Mr. Speaker, about three days ago my office received a fax from a young man from New Brunswick who said please support Bill C-33. He is a declared heterosexual who spent a summer with a group of people, the majority of whom are homosexual. He said in his fax that he was discriminated against by that group.
The bill talks about sexual orientation, not about homosexual orientation or heterosexual orientation. It simply states sexual orientation. It seems anything we put the word sex into these days perks up everybody's ears for some reason.
There has been a lot of debate about the threat to the family from the bill. Do we think for one minute the family will ever be threatened by anything done in this Parliament or in any legislature around the world? The family is a natural occurrence. It has come together for thousands and thousands of years for obvious reasons, for mutual support, comfort and procreation. The word family simply does not have to be defined; it assumes a heterosexual family.
We can call two people of the same sex living together a family, pretend it is a family for those purposes. Think back to the historic family and why it exists. The family is not in jeopardy from anything that can be legislated or argued in the House. We should make that clear. My family will continue for generations to come, I hope, as it has for generations past. It has survived religious persecution to the Spanish Inquisition and everything in between, including Oliver Cromwell, and it still exists and it is still strong.
I ask those people who feel their families are threatened to look at themselves, at their own values and deal with them personally.
This country was founded by people who came here from Europe, by the Judaeo Christian ethic. The values of that Judaeo Christian ethic, found in most of the great religions of the world, were the foundation. In that ethic is taught tolerance, understanding and forgiveness. While some of the pronouncements of the Bible do not approve of certain things, if we read the whole thing it states very clearly that the judgment of those things belongs not to us at all; we are admonished not to stand in judgment.
My late father grew up in cabbagetown in Toronto and became a member of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews during the years when it was not a very popular thing to do. How ludicrous it seems that there was the same kind of fear at that time as has been expressed by some members of this House today. On Sunnyside Beach in Toronto there were signs which read: No dogs or Jews allowed. He became part of that movement which brought society a little further forward and brought to an end that open discrimination against Jews in Toronto.
This bill, this particular amendment to the human rights act simply adds one more step in the progress of a country that is looked upon as being generous, tolerant and appreciative of the other person. It is right and fitting that we should support this and not succumb to the fear that is being generated sometimes in the name of religion or particularly in the name of religion.
I respect everyone's point of view on this. I happen to have one point of view and my friends, some in my own caucus and some across the way, have another point of view. For me, this is not a moral issue. It is simply an issue of human rights. It is simply an issue of the gradual progress of our society toward something a little better than it was yesterday. There is nothing we can do in this House that is going to be threatening to any one of our families.
If we talk about sexual orientation, and refer to homosexuals which some members have done specifically although the bill works both ways, I would simply like to ask my friends: Who are homosexuals anyway? Who are they? They can be your brother, your sister, your second cousin, a friend, or a relative of the family down the street.
The argument is always made that homosexuality is a chosen lifestyle. If those who believe that would talk to some homosexuals for a while, they would find that it is not the case. To choose that lifestyle is not necessarily the popular way to go. Homosexuals do not represent a majority of the population. As a matter of fact they represent a very small minority.
Indeed the quality of our civilization will be judged in years and generations to come as to how we treat our minorities. A few hundred years ago the attitude toward someone who had mental problems or who was born with disabilities was very different from what it is today. There were places called insane asylums. I think every one of us would find it offensive today to consider that those were proper things to maintain.
We changed our thinking through the accumulation of knowledge and through understanding to try to-