Madam Speaker, it is the opinion of the Conservative Party and myself that the government has not substantively protected religious freedom in its draft legislation, particularly in reference to reference case. The court ruled that the clause of the draft bill that was designed to do this was unconstitutional. It dealt only with the solemnization of marriage, which is under provincial jurisdiction and not federal.
In essence, all the government has done really is restate this clause already deemed unconstitutional by the court in the bill that it has tabled for debate. It has provided no specific statutory protection of religious freedom in the areas of its own jurisdiction, being federal.
Therefore, promises from the Liberals to defend religious freedom cannot be trusted. In 1999 the prime minister also promised to use all necessary means to defend the traditional definition marriage and that the government had no intention of changing the definition marriage or of legislating same sex marriage. Those were the words of the prime minister at the time. In that case one cannot trust a government that has so blatantly violated past promises.