Madam Speaker, this omnibus bill is a major step toward equality, since it seeks to correct the inequalities based on sexual orientation.
This omnibus bill to modernize benefits and obligations is legislation whose time has come. It is legislation that speaks very clearly to the issue of equality.
Within our country the issue of equality is carried forth in our charter of rights and freedoms. It is brought forward in our Canadian Human Rights Act. It is served by issues such as employment equity, the Canadian Multiculturalism Act, citizenship and immigration. There are many acts and pieces of legislation in this country which deal with the issue of inequality.
We have identified over the years that there are very different ways in which inequality can occur. There are many barriers. People say it is due to various reasons, most of which are about differences. We have shown very clearly, the courts have shown very clearly and we have seen through the knowledge of people, communities and the manner in which they live that there is in fact inequality in this country based on sexual orientation.
I was a physician for 23 years. In practising medicine I saw firsthand the destruction and damage that discrimination causes, especially to persons whose sexual orientation is different from the mainstream. The simple right to call themselves a family we have heard over and over again being denigrated by Reform members across the way.
I have heard Reformers say that benefits and obligations have to do only with family and that has to do only with children. I am here to tell the Reform Party that there are gay and lesbian couples who actually have children. I know it is a shock to members across the way, but they actually have children from previous marriages or children whom they have adopted.
The issue of children and families has to do with a unit, as the last member who spoke said; a unit that is loving and supportive, a unit that cares for and raises children. We know that gay and lesbian couples do this. If it is about children, then the bill is doing exactly the right thing, ensuring that persons with children have equal benefits and obligations.
I have also heard Reform members suggest that this is not about children at all, that this is really about sex and who has sex, and that the term conjugal means sex and only sex. The term conjugal in the dictionary is about sex. Under the law there are many criteria which are used to define a conjugal relationship. Sex is only one of them.
I am told that by bringing forward the bill we will suddenly be going into the bedrooms of the nation. We never have before concerning the issue of married couples. I do not know if all married couples have sex. Should we be questioning them and then deny them benefits and obligations based on their ability to have or wish to have sex? We have not done that.
Forty years ago when we brought heterosexual common law couples into legislation we did not ask a question about sex. Why do we suddenly have to ask a question about sex now? Are we not applying a very different set of rules? Is applying a very different set of rules and a very different set of criteria not exactly what discrimination is about? How is it that this issue becomes one of importance?
On the issue of rights and obligations, we are able to ensure that homosexual couples who have lived together and have told the world so by the way they behave toward each other enjoy the same benefits as heterosexual common law couples. They have bought homes together. They have lived together as faithful couples for many years. Are we saying that because of differences, because they are the same sex and not heterosexual, they do not deserve the rights and obligations of others when they have committed to each other in a relationship?
This omnibus legislation is not only about rights; it also speaks to obligation. When a couple commits to a conjugal relationship that couple takes on the obligation to support each other. If the couple separates, there is a mechanism and a process by which the individuals can continue to support each other, whether financially or through the division of property. This speaks to the obligation of people who have made a commitment to each other.
Members of the opposition have brought in the red herring of other dependent relationships, saying that if two sisters live together this should be so, and if a parent and a child live together this should be so.
One member said that we do not know if the people involved in those relationships wish to accept the obligation. If they should separate, if the child should leave the parent, will the child be legally responsible to that parent later on, to support the parent or divide assets or whatever? We do not know enough about those kinds of relationships to decide whether we can apply the same legislation to them. There is time to do that. There is time to discuss it. Many of these issues involve provincial jurisdiction. We will talk with the provinces. We will look at the impact. We will look at whether people in other relationships wish to have the obligations as well as the benefits.
The truth is that we have discriminated against couples who have identified themselves as living in conjugal relationships purely and simply because of one reason: they are not heterosexual.
The government has gone a great distance since it came to power in 1993. It has moved the equality agenda forward by amending the Canadian Human Rights Act to add sexual orientation as a prohibited grounds for discrimination. It has added sexual orientation to hate crimes legislation. It has moved for Treasury Board to apply health benefits and dental benefits to same sex couples. It has moved forward recently in a Treasury Board bill to ensure pensions for same sex couples. This is just a logical extension. Regardless, the supreme court and various human rights commissions across the country have told us very clearly that we have discriminated, in fact and in law, against same sex couples. We have moved to change that. It is not only that the supreme court has told us that. It is that this is a progression of things we started in 1993.
This is about equality and about fairness. With my hat as Secretary of State for the Status of Women, equality and fairness is what I am bound to try to achieve for all women in Canada, whether they be women of colour, whether they be women of different religions, whether they be lesbians. There have been enough surveys done in my department that show there has been a great deal of discrimination against lesbians.
It is easy to stand across the way and say that one speaks on behalf of various minorities. One has to live in a minority to understand what it means to be discriminated against. There are same sex couples who, when they apply for a job, have had to hide the fact that they are in a same sex relationship. Persons have had to hide the fact that they were gay or lesbian because they would not be allowed to work as teachers, or nurses, or in various areas where they would have to come into contact with the public.
That is discrimination. It affects where they work, which is a fundamental human right, where they play, whom they love, how they love and where they love.
These are the kinds of things that we are bound to achieve in this government. We are committed to defending the human rights, les droits de la personne. We are committed to ensuring that all Canadians, whether they look like the majority, whether they sound like the majority because of linguistic differences or whether they love like the majority, will not be discriminated against. This is very clearly what this is about. It is not some sort of hidden agenda. It is very clear.
For anyone who wishes to look at human rights, who espouses the dignity of the individual and the right of children and families to grow up together regardless of the colour, race, religion and sexual orientation of their parents, know that everyone must have the right to bind together as a unit in society.
I have heard no one across the way asking if it was appropriate for gays and lesbians to pay taxes or to pay into the various premium plans we have to pay into to get the benefits that they do not get. They have been allowed to pay. They are considered to be equal in payment. Let us now allow them to be equal in achieving the benefits that we all have.