Madam Speaker, I am pleased to take part in the debate.
With this motion, the Reform Party is trying to emphasize two points. The first one is the need for Parliament to give directions concerning the legislation, since it is appropriate, before the laws are interpreted by the judiciary, to first have them debated in this House. We agree with this principle.
The second point in the Reformers' motion more accurately reflects their tradition as a homophobic group, since it is asking the government to appeal the Rosenberg decision. The Rosenberg decision was handed down by the Ontario Court of Appeal in April of this year. It struck down a specific provision of the Income Tax Act because it did not include same sex spouses.
Those who were in the House in the last Parliament are very familiar with the Reform Party's closed-mindedness verging on dogmatism. They know that Reformers have a problem admitting that two men or two women could calmly and of their own free will decide to live together and enjoy the mutual benefits. In a context such as this, it is obviously discriminatory to deny homosexuals the benefits accorded heterosexuals.
It is true that we would like the members of this House to make known their views on recognition of same sex spouses. They will have an opportunity to do so, because I intend to introduce a bill in the House in September. I hope that the Reform Party, the Liberal Party, the Progressive Conservative Party and the New Democratic Party will agree to make this bill votable and that all members may express their views on this important topic.
It is a question of ending the discrimination to which homosexuals are subjected and recognize that two men or two women can constitute a couple and that the government must pay them the same benefits and allow them the same rights and obligations as heterosexual partners.
What is the essence of the Rosenberg ruling? Ms. Rosenberg and Ms. Evans were members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees and were living in a homosexual relationship. They took their case to court. The union asked Revenue Canada, which administers the Income Tax Act, to recognize their pension plan. The reason we are discussing the Rosenberg decision today is that the Canadian Union of Public Employees felt that Revenue Canada had acted in a discriminatory manner by not agreeing to recognize a pension plan which should be, because the Income Tax Act does not recognize same sex spouses.
What did the Ontario Court of Appeal say? It said that it was indeed discriminatory and that paragraph 252(4) of the Income Tax Act should be read as explicitly referring to same sex spouses.
What is still more interesting where the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is concerned, is that there is a possibility for the legislator, as for the courts, to restrict certain freedoms. This possibility open to the legislator and to the courts to restrict certain freedoms is covered under article 1.
I would like to share with you the Ontario Appeal Court's conclusion on article 1 as it applied to the Income Tax Act in the Rosenberg case. It is most eloquent, and to my mind the most interesting part of the decision.
It states “Aging and retirement are not unique to heterosexuals”. Who could deny that homosexuals also age and that this is a law of nature, something that is inevitable, and not connected in any way with fortune, with religion, or with race. It says “Aging and retirement are not unique to heterosexuals—and there is nothing about being heterosexual that warrants the government's preferential attention to the possibility of economic insecurity. It cannot therefore be a pressing and substantial objective to single out for exclusive recognition, the income protection of those older Canadians with sexual preferences that are heterosexual.”
This is where the Reform Party will have to provide an explanation some day. When two men or two women work, make contributions, are consumers and taxpayers, where is the logic in a member rising in this House and not acknowledging, with the minimum of honesty one is entitled to expect of parliamentarians, that there is something discriminatory in this?
We must be clear about this. The matter of recognizing same sex spouses is not a question of being on the left or on the right politically.
I should point out that, in 1992, then Minister of Justice Kim Campbell decided, following another decision by an Ontario court, to recognize that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was not acceptable. I am referring to the famous Haig case, which led to an amendment of the Canadian Human Rights Act. This in turn enabled us, as parliamentarians, to pass Bill C-33, two years ago.
It must be recognized that two men, or two women, can have a satisfying, consensual relationship and still be consumers, active citizens involved in their community, and also pay union dues and fulfil all their obligations as members of the workforce. This is first and foremost a matter of non-discrimination.
Some day, the Reform Party will have to say whether it agrees that it is not acceptable for a state and a government to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. It is well known that one does not choose to become a homosexual. It is not a matter of choice. I did not wake up some day asking to be a homosexual, and a heterosexual the next day. Homosexuality is based on desire, on what one is attracted to.
As long as the Reform Party continues to table homophobic motions that are unworthy of parliamentarians, what message does it send to the public? It sends the message that it does not recognize the reality of people who are engaged in homosexual common law relationships.
This is not to the Reformers' credit. To be sure, a debate must take place. Reformers are right when they say it is unacceptable in a democracy to leave it to judges to make the decisions. However, once a decision has been made, we cannot decide that it will not be binding, or that we will not comply with it. Because this is the first part of the Reform motion.
Could the Reform Party not give thought to what the various tribunals have said in the past ten years or so? Tribunals dealing with labour and health matters, administration and general law have found it to be discriminatory to deny same sex spouses the benefits accorded heterosexual spouses. This is discriminatory, because these people are taxpayers. They contribute through their taxes.
What I would really like is for the Reform Party to acknowledge once and for all that discrimination exists. Homosexuals are consumers and taxpayers too. When people have lived together for five, ten or fifteen years and one spouse dies and the other is not entitled to survivor benefits, nothing—no law, no moral precept, no principle of fairness—can justify the government, the legislator's denying these benefits to those who are entitled to them because they paid for them. The legislator should amend all the laws, not just the Income Tax Act.
When I introduced my bill in 1994, I looked at all the laws containing a definition of spouse. There were some 70 of them. This debate is inevitable, and I say to the Reformers that recognition of same sex spouses is inevitable.