The NDP put forward a motion in the Commons today to restore queer rights to the Canadian citizenship guide, but Conservative MPs voted to adjourn debate until after the passage of a major budget bill.
NDP MP Olivia Chow.
Xtra’s federal politics reporter Dale Smith has more:
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NDP MP Olivia Chow moved a motion in the House of Commons after Question Period, which would see the government reinstate sections on queer history and queer rights in the next printing of the citizenship guide. This follows a motion from the Commons citizenship and immigration committee that recommended the same.
After 30 minutes of debate, during which only the NDP asked questions or made comments, the parliamentary secretary for the minister of finance, Ted Menzies, said that it was an important debate, but that C-9, the budget implementation bill, was more important. He moved to adjourn debate on Chow’s motion until after the passage of C-9.
While all three opposition parties carried the vote on an oral call (and there were only about 15 or so MPs in the House at the time), the Conservatives demanded a recorded vote, so the division bells rang for 30 minutes, and a standing vote was recorded.
The final vote was 119 to adjourn, 101 against, with all three opposition parties voting against adjourning debate. Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff was not in the House for the vote, nor was Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
It is almost assured that Chow raised the motion as a means of delaying the debate on C-9 — especially given some of the comments raised by NDP MP Peter Julian during the short debate on the motion.
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Read Dale Smith’s Hill Queeries blog every weekday.
Read more:
- Add gay rights to citizenship guide: Commons committee
- Kenney dodges more questions about gays and citizenship guide
- A disaster week for Jason Kenney and Egale
- Twittersphere slams Egale’s response to citizenship guide issue
- Queer MPs criticize Kenney’s decision to edit gays out of citizenship guide
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