Mr. Speaker, unelected judges are changing the law and defying a rational decision made by parliament. They are not interpreting and applying the law as the justice minister claimed yesterday.
The Rosenberg decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal will change the definition of spouse in the Income Tax Act to include same sex couples. During the debate of Bill C-33 in the last parliament the government promised that this would never happen.
The Minister of Justice had a decision to make and doing nothing is not a decision. Will the minister appeal the Rosenberg decision and ask the supreme court to respect the current definition of the term spouse in the many statutes passed by parliament, or will the minister let MPs decide this important issue as the previous minister of justice promised?
Canadians are demanding that elected MPs should make our laws, not unelected judges. This decision will have far reaching implications for spousal and family benefits, will lead to the term spouse being redefined in more than 40 federal statutes and further undermine the institution of marriage and the traditional family in Canada.