Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to the member's speech and I have a couple of questions.
The member said that the federal government would be failing in its duty but I believe it has already failed twice in its duty. It first failed to step in before all the provinces went their own way and it is failing again now.
I do not know if the member was present for my speech but I made it very clear how I feel about this particular issue. I actually believe it is intellectual property we are discussing and not human rights. However if we are going to go down this road of same sex marriage in a different venue then I would submit to the member that this is actually about protecting religious rights as well.
We on this side of the House have said that we accept the fact that the country and the world are changing and that we are prepared to allow same sex couples to have the same responsibilities and benefits that married couples enjoy. However our tantamount concern is that religious freedom, which everyone in the country has valued for years, is in jeopardy. I know the member may not agree with that but I can assure her that the way the legislation is written we cannot ensure religious freedom in the country.
My suggestion is that it might be a better idea to wait until summer has passed and until we have had an opportunity to discuss this more thoroughly so we can put the assurances in place to ensure religious freedom is protected. Religious freedom and freedom of speech have always drawn, do draw and will always draw immigrants to this country. If we fail to protect that with this legislation then we have failed miserably.
I wonder whether the member opposite might share any or all of those views.