Mr. Speaker, I find it really sad to hear a member of Parliament, a Liberal member, say that human rights around marriage equality is somehow a bogus issue. I really am at a loss to understand how someone would arrive at that position.
The work that Martin Luther King did in advancing the civil, political and legal rights of African Americans, of advancing the human rights of all people, is a tremendous step in the victory of equality and human rights in a global sense.
This is part of that struggle. We cannot separate it out. We cannot make a rationalization that somehow because it involved African Americans or people of colour that is human rights but this is not. This is about the application of the law. This is about our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This is about what we do without prejudice and without bias and what we say to Canadians.
I am very sorry to hear that the member thinks that this is somehow a bogus issue. I hope that people in his constituency will discuss that question with him.
What we should be doing here today is affirming and upholding human rights and on that basis voting down this reprehensible motion.