Conservatives fail to kill Bill C-38

By DEBORAH GYAPONG

OTTAWA (CCN) – The Conservative Party failed to stop the government’s legislation redefining marriage April 12 when their motion to kill Bill C-38 lost by a vote of 132 to 164.

Conservative House Leader Jay Hill told Canadian Catholic News April 13 that second-reading debate on the bill would continue after the debate on the budget implementation bill, and might develop into a filibuster.

Hill said the delay tactic might be used if the government did not change the parameters for the special committee which would examine the bill if it passed second reading.

Already controversy is brewing over whether this committee will travel and hear a wide range of witnesses, and Hill said his party is concerned that the committee will hear only those making technical or legal presentations.

Because the bill is so brief, Hill said, that would mean an extremely short time in the committee stage before it comes back to the House.

A multi-faith rally in defence of the traditional definition of marriage will take place Saturday, April 23, in Richmond.

The rally will be at Richmond City Hall (No. 3 Road and Granville), and will run for one hour, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.

The rally is sponsored by DefendMarriage BC, and organizers say it’s an opportunity to show solidarity with those who recently rallied on Parliament Hill in defence of marriage.

In an April 5 letter to committee chairman Liberal MP Marcel Proulx, Bishop Richard Smith of Pembroke, president of the Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote a letter April 5 raising similar concerns.

“This is one of the most important social policy issues which has arisen in many years,” Bishop Smith wrote. “We expect legislators to take the greatest pains to explore every avenue for input.”

The fight to save traditional marriage is continuing as a national work group consisting of representatives from key dioceses, the Knights of Columbus, the Catholic Women’s League, and the Catholic Office of Life and the Family continue to urge Catholics to put pressure on their representatives.

With a possible spring election in the air, however, the Liberal minority government may fall before Bill C-38 becomes law. There is speculation of an election call in mid-May.

An April 10 Toronto Star – EKOS poll showed the Liberals in “free fall,” at only 25 per cent nationwide, to the Tories’ 36.2 per cent. The Liberals won a minority government with slightly more than that.

The Liberals’ plummeting poll numbers are linked to the Gomery Inquiry and revelations of alleged kickbacks in the Quebec sponsorship scandal.

At the April 9 March for Marriage on Parliament Hill, Opposition Leader Stephen Harper promised to defend marriage, while taking a shot at the Liberal Party’s integrity in an election-style speech.

“Corruption is not a Canadian value,” he shouted over the roar of the crowd. “Marriage is a real Canadian value. Family is a real Canadian value.”

“We can win this fight, because we must win this fight,” he said.

While mainstream media news highlighted the hundreds of people demonstrating across the country a day later in support of “same-sex marriage,” they could not ignore the thousands demonstrating in support of traditional marriage because of Harper’s presence.

As pictures of the late Pope floated on placards over the crowd, Harper told how he’d attended the Pope’s funeral the previous day and how John Paul II had stood for the fundamental truth that marriage between a man and a woman is a pillar of society.

“The Liberal Party of Paul Martin has declared war on the values of new Canadians,” Harper told the more than 15,000 people from all religions and ages who had marched from the Supreme Court to the Hill.

The Conservative Party leader said that undermining marriage is an assault on all cultural and religious communities who believe in the traditional definition of marriage, and “an assault on the multi-cultural character of Canada.”

Describing the human rights cases against a Knights of Columbus Hall in B.C. and against Calgary Bishop Fred Henry, Harper warned: “Your faith could be next.”

The March for Marriage featured leaders from Catholic, Evangelical, Orthodox, Muslim, and Sikh religions and other groups.

Ottawa Archbishop Marcel Gervais told the crowd that he stood in the shadow of Pope John Paul II and arm in arm with the Bishop of Calgary.

“Homosexuality is a private reality and it cannot become the foundation of social relationships,” he said.

He warned that society could fall apart if individual private tastes trump the common good of society.

“Our government wants sodomy to be accepted as part of the norm, and we refuse that,” he said.

If Bill C-38 passes, Archbishop Gervais predicted changes to the family life and the care of children “in ways we cannot imagine.”

“We will no longer be able to tell our children that homosexual sex is unacceptable,” he said.

David Mainse, director of Marriage Canada and founder of 100 Huntley Street and the Crossroads Television system, quoted Pope John Paul II: “Democracies risk self-destruction if moral wrongs are legally defended as rights.”

He urged a grassroots uprising to save marriage, but reminded the crowd that their battle was not with flesh and blood opponents, who deserve unconditional love, but with forces of wickedness in spiritual realms.

Mainse told the crowd how, for the previous three days, he’d walked the hallways of Parliament Hill with Conservative MP Stockwell Day and Liberal MP David Kilgour handing out pro-marriage materials and a DVD on Bishop Henry.

Kilgour quit the Liberal Party April 12 to sit as an independent out of disgust over the Gomery Inquiry revelations.

Liberal MP Pat O’Brien told the crowd he’d never seen a public statement as powerful as theirs that day. He too quoted the late Pope, saying, “Be not afraid.” O’Brien is also considering joining the Conservatives.

“We must win this fight,” O’Brien said,

He called it “totally unacceptable” that cabinet ministers in his party would not be allowed to vote according to their consciences.

O’Brien said he believed marriage could only be defended through the use of the notwithstanding clause. “We must use it,” he said.

Conservative MP Jason Kenney said Prime Minister Paul Martin’s insistence that “marriage” between people of the same sex is a human right contradicts the fact that every major international human rights document understands that marriage is a heterosexual institution.

Defend Marriage spokesman Charles McVety described how he and his young daughter had been spit upon when they demonstrated outside the Liberal Convention last month.

Speaking of the momentum building across the country, he said: “We are taking a stand. We will not allow them to marginalize, persecute, or spit at us.”

Sikh Leader Amarjit Singh Mann of the Ontario Gurdwaras Committee also warned of the dangers to religious freedom should the definition of marriage be changed.

Mann said what is proposed “goes against God’s will and everything He created.”

“Sikh MPs should vote against this bill,” he said.

A small counter-demonstration of an estimated 200 in support of “same-sex marriage” converged with the March for Marriage, but the Saturday event remained peaceful.