I did not heckle the member. It was not me. It was somebody else. He should settle down. The hon. member said he would like to live long enough to see change. I do not know if he is going to see change, but I would like him to live too. He should take it easy, lower the temperature, take a Valium.
Let us talk about Bill C-23. I do not care if the courts make the decision or if parliament is making it, but fundamentally the issue is whether we are prepared as Canadians to have a society in which we will say to people who are gay that they cannot have access to the dental plans of their partners in their places of employment, that they cannot share in some form of survivor benefits having lived in a relationship with someone for a number of years, or that because they are gay they are not entitled to those basic rights in the workplace.
I had some concerns about the word conjugal in the bill. That word was defined for me by members of the Mississauga Gospel Temple. By their name alone we can tell they are Christians and their belief in the Bible is very strong. They are very good people. Reverend Horton in a letter pointed out to me that the word conjugal in the dictionary refers specifically to the act of sexual intercourse between a man and a woman in a married state.
I said “Just a minute. If we are using the word conjugal, how can we say that this bill does not in some way reference marriage? I think it does”.
I went to the minister, as had others, and said that we needed to address it. For us simply to continue to say that this is not about marriage in some way, or that it could not be interpreted in some way by a lawyer somewhere down the road, is unrealistic.