Mr. Speaker, it gives me pleasure to speak to this supply motion today.
I would like to say first off that the Liberal member for Mississauga West need not worry too much about my heart. It is pretty strong. In fact, I am sure it is going to be around a lot longer than this Liberal Party. There is pretty good evidence of that because of the attitude we have heard today coming from that side of the House. It was the same attitude which existed in the 35th Parliament and guess what. There was a whole section of Liberals over there and poof, they are gone. So just keep it up. It will not be long. I know my heart will be around when the rest of them are gone.
I do not know how many times I have been asked the question in my own riding and at other times when we go around to other parts of the country by people who are quite concerned and they say to me “Why are the courts making the laws? Is that not what we sent you to parliament for, to make the laws? Why are the courts making the laws?”
My colleague from Calgary Centre gave a whole list of examples of where that has happened. The only reason the Rosenberg decision is in the supply day motion is that it is the most recent case where there is another example of the court changing the law arbitrarily with this House not having anything to say about it.
People out there in Canada believe that when they pay good money to individuals to run the country that whoever is doing it should be accountable to them. I always believed that and I am sure you did, Mr. Speaker, before you came here. Taxpayers believe that the people they pay, including those in the courts, should be subject to some sort of accountability for the big bucks taxpayers pay.
Canadians ask who is running the country and who is making the laws. Their other question is to whom are those people accountable? Unfortunately my answer has to be no one. Under the present system they are not accountable to anyone.
I do not think for a moment that there is anyone in this House or from my side of the House from this party who would deny for a second that the expertise of people who understand our Constitution and the laws that go along with it should not be there to make absolutely certain that what we do is according to what the law of our land, the Constitution including the charter of rights, intended. There is no doubt about that.
When a piece of legislation that needs change comes into question, I believe and I think most Canadians believe that the change has to be made in this House. Then they have the opportunity to hold us accountable in the next election. At least one day every four or five years Canadians get to exercise their democratic right to send the message that they are or are not pleased with our performance and what we are doing. When taxpayers do not have the opportunity to do that because something is arbitrarily done through judiciary activism, they get a little upset, and I do not blame them.
We are bringing this before the House today to try to get this government to understand we need to have a little better understanding of what the taxpayers of Canada truly want. They want good representation. They want people to be accountable for the big bucks and we know they are big bucks. We are number one in the developed nations in terms of taxes. They want to know where their money is going and whether it is producing what they would like.
I am quite certain now that the court has written a redefinition into a piece of legislation regarding the word spouse without going through this House there will be some upset people. I certainly hope they let those members over there know it. When that decision was made I certainly found out in a hurry, as did my colleague from Prince George. People do pay attention to what is going on. My phone started ringing and letters started coming. That is why not too long after that decision, I made a member's statement in this House regarding that very thing. I was trying to put forward the voice of the people.
The government has an obligation to defend its stated position on the definition of spouse. We have the obligation to defend what we had in place. If an appeal fails, then bring the issue before parliament to debate it and settle it in a democratic fashion. I do not understand what is wrong with that. That is what we are supposed to do, debate, make the law. We can even show our appreciation to the courts for calling to our attention that the legislation is not properly done and that it needs to be changed. Let us do our job here. The courts are not supposed to do it for us. I did not think that was the case.
The former justice minister, now the health minister, said while defending the need for Bill C-33 “We should not rely on the courts to make public policy in matters of this kind. That is up to legislators and we should have the courage to do it”. I could not agree with the minister more.
I do not always agree with this gentleman but that was one statement that he was right on. That statement was something I thought these people across the way would have accepted as being real good common sense. It came from that side.
We are currently on the clock. The deadline for the government to appeal this is June 22. It is clearly a judge made law. It rewrites a major federal statute and is of a timely nature. This decision must be appealed immediately.
I do not understand why the courts decided to read in a same sex definition when parliament has already said no. During the 35th parliament Motion No. 264 proposed the legal recognition of same sex spouses and was defeated by a vote of 52 to 124. Out of those 124 votes many of them came from that side. They had to or it would have never been defeated.
Why the flip-flop? What is going on? Out of the blue this becomes okay but in the last parliament it was defeated soundly. It took every party of the House to do that.
This is something I know Canadians across the land are quite concerned about. I know this because of the question that was asked of the member from Prince George at town hall meetings, who is running this country, the courts or us. We must recognize that is being said. We must recognize that people are concerned about this and we must do our duty. We have a major task to do and we should live up to it.