Mr. Speaker, I do agree with the hon. member that we must continue to protect religious freedom but the charter was written in such a way that the two are not contradictory. Religious freedom would be protected under the civil marriage act, as well as the right of a minority group to have access to probably one of the most major legal and social institutions in this country, the institution of marriage.
It has been shown that the charter has done this in the past. For instance, it says in the charter that one cannot discriminate on the basis of gender and yet the Catholic church does not and will not allow women to become priests. Divorce is legal around the country but the Catholic church and others do not recognize divorce. They have been allowed to continue to do that and it has not been an infringement on the charter in either case.
In 1882 there was a debate in this same House about the right of a man to marry his deceased wife's sister. The bishop of Nova Scotia cited many biblical texts and said that if a man were allowed to marry his deceased wife's sister it would lead to polygamy because he would want to marry all her sisters eventually.
We have seen the raising of the spectres of everything going haywire. None of it has come to pass. We have all seen that sections 2 and 15 of the charter can co-exist. The Supreme Court has said so, all courts have said so and that, therefore, is the rule of law in this country.