The Commons citizenship and immigration committee passed a motion Thursday calling on the government to restore the references to gay rights and history to the new citizenship guide.
The motion, put forward by NDP MP Olivia Chow, read as follows:
“That, in the opinion of this Committee, the Minister and the Department of Citizenship and Immigration should, in its next update of the citizenship guide, include references to gay rights and gay history; that the Committee adopt this recommendation as a report to the House and that, pursuant to Standing Order 108(1), the Chair present it to the House.”
The motion had been amended from its original text of demanding that the guide be updated and reissued immediately, to the final version of seeing the mentions returned in the next update.
Members of all opposition parties had previously asked about this issue when Immigration Minister Jason Kenney came before the committee for the business of the supplementary estimates, even though Kenney avoided answering the questions.
Dale Smith is Xtra’s federal politics reporter. Read his blog Hill Queeries every weekday.
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