Mr. Speaker, I have listened to members debate this subject for a good part of the day. What I have heard raises a concern over the disagreement in opinion.
For some reason, if a member stands in the House to disagree with a piece of legislation, members on the other side will call the member all kinds of things. I heard the word “bigot” used today. I have heard a number of others words. It seems that this is the way the government works, that if a member is in disagreement with any piece of legislation that comes to the House the member will be labelled. It has been a tactic in Canada for far too many years.
People outside the House who have concerns about legislation are to the point where even they are afraid to stand in public to voice their concerns because they are afraid of being labelled.
I want the House to know and I want the people of Canada who are listening to this debate to know that there are members on this side of the House who will not be intimidated by that tactic. We will say what has to be said. We will say it on behalf of our constituents. No amount of name calling and no amount of labelling will stop us. They can keep on calling us what they want to call us. It will not stop us.
Let us look at Bill C-23. Sixty-eight federal statutes are to be amended. What a glorious day this is for the lawyers of the country. What a glorious day the government has provided once again for its friends in the legal community. What a glorious day of trying to interpret exactly what the bill means. It is a heyday for them.
The government is too afraid to define marriage. It is a shame. Marriage is one of the main cornerstones of society. Yet the government refuses to define it. It refuses to define conjugal. Yet it is willing to put this piece of garbage into legislation and force it upon the people of the country, to force it down their throats whether or not they like it.
Let us have a look at the history of the government with regard to some of these issues. The Liberals are the ones who stand there with their hands over their hearts and say they have consulted with the people, with the provinces, and this is what they have come up with.
I am here to say that there was no consulting. Nobody came into my constituency or any other constituency that I know of. Nobody from the government went to the provinces and talked to them about it. They just decided to do that and since they decided to do it the public has become aware.
There has been mention in the House time and time again of the concern we hear back from our constituents on this piece of legislation. Bill C-23, in the constituency of Okanagan—Shuswap, has now overtaken Bill C-68, the firearms legislation. It has overtaken child pornography in the concerns of the people of the Okanagan—Shuswap area.
There is concern out there. We are not getting hundreds of signatures or hundreds of letters. We are getting thousands of letters, faxes, e-mail, petitions and phone calls from the people who pay our wages.
The hon. member for Souris—Moose Mountain wanted to know if maybe his constituents were confused because he was being inundated with calls and letters with regard to this piece of legislation. I want to assure him that his constituents are not confused, not one bit.
Every other member in the House, even those on the other side who will vote in favour of the bill, are getting the same from their constituents. Yet they will refuse to stand on behalf of their constituents because they will have to go against their party whip. That is a shame for a country that is supposed to be called a democracy. We have not seen democracy in this country since the second world war, and that is a shame.
Let us look at the poorly written, poorly drafted piece of legislation which the minister has decided to put forward. It is the first piece of legislation, I heard today, that was brought forward by the minister since she has been here. I cannot believe it. It is something that will be fought over in courts for centuries to come if it is accepted. Members over there know quite well that this is will happen.
The bill is not even based on dependency and we are supposed to be looking at dependency. It is based on something called conjugal relationships, not whether or not the person is in need of assistance but his or her sexual habits. It does not make any sense. It makes no sense to anybody.
What about caregivers, people who give up their jobs to stay home and help their parents? They think they owe a debt to not only their parents but to society to help them through their troubled years. That is not addressed. They refuse to address it. I do not understand it. I do not know if it is something that happens when we get to the great hallowed halls of this institution.