Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to enter into the debate. I am pleased to see that some people are having a moment of enjoyment. However, if people across the country had ever been given the time to really study this bill, like the old poem, there would be no joy in Mudville, there would be no joy in Canada from coast to coast, from the rural areas to the cities. If Canadians ever found out what this bill will do to the sacred institution of marriage that has been preserved in history the bill would be soundly and totally rejected.
I know I have been called a bigot for believing in this. I have been called worse names. I am not one who hates. I was brought up not to hate. I may see a drunk tumbling from the bar at midnight but the only thing I hate about that is what may happen to his children at home and eventually to him. I hate what he is doing but I certainly do not hate.
I know members would like to see me here next week but if I went home to my constituency and gave any indication whatsoever that I would be supporting this bill, I probably would not make it back. If somebody wants to give 98%, I will top that. Canadians are, thanks to their members, totally irate about this sneaked in legislation.
I met with some lawyers last Saturday night and asked them what they thought of this. They said that beyond a doubt it was the loosest piece of legislation that could ever possibly be made. It is not so much about what is not in the bill but about the people who are not protected in the bill.
Let us take a look at my own family. My wife's oldest sister stayed home and looked after her parents. She never married. She does not qualify for any benefits according to this bill. I have a niece with four children whose husband left her almost three years ago. According to this bill, if he was killed in an accident or where he works, his wife and family would not be the beneficiaries.
This government hates marriage. Let me give members an example of what happened in a city in my riding. An accident took the lives of six men just like that. In other words, six widows are made just like that. This bill was never once discussed with the provinces across Canada with regard to the workmen's compensation legislation that every province has. These widows then became beneficiaries of workmen's compensation for the rest of their lives. When three of them re-married, they were cut off from those benefits. The other three just lived with a partner.
There are so many things about this bill that will drive Canadians crazy unless they have an opportunity to take a look at it. I doubt if the justice department of any province was consulted on this bill. If we can talk about 68 federal acts, what about all the provincial acts? There will be that many provincial acts.
So far on social issues, the pornography issue has been the greatest. People have been phoning, writing, faxing, and so on. Guess what is coming second and may overtake it? This bill, Bill C-23. It will overtake it because Canadians are gradually getting to know what this bill is about. A word is placed in a bill and on the side of the bill there is no definition. We see the word conjugal with no definition. We see the word spouse and it can mean almost anything.
The government ought to be ashamed of itself by putting a time restraint on the passage of this bill. I do not know where its constituents are. Are my constituents different from the rest? Not on your life. They may be more intelligent, and they know what is going on with this bill.
I was very pleased on the first free vote that there were enough members opposite who had enough intestinal fortitude to stand and be counted. Let us hope that before this night ends and before this bill comes to the last and final reading that the government has enough courage to say “We had better put a month into this. Let us get the information out. Let us get the judicial people into each of the provinces. Let us throw it out so that people can really examine this bill”.
Has it got the courage to do that? Let us wait and see.
The pornography case has gone to the two lower courts and has been upheld. The question now is, what would happen if the judgment by the supreme court were in compliance with the two lower courts? What would the government do then?
The bill could not be rewritten because it would be too clear to rewrite. Would it have the courage to use the notwithstanding clause for the protection of Canadian children?
I ask that question and I ask one favour. Would the government consider allowing a time period of one month to put this bill out before the public, not just the parts the government wants, but the whole bill, and then bring it back to the House? That would be fair for democracy, it would be fair for society and it would give some credibility to this institution.