Mr. Speaker, I wanted to make a comment and to ask a question.
I find it very interesting that a question was asked of the hon. Secretary of State for Financial Institutions when the question could easily have been asked of me. It was a question about something I was reputed to have said, but the hon. member for Calgary Centre did not see fit to ask me when I was here. I would like to comment on it a bit.
The concept of conjugality, which the hon. member for Calgary Centre either cannot understand or refuses to understand, was also elaborated by the hon. member for Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough. It is a series of criteria that has been in existence for over 40 years.
We have never had a problem applying the definition of conjugality to married couples or heterosexual common law couples. Why do we seem to have this problem of applying it to same sex common law couples? Do we need to find out if people have sex?
This is not the only part of a conjugal relationship. In fact there are many marriages, heterosexual common law relationships and others, that enjoy great relationships in which they may not have frequent sex or may have stopped having sex for a long time.
We hear about the erosion of the family. The gay and lesbian youth who have a high incidence of suicide, do they belong to families? I would like to know if their families do not count. The families of committed same sex couples who have children, do their families count? Or, are we to think that their families do not count, their children should not be seen to be children?
The issue of the family keeps being brought up. The family is important, but what these members do not do or refuse to understand is that same sex couples have children, same sex couples are parents, same sex couples are grandparents and same sex couples are children of and brothers and sisters of families. Are we only going to cherry-pick what we mean as a family? I would like to ask the hon. member that question.