Madam Speaker, I commend my colleague opposite for his remarks. At the close of my speech I was cut short. I was trying to make an important point about the norm in international human rights law with respect to marriage.
I would like to offer a couple of citations and ask my colleague to respond to them. I will cite from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 1948, article 16:
Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family.
The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
I repeat that it says “men and women”.
The International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights of the United Nations in article 17 recognizes, “The right of men and women of marriageable age to marry and to raise a family”.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of the United Nations recognizes in article 23(2), “The right of men and women of marriageable age to marry and to found a family”.
The European Convention on Human Rights, article 12, says, “Men and women of marriageable age have the right to marry and to found a family according to the national laws governing the exercise of this right”.
The covenant on the rights of the family says as well that there is a prior right for men and women to marry and to found a family.
I would like to ask my colleague opposite if this bill should pass and if it becomes the policy of the Parliament and the Government of Canada that the maintenance of exclusive heterosexual traditional marriage constitutes a violation of human rights, does he believe the government will then seek to amend all the major international rights documents which explicitly enshrine heterosexual marriage and define marriage as a union between a man and a woman?