Destroying innocent lives

Same-sex partners are all but a step away from becoming equal to heterosexual common-law couples.

Bill C-23 passed third reading in the House Of Commons Apr 11 and was sent to the Senate.

The rhetoric was deafening.

“What are we doing here today?” exclaimed Canadian Alliance (formerly Reform) MP Jim Pankiw (Sakatoon-Humboldt).

“Their ultimate goal is to destroy the institution of marriage or at least make gay couples the equivalent of what currently are married couples, in other words, gay marriages,” said Pankiw.

“Praise the Lord,” said the Alliance’s Myron Thompson (Wild Rose), “[soon the Liberal government] will be gone and we will get some people in here who know what in the world they have to do to rule a good country.”

The Grits used their majority to force a vote. Though some backbench Liberals voted against their own government, the contest wasn’t even close, at 174 to 72. All Reform MPs-turned-Canadian Alliance members voted against, while New Democrats all voted in favour. Individual Tory and Bloc MPs were free to vote as they wished (many voted for).

Some MPs called for calm.

“What has bothered me in this debate is the way we have been speaking about fellow human beings. It has bothered me a great deal that we have talked about hundreds of thousands of our fellow Canadians as if they are somehow inferior human beings,” said Liberal Marlene Catterall (Ottawa West-Nepean).

“The people we are talking about are somebody’s sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, cousins or next door neighbours. For most of our history these people have had to live in secret, hiding who they are and feeling a sense of shame about who they are because of the societal attitudes.”

“I do not see how anyone could argue that this weakens the moral fibre of society.”

Canadian Alliance MPs weren’t pleased at being labelled bigots.

“I finally have had it with being called a racist or a bigot because I cannot accept the fact that a spouse is a member of the same sex. That is my right and, indeed, my responsibility. I reject any attempt to try to muzzle people, to try to intimidate us and to paint this as some kind of human rights issue. I do not see it in that light,” said Darrel Stinson (Okanagan-Shuswap).

Others shrugged off charges of homophobia or of rightwing extremism.

“This is not about homosexuality. It is about an omnibus bill that excludes some people,” said the Alliance’s Randy White (Langley-Abbotsford).

“The government is simply going down the road trying to collect votes from a certain group in our society such that it is willing to change all of these pieces of legislation. That is power gone to its worst, in my opinion.”

NDPer Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre) called the gay rights campaign the last of the civil rights movements of the last century.

“Gay rights are the last great civil rights movement of our time. It is one issue we have failed to deal with during the last century with the emancipation of black people and their moving forward on social issues in the United States,” said Martin.

“I am saddened by some of the tone and content of the debate we have heard from the rightwing extremist party.

“I have neighbours where there are a mom, a dad and two children, and that is a family. There is a single mom with children, and that is a family. There are two moms with children, and that is a family too. My kids have grown up with that realization and they are not frightened by it,” said Martin.

“Right wing extremist always seem to feel that by extending rights to one group somehow diminishes the rights others enjoy.”

Even Tory MPs found fault with the Alliance rhetoric.

“To somehow suggest that we will be thrown into chaos and that the country will completely break down if we begin to extend equitable treatment and fiscal fairness to same-sex partners is inflammatory,” said Progressive Conservative MP Peter MacKay (Pictou-Antigonish-Guysborough).

IN MISSISSAUGA

Discrimination is a good thing, according to the Liberal MP for Mississauga South.

“There are positive or affirmative discriminations within our society,” said Paul Szabo during the final debate on Bill C-23, the same-sex spousal rights legislation. “I believe in the traditional family. I believe that couples who raise families, who raise healthy well adjusted children are to be put on a pedestal.”