Madam Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Mississauga South for his able speech. I noted that it was almost without notes. I always admire someone who can speak without notes, but I have no such ability.
I will read from a Globe and Mail article of last week by Professors Katherine Young and Paul Nathanson. They ask a very interesting question and I want to hear the hon. member's response to it:
So why would marriage be harmed by adding a few gay couples?
For one thing, we would lack even the ability we still have to provide public cultural support for heterosexuality. It would become, at best, nothing more than one more “lifestyle choice”...and could then no longer be propagated in the public square--which is necessary in a secular society. In fact, propagating it would be denounced and could be challenged in court as discrimination--the undue “privilege” of a “dominant” class, which is a breach of...Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But discrimination to maintain marriage as it has long been defined should be allowed in view of the fact that marriage, as a universal institution and the essential cultural complement to biology, is prior to all concepts of law.
In short, redefining marriage would amount to a massive human experiment.
The article states that just as change in the Divorce Act showed compassion for a few 40 years ago, it set in motion social forces that are only being played out now. In fact, I remember both these witnesses. I also remember students from McGill University who talked about how they were the products of a divorce culture. Those forces were set in motion at least 30 or 40 years ago when we last experimented with marriage by changing the Divorce Act.
I will ask the hon. member this. On one level we really should ask ourselves what the problem is here. Why can we not simply admit a few gays to the institution of marriage? In fact, I think it will be a few; it will be a symbolic few. It will not be a huge number by any means, so what is the great harm? What is the problem here? Why should we not make this decision based simply upon a charter analysis as opposed to a larger social policy analysis?