Canada upholds same-sex marriage law
Pastor Dale Morgan
*
Friday December 8, 6:00 AM Reuters
*
Canada upholds same-sex marriage law*
By David Ljunggren and Randall Palmer
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's Parliament upheld a 2005 law allowing
same-sex marriage on Thursday when it threw out a bid by the minority
Conservative government to revisit the contentious issue.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper put forward the motion after promising his
socially conservative backers that he would do so, but most observers
had expected it to fail.
The Conservatives are set to fight an election next year and had
legislators backed the idea of revisiting the law it would have become a
campaign issue.
"We made a promise to hold a free vote and we kept that promise. The
result was decisive and we'll accept the democratic result," Harper told
reporters.
Legislators voted 175 to 123 to reject a motion by the right-leaning
Conservatives to re-examine the law, which some religious groups and
critics say undermines society.
The law was passed by the previous Liberal government after a number of
courts ruled that banning gay marriage contravened Canada's charter of
rights.
Some Liberal legislators shouted "Shame!" as the Conservatives voted.
Harper seemed to reject the idea of looking again at gay marriage, even
if he won a majority government.
"I don't see (us) reopening this question ... It's not our plan," he
told reporters. Six of his cabinet voted against the motion on Thursday.
Canada was the fourth country, after the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain,
to legalize homosexual marriage.
Last year's vote was 158-133 in favour of the new law, but the
Conservatives said it had not truly reflected the will of Parliament
because the Liberals had forced cabinet ministers to vote in favour.
Both parties allowed their members to vote according to their
consciences on Thursday.
The signs were clear from the beginning that the motion was likely to
fail. Even some parliamentarians who voted against the law last year
said the matter had been settled and did not need to be reopened.
Asked whether the issue was now resolved once and for all, Liberal Party
leader Stephane Dion replied: "It will be, especially if we win the next
election ... This prime minister tried and he failed."
Groups opposed to the law vowed to continue the fight and warned Harper
that the affair would cost him votes.
The Canada Family Action Coalition said the Conservatives who voted
against the motion "have just set a tone that could result in a
Conservative loss in the next election. When a party abandons the values
of its core base, it loses support".
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who backed the idea of reopening the
debate, said that when he was attorney general of the province of
Ontario he had fought for the civil rights of all Canadians, including
same-sex partners.
"I did that proudly. I think it was the right thing to do. But marriage
is something different," he told reporters.
The motion called on the government "to introduce legislation to restore
the traditional definition of marriage without affecting civil unions
and while respecting existing same-sex marriages."
(With additional reporting by Louise Egan in Ottawa)