly do you get around all those provincial decisions that have found the traditional definition of marriage to be unconstitutional? If there is a way to do it without invoking the notwithstanding clause, Harper should come clean and announce exactly how he proposes to keep the definition of marriage being the union between a man and a woman.
as for Paul Martin, he should visit Canada occasionally and tell people exactly how the courts are making a good Catholic boy like him bring in same sex marriage when the Supreme Court of Canada never did make him do it. It is disconcerting to see Justice Minister Cotler, a brilliant human rights lawyer in another life, twist and turn in an attempt to spin the Supreme Court of Canada’s Reference re: Marriage into something that it’s not. Perhaps Paul and his brood might want to consider abolishing the Supreme Court of Canada--imagine the nerve of those justices; throwing the whole thing back to Parliament to decide. and look where the appointments of Louise Charron and Rosie abella got them!
It is too bad that the leaders who will never form governments, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe, are the ones who can come out and say what their positions are (both are in favour of same sex marriage). as for the PM and the Opposition leader, they really are two peas in a pod. Neither has the courage to state a position.