Mr. Speaker, in the next few moments I will express my concern as well with this group of amendments.
The government is bringing in through the back door what it does not have the courage to do openly. It is becoming more and more obvious as we look at this group of amendments that there is a real problem. I have a hard time understanding how the Liberals can sit in their seats and calmly observe and accept the whole process that is taking place because of its serious implications. They are faced with the questions we are asking, which I will summarize in a few moments.
I would like to defend the definitions of marriage, spouse and the traditional family. Unfortunately the Liberal government says one thing and does the opposite. I have listened to what government members have said. They have used the excuse that the courts made them do it.
Who makes the laws in the country? Is it not supposed to be parliament? If it is not the people through their elected representatives making the laws in the country, we have a problem and we had better change the system.
The Liberals say that they are defending the family, except when they will not fight court cases that undermine it. That is at the root of this problem. The Liberals say that they are all for strengthening the family, except when they bring in laws to redefine it. I say that facetiously because they say one thing and do another.
Bill C-78 is yet another example of the Liberal government redefining marriage and spouse in federal legislation, thereby undermining the definition of the family which has served society so well for thousands of years.
Bill C-78 would not only extend survivor benefits to married couples, as it should be, but survivor has been redefined to include couples who cohabited in a relationship of a conjugal nature for at least a year before the death of the pension plan contributor. I found the word conjugal 19 different times in Bill C-78.
According to the government it does not matter whether one is a husband or a wife of a pensioner. If one is having sex with a government employee over a period of a year and that person dies, one is entitled to his or her pension benefits. That is what the legislation clearly says. That is what we will be approving in the House when we vote this evening on these amendments.
The Liberals are promoting a system whereby government benefits will be allotted on one's sexual relationships, and not on whether or not one is married. Is not ironic that the party of Pierre Trudeau who said that the government has no business in the bedrooms of the nation, is now willing to extend benefits because of what happens in the bedroom? What has happened in the last 20 or 30 years?
The Reform Party believes in the institution of marriage and would vigorously defend it in Canadian law. Reform policy defines marriage as:
—the union of a man and a woman as recognized by the state, and this definition will be used in the provision of spousal benefits for any program funded and administered by the federal government.
That is what we stand for and that is what we believe in. Opening up public benefits to conjugal relationship will create a nightmare. I want to conclude with four questions which must be answered by the government before it passes the legislation.
First, how will the government determine if a relationship is conjugal in nature? My colleagues have asked questions about whether it will put a camera in the bedroom.
Second, how will a survivor prove that his or her relationship with the dead pensioner was indeed of a conjugal nature? How will the survivor prove that when it comes to a court case or to claiming the benefits? What will the survivor do? Will our government now go into the bedrooms of the nation to determine whether or not there has been a conjugal relationship?
Third, why has the government shifted from a clearly defined test of legal marriage to a relationship that is open to anyone's definition and therefore abuse? We now have a clearly defined definition of marriage. Now it will do away with that and go to anyone's definition of it. This will open the door to tremendous abuse.
Fourth, and maybe the Liberals never even thought of it, how many survivors will there be? The spouse and one, two, three or more lovers who claim to have had a conjugal relationship with the pensioner? How many people will start claiming after the death of someone that they have had a relationship of a sexual nature with that person?
It will be a dream world for lawyers. I can just see the court cases coming forth as all these people claim that they slept with a person for a year. Another person will say “so did I”, and so on. It is absolutely ridiculous what the legislation does and what it creates. Before we go any further I call upon the government to answer those four questions.