Madam Speaker, I listened to the hon. member. I understand his position and his point of view and I respect his right to table it. He did say a couple of things I would like to comment on.
First, he made some reference to the need for sex police. With due respect, that is not a fair assessment. In fact under the current income tax laws common law couples declare their relationships within the Income Tax Act. We are on the honour system. The representations of the taxpayers are accepted and there is no checking. It is somewhat ludicrous to suggest that somehow there is going to be any checking of such an activity.
Second, the member spent an awful lot of time talking about how the Supreme Court of Canada forced parliament to do this. I would point out that this parliament, through Bill C-33, amended the human rights act to include sexual orientation as a prohibited grounds for discrimination. The human rights commissioner of the day said that in implementing that change to the legislation there would be consequences, and these are the consequences that are appearing now. Indeed, parliament is the reason we are here today dealing with Bill C-23.
I would ask the member if he would not agree that anyone in Canada who makes a declaration and who has this dependency relationship is entitled. It has nothing to do with sexuality; it has to do with dependency.