Mr. Speaker, I have listened attentively to the hon. member's comments and I feel therefore I should react to them.
I will, of course, avoid discussing the Conservative Party's policy on health care. I think it is widely known and is distressing enough to many Canadians at the moment, so there is no need to frighten others. The same thing may be said with respect to their newly felt apparent affection for those less well off. That too is frightening enough already, so I will not discuss it further.
I do, however, want to come back to the other points the member raised. He seemed to say that the government was, in a way, redefining marriage on its own, assuming that civil marriage—only civil marriage, in fact—of same sex partners does not already exist, which we know to be incorrect.
That may be the case in Alberta, Prince Edward Island or New Brunswick at the moment. However, on the weekend, I read a document by a professor from the University of Ottawa, which said that the remarks just made by the member are incorrect with respect to 90% of Canada's population.
In my province of Ontario, these marriages are currently taking place and have done so for a year or even more. As I said in the context of another debate, I have been invited to some of these weddings but have not attended. Would I be prepared to attend one some day? I do not know. That is not the issue, in any case. It does not matter whether the member opposite or I are prepared to endorse this type of union. The issue is to determine whether it is a right. That is the important part.
The courts in seven provinces have held that it is. The language used in most cases indicates that it is a fundamental right under the Constitution.
The hon. member across said that we could have gone to the Supreme Court to see whether that is in fact the case, but wait a minute. In seven provinces it has been decided that it is the case. That is seven, not one, not two and not three. In seven provinces it has been decided, and as a matter of fact, in every single province where the case was heard it was determined to be that way. It was determined to be a right, a fundamental right.
There is another thing that the member fails to tell us. He seems to suggest that there is such a thing as a right of appeal to the Supreme Court. As he knows, that does not exist in law. Once the superior court has heard the case at its appeal level, that is the end of traditional appeal processes. Of course one can seek leave to appeal, but that does not suggest that there is a right to appeal. That does not exist. Of course, when one seeks leave to appeal--a government does and I sat in cabinet for seven and a half years--one receives the advice as to whether or not, if the government wants to, it can then seek leave to appeal.
The hon. member does not say so, but there is almost no expert who would agree with him that the leave to appeal not only would have been granted, which is the first step, but that the courts later would have given the decision which he says hypothetically would have occurred had the first case happened, which is not even sure at all. When the hon. member makes all these allegations, they are not factually correct. He cannot start with a supposition, get the conclusion of it and use that conclusion to go to the next step of the argument when the first one is not at all the case.
What we have before us are the decisions that have been made in those seven provinces. They are the rights that have been established in those provinces. There are people being married now in those provinces. Why did the hon. member not mention that in his remarks? Is he leading Canadians to believe that this is not true now and would only be true with this bill? That is false: it is the case right now in those seven provinces.
I have no idea how many have been married, but I do know that it is a right they have. It has been decided in their favour in every single case where it was adjudicated in all seven provincial jurisdictions. Why are they not saying that across the way? I think I know. It is because they are trying to make Canadians believe something that is not factually correct. They are trying to make Canadians believe that if this bill is not passed then in fact in those seven provinces those who are married may somehow be unmarried, or that the rights they have now would be revoked. That is not true. We all know it is not true.
Here is what would be necessary if the hon. member is serious. I would disagree with him on doing so, but it should at least be said. What he really means to say is that to change what is there now, he would have to invoke the notwithstanding clause. He would have to revoke the marriages that have been performed ever since that first right was granted some years ago and then legislate to do the opposite. I would disagree with him, but at least in my mind that would be the honest position: to state to Canadians that this, and not something that has been invented this morning, is the issue before us.
On the issue of the bill itself, the hon. member might say as others have that the religious protections are not sufficiently taken care of, but there are none right now. There is nothing in any law now that protects the ministers of the church. The bill wants to do that so they will not be sued if they do not want to perform such marriages. I am all in favour of having that protection. I say that as a practising Roman Catholic. I do not want my priest to be sued. That is nonsense.
If the hon. member is saying, as some of his colleagues said the other day, that it is not sufficient, why then do they not let the bill go to committee to increase whatever they perceive as that shortcoming in religious protection, if they see one and if that proposition is honest?
They are not allowing the bill to go to committee. They are stalling it. We have had everybody speak on the other side. We have had an amendment. Everybody spoke again. Then we went back to the main motion. We know what that is: it is a filibuster. I was the House leader around here for over six years and I know what a filibuster looks like. I have had to put an end to a number of them in the past. I know what they are and the hon. member knows what they are too. It is a filibuster that is not designed to improve the bill; it is a filibuster that is not designed to do anything else but to try to stir up Canadians against a right that has been granted to them by the courts. That is why it is wrong.
It has nothing to do with whether any single one of us, least of all me, agrees or does not agree that there should be civil marriages for people of the same sex. This is an issue that the courts have decided, at least in my province. In six more provinces and one territory that has been the consistent case. We know that. I think the Canadian public knows that too. That is why this desperate attempt on the other side to try to stir up public opinion against it is not flying. Canadians cannot be fooled. They know the truth. They know what it is like. To pretend this in what is being said today does not make true something that is untrue just because several opposition members are filibustering and have done so several times in order to try to convince the Canadian public.
This is why I support the government. It is a free vote, contrary to what the member has said. That is another incorrect statement. It is a free vote. No one is telling me to vote on one side or the other in this matter. It is, in my opinion, a matter of protecting the rights accorded by the courts and I will do so.
For this reason, I will vote in favour of this bill.