Yes, it seems like longer. Anyway, I want to take a few seconds to thank my parents. When I think of the family in which I grew up, we had parents who loved each other, who loved us, and we knew it.
I have related in the House before the story of the day when I was guilty of a serious transgression, having gone with some of my older cousins to an abandoned house and broken all the windows. I cannot believe I did it but there I was, a little nine or ten year old.
My father, and I just love him for it, took the time to take me to the man who owned that house and to hold me accountable. I had to ask that man to forgive me for what I had done. Dad also required that for the next three or four years all the money I earned went to pay for the damage. He held me accountable and I thank him for that.
We saw the love that our parents demonstrated to each other and to us, the level of discipline that requires, and the level of very loving discipline they gave their children. It would have been almost impossible for my brother and I to have grown up to be criminals. It would have been impossible because we just saw the opposite so richly modelled.
I remember, again just thinking of my parents on their anniversary today, how often they reached out to help other people in need. We were always participants in it. I do not have the time today to talk about the details, but we had a tremendous example in our home.
For about the last 20 years my mother used to pray that she and my father would outlive my invalid sister. I have talked about her in the House too. When she passed away just a couple of weeks ago, it was a tremendously emotional time for our family. While we were saying goodbye to our sister whom we loved so dearly, we were also saying thanks to mom and dad for all those years of being faithful to the trust they had to make sure that she was looked after. It was my mother's heart that said “Lord, we want to outlive Marion so that we can make sure that she is looked after”. The Lord granted that request, and for that my family is very grateful.
When I say that in preamble to my comments today, I am saying that strong families are indeed the backbone of a good and healthy society. I do not in any way apologize for that. I not ashamed of the fact that the ideal is a mom and dad loving each other for life. They nurture and care for their children. They make sure that they are looked after physically and that they have a very strong upbringing. The children are taught to care for others, to love one another and to forgive one another when we err, as we all do. They have that strong foundation.
As some of my colleagues have mentioned, I would be much better pleased if the Government of Canada would just spend some real time making sure that government policy was supportive of that ideal instead of doing what it does.
As my colleague who just spoke indicated, often the decisions of the government are negative for families. We have families who are literally struggling financially. They cannot make ends meet. They both have to go to work to pay their taxes and to try to provide for their children. I cannot for the life of me figure out why the government cannot have as a tax policy a special break for families that are providing the absolute best, an ideal environment for the upbringing of their children.
I know that I and other members of my party have been subject to quite a bit of negative comment because of our stand. I would like to put that to rest.
There have been accusations of our hatred and many other terribly negative comments. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have to say that I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in showing any lack of support for people. That is what life is all about. It is about family. It is about friends. It is about life, and it is about love. I reject outright their accusations.
In saying that, I would also like to add that some of the things the Liberal members opposite have said about us have been hurtful. We are tempted to yell back and say “You are just not right”. But because of the heavy emotional things which have gone on in my life in the last couple of months, and pardon me if my voice breaks a bit, I am really hurt by them. I do not care whether it hurts me, but that a member can look at another person and make an accusation so flippantly about presumed attitudes or the presumed motivations of other people, without knowing the facts, is not good for us. I really wish that Liberal and other members would not do that.
Undoubtedly, I have concerns with this bill. That does not mean I do not want to reach out a helping hand to those who have genuine need. It is just the opposite. In fact, if I have one major criticism of this bill, it is that it is passed off as bringing equality when in fact it will not. All it will do, in true Liberal style, is bring in another group to be included in the circle, to the exclusion of all others. I reject that.
I know of a number of people who have cared for and lived with each other for years and years. There is nothing in this bill for them. There is nothing here about equality.
I am thinking about two of my friends, two sisters who never married. They lived together with their mother for many years, until their mother died, and then they kept on living together in their house. I assure the House that there was never any conjugal relationship between them. Does the government recognize their need for sharing their benefits? No. No, it picks out one group and says that this is all about equality. It is not. It is about the group it has chosen, and that group right now happens to be people living together in homosexual relationships. That is what this bill is all about.
I also have heard over and over that this bill has nothing to do with marriage. That is interesting. I wondered if it did, so I opened it and I was absolutely amazed to find that one of the very first words in the bill was “marriage”. That was before the amendment.
The short title states:
This Act may be cited as the Modernization of Benefits and Obligations Act.
Clause 2 amends the Agricultural Marketing Programs Act. Subclause 2(1)(ii) states:
—marriage, in the sense that one is married to the other or to a person who is—
It goes on from there. The government says it is not about marriage. The very first word is “marriage”. In fact, it is about marriage. It is about a relationship. The government is referring to two people living together in a relationship which is similar to marriage. That is what it is doing, in effect.
I can assure the House that neither my parents' marriage nor my marriage will be threatened by this bill. Absolutely not. But in a way it does change the meaning of marriage when couples living in relationships which are not marriages are treated exactly the same. Then, indeed, the practising definition of marriage will change.
I regret that my time is up, because I could have gone on.