Madam Speaker, I have a number of concerns about the bill. My colleagues have very ably raised a number of them over the course of their speeches. I will focus on just a few ideas.
My main concern with the bill is that it threatens the very institution of marriage. People can dismiss that and brush it off, but I think down the road we will rue the day that this legislation was brought forward. It takes us further down a slippery slope that leads to the devaluing of the important institution of marriage.
In 1996 the Liberals passed Bill C-33, the bill that added sexual orientation to the Canadian Human Rights Act. The stated goal of that bill was to protect homosexuals from discrimination in the workplace and in housing.
At that time a number of Liberals, and we will cite some of them today, assured the Canadian public that the amendment to the act would not lead to the extension of benefits to partners of homosexuals. We were told then that it was only stopping discrimination, that it was only a workplace and housing issue. In the House on May 7, 1996, the Liberal member for Wentworth—Burlington defended Bill C-33 and the justice minister of the day with these words:
—many Canadians feared that Bill C-33 would lead to court interpretation such that gay couples could claim marriage and family benefits as a matter of right, that the legal privileges the state confers on conjugal couples of the opposite sex would be equally guaranteed by right to couples of the same sex. The justice minister has explicitly said this is not the intention of Bill C-33. He said it is workplace legislation and nothing more. He has assured us it has nothing to do with the definition of family, of same sex benefits or of same sex couples.
Those words were from the Liberal member for Wentworth—Burlington. They ring pretty hollow today. To add to that, on May 8, 1996, the justice minister of the day, the member for Etobicoke Centre who is now the health minister, confirmed this deception when he said:
—the Supreme Court of Canada decided the case of Egan and Nesbit. It decided that notwithstanding that sexual orientation is a ground within section 15 of the charter on which discrimination is prohibited, the benefits do not automatically follow.
The Liberal justice minister at that time in his own words explicitly claimed that even if sexual orientation were added to the Canadian Human Rights Act the courts would not use that to extend benefits to gay partnerships.
We can fast forward to today where we find that all those promises were empty. They all ring very hollow, very deceptive in fact, as subsequent events have shown. That slippery slope has operated quite well.
There has been a series of court decisions rendered in which various kinds of benefits previously restricted to heterosexual couples have now been extended to gay partners. The most recent decisions have included the Rosenberg decision in June 1998 in which the Ontario Court of Appeal changed the Income Tax Act to extend pension benefits to gay partners. In May 1999 the supreme court declared in its M. v H. ruling that gay partners were subject to the alimony provisions of the Ontario family law act.
What happened in these court cases is exactly what the Liberals said would not happen. They are obviously not very good at prediction and beyond that they knew exactly where this would lead.
We see a pattern in which the initiatives of the Liberal party on same sex matters turn into merely a Trojan horse. I make some exceptions for folk on that side of the House who understand and see the problems with the legislation. At first they say the legislation they are passing in 1996 will not lead to legal challenges designed to extend benefits to gay couples. Then when the legal challenges come forward and are successful they turn around and say they had better change the laws to reflect the recent court decisions. That is what they are doing with the introduction of Bill C-23.
I heard a member say just recently that the Liberal cabinet is trying to catch up with the recent court decisions. The truth is that it is merely finishing what it set in motion. It is all very disingenuous. That is why we need to wake up and realize that the bill is a definite plan and it takes us further down that slippery slope. It sets the stage for a direct attack on the heterosexual definition of marriage at a date coming very soon. Stay tuned. We will see it before long in our supreme court.
If the legislation is passed it will lead in a very significant way, looking back historically, to a very major devaluation of marriage. Some ask why this would be bad since we are in a modern era and maybe there are other ways to deal with it. I would say that marriage, which the bill threatens, is a unique institution that has historically served us very well. It deserves to be guarded, not only protected but affirmed.
The institution of marriage has brought great benefits to society. It is in the vast majority of marriages that children are brought into the world, providing our country with its future citizens, workers, leaders, mothers and fathers. Marriage, as we know and as is shown time and again in academic study after academic study, provides the most stable, enduring context. Our Statistics Canada studies demonstrate this point. Marriage provides the most enduring context for the development of individuals during the formative years of childhood.
It has been proven that families in which the parents are married are statistically the most stable families. In this way marital relationships contribute to the dignity, stability, peace and prosperity of the family and of society.
Why does marriage bring these benefits? When a man and a woman enter into a marriage relationship it is almost always with the express purpose of making a lifelong commitment that will form the basis of family life and the environment in which children will be reared.
Marriages do break down, regrettably, sadly and tragically, but the fact that marriage relationships are much more stable than common law relationships makes one point very clear. Very few people enter into a marriage relationship flippantly. Most have carefully thought about the commitment they are making and the sincere and solemn vows to which they are committing. They realize they are participating in something much larger than themselves, something that most Canadians from various religious backgrounds believe is designed by God.
I simply point out that people are serious when they get married. This seriousness and depth of commitment to marriage are what benefit children who are born and raised in families. This is of great benefit to society.
Because of the way in which the institution of marriage benefits society we need to guard it, protect it and promote it. The institution of marriage as the union of one man and one woman must be preserved, protected and promoted in both the private and the public realms. It would be foolish to undermine the uniqueness of the marriage relationship. Any society that does so risks losing the benefits that have come to that society from marriage and from the high regard in which it has always been held.
Some people are not thinking about the health of the larger society when they are willing to sacrifice the societal benefits which come from marriage in order to engage in some major societal experimentation. We are in a laboratory, it appears, and some major social experimenting is going on that will create some real harm and damage down the road. Such people regard marriage as little more than a form of self-expression. It is much more than that. It is the glue that holds society together and lays the groundwork for the society of tomorrow.
The institution of marriage is not something to be toyed with. Were we to abandon the uniqueness of marriage, I am convinced we would pay a heavy price for that social experimentation. We would be killing the goose that lays the golden egg.
To tinker with the institution of marriage sends the wrong message to our young people. Surveys have shown that young people are actually more optimistic about relationships and starting a family some day than many of their parents. That optimism is good and needs to be encouraged.
Were the institution of marriage to be changed, we would be sending the wrong message to common law couples who have children and who are contemplating making a lifelong commitment to each other in marriage. Obviously many couples who are married today were formerly living together in common law relationships. At some point they decided to commit themselves to each other in a greater way, in marriage. This is something to be welcomed and encouraged. The children in such relationships benefit and society in turn benefits.
Therefore marriage in Canada as currently defined as the union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others accords with the Reform Party, the Canadian Alliance policy that marriage is the union between a man and a woman as recognized by the state.
Though the bill before us can be criticized from various angles, I believe that one of the most serious criticisms is the way in which it takes us further down that slippery slope toward the devaluation of marriage.
This is typical of the way the Liberal cabinet and some candidates handle social policy matters. Liberals appear to be anti-family with respect to the national day care program. The Canadian Alliance offers dollars and choice for parents. The Liberal cabinet has tax discrimination against one income families. We offer a 17% solution of fairness and equity, a $10,000 per person exemption and $20,000 per family.
The Liberal cabinet is unwilling to uphold laws against child pornography. We would use the notwithstanding clause to protect kids. The Liberals have unfair child access laws after divorce. We propose shared parenting family law to fix that. I could go on from there.
In closing, we have a cabinet with a track record of undermining the family by way of legislative initiatives. I do not believe that the majority will forget that attack on the family. As members of the Canadian Alliance Party, as I wrap up, we will fight for families. We expect that Canadians will join us in that significant battle as well.