Mr. Speaker, I certainly did not indicate that in my speech. That relationship which the law has interpreted as being equivalent to marriage, heterosexual common law relationships, provide much the same function as those within a marriage; that is that they are able to live together for an extended period of time and to procreate and to have children, which is the building block of society. I think that is the intention of what happened when the government extended the envelope to include common law couples because they serve in very much the same way as a building block to our society.
What the minister is saying is that she wants to extend that envelope to include individuals who by the very nature of their relationship do not have that function and ability of procreation. That is the envelope that this minister is pushing and it opens the door to other possibilities and arrangements.
That is what happens when the minister throws the notion of what marriage is about and the inherent good within that relationship of marriage and leads Canadians down this path. The minister continues not to realize that. That is quite surprising.