Mr. Speaker, I have three petitions containing thousands of names and they are in regard to the traditional definition of marriage.
A recent court decision has redefined marriage contrary to the wishes of Parliament and now the government wants Parliament to vote on new legislation but only after it has been approved by the Supreme Court. This is a dangerous precedent for democracy in Canada. Elected members of Parliament should decide the marriage issue not appointed judges.
They therefore ask Parliament to immediately hold a renewed debate on the definition of marriage and to reaffirm, as it did in 1999, its commitment to take all necessary steps to preserve marriage as a union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others.
I cannot go through all of this but there are people from throughout Saskatchewan. Hundreds of different towns are represented here. I will simply submit these without going through a list of all the different places the petitioners come from but there are thousands of names.