The Liberal Party is nothing if not hypocritical. This stems from the fact that unlike the NDP and the non-Liberal lite faction of the Conservative Party, they have no core beliefs. That’s not entirely true; they have two religious beliefs. One, they believe in God and two, they believe that God’s a Liberal who has ordained them as they only party that is ever fit to govern Canada.
Nowhere has Liberal Party hypocrisy been as pronounced as on the issue of same sex marriage. It was bad enough when the Chrétien government refused to legislate on the issue knowing full well that the courts would rule on the matter and would in effect legislate the legality of same sex marriage. This would enable the Liberals to fend off critics by saying that they didn’t legalize same sex marriage; the courts did. and we have to remember that Paul Martin was an integral member of the Chrétien government or didn’t know what was going on, whichever scenario is more beneficial to him.
Paul Martin, who loves to portray himself as a devout Catholic, loves to go on and on and on about how allowing gays and lesbians to marry is a matter of human rights. But what transpired last week made it clear that Martin really doesn’t believe it; making same sex marriage a human right was only a matter of political expediency.
During the English language debate, Paul Martin stated that Conservative leader Stephen Harper was not fit to be prime minister of Canada (something he would never ever say about any of those wonderful examples of Canadian citizenry, the Khadrs) because Harper wants to have a free vote in Parliament and revisit the issue of same sex marriage. The new and improved 2005 model of the Conservative leader then asked Martin why candidates who believe that the marriage should be restricted to the union of a man and a woman are allowed to run for office under the Liberal banner.
Thanks to a compliant Liberal Party-loving media we don’t often hear about the substantial number of Liberal caucus members, many of whom are running for re-election, who are opposed their party’s position on same sex marriage and therefore quite willing to withhold the precious human right from some Canadians. But they do exist. Martin’s answer to Harper was that it is okay for an MP to be opposed to the legality of same sex marriage but not the prime minister. So, presumably every Liberal MP right up to the deputy prime minister can be a human rights abuser when it comes to the human rights of gays and lesbians. What complete and utter nonsense.
There is no in between; either something is a human right or it’s not. It cannot be permissible for some people to treat same sex marriage as a human right and others not. There are only two possibilities for Martin’s assertion that only the prime minister of Canada must be in favour of it. Either Martin actually believes that same sex marriage is a human right and doesn’t care whether his caucus respects human rights or not or he doesn’t actually believe allowing gays and lesbians to marry is a matter of human rights. Logic dictates it is the latter.
Unless you believe that Paul Martin is completely oblivious to all human rights and would gladly allow people into his caucus who deny other human rights to Canadians, it is clear that Martin doesn’t really think that same sex marriage is a matter of human rights. Sometimes even Liberals cannot have it both ways.
Much like the flags that he flew on his Canada Steamship Line vessels, same sex marriage is nothing more to Paul Martin than a human right of convenience.