Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to take part in this debate on this very important bill, particularly after the speech of the hon. member for Kindersley-Lloydminster.
Some members have suggested there is no need for the law being proposed in this bill. I submit that if they have any doubt as to the evidence required in support of such a law they need only look at the legions of cases that have been brought before the Human Rights Commission of Canada, many of which have been subsequently appealed to the courts of the country, dealing with acts of discrimination perpetrated against members of minority communities; not only ones based on sexual orientation but others.
Discrimination is rife and rampant in Canada. I acknowledge that we have made significant gains in the last 10 years, but there is a continuing problem with discrimination. This bill, in amending the Canadian Human Rights Act, seeks to bring to an end that discrimination.
We have seen evidence of that discrimination in the statements made recently by some members of the Reform Party outside the House. I will not go into those in detail. However, those statements have forced the leader of the Reform Party into issuing a manifesto, although a little late perhaps. I will quote from it because I think his reasons for opposing this bill and those he has put forward for his party are not reasonable or accurate. I quote from this morning's edition of the Ottawa Citizen:
Reformers are opposing the government's gay rights bill, not because they favour discrimination, but because they favour a better approach to prevention of discrimination. The party supports affirming the equality of all Canadians before the law rather than protecting that equality through the creation of special categories of Canadians with group rights. But the inability-or unwillingness-of some Reform MPs to support this principled reason for opposing Bill C-33 is at the root of the party's immediate problems.
I am sure even the member for Halifax finds the last statement a little hard to swallow. Some of us find difficulty with the first part as well, and I will deal with that.
What is the leader of the Reform Party proposing in terms of affirmation of equality for all Canadians? What is this chimera being put before us as a basis for changing this law?