Mr. Speaker, I have puzzled hard and long over the issue of why the Liberal government insists on driving and pushing this issue when it had created such a turmoil in society. We know that the more debate that has gone on and the more discussion that has occurred, the polls have begun to tip more in terms of 60% being opposed to it. If there are other possibilities in the mix or other modifications, it rises to even higher than that.
The Canadian public says that there is a different way to handle it. It should be done differently. I can speculate, but I do not know if I have the right answers in terms of why the Liberals intend to drive this divisive thing down on society and why they insist on wanting it. It was not being asked for.
The Attorney General of Canada, whose role it is to uphold the laws of this land, has thrown out case after case. It has not been vigorously challenged in the lower courts. Certainly, that is a good question to ask.
I cannot speculate what is in the hearts of individuals who are pushing this issue and ramming it forward because it is not a human right. None of the international courts have said that. There are different and other ways to accommodate some of that, but certainly it is without precedent. It is reprehensible, a word I am permitted to use in this place, in terms of the Prime Minister not allowing and attempting to bind the conscience of his own members.
Some have said that we cannot really bind the conscience of somebody else. They can do what they want. However, when we bring the kinds of pressures, inducements and offers to individuals, it is tremendous pressure. Thankfully, there are those individuals who stand on principle and have resisted that. They have resisted the siren call and the lure of it. They have stood by their principles and resisted it.
I find it rather appalling and very disturbing in this place that on such a matter, especially a moral issue which most people concede this involves, there would not be a total free vote. There is not and we are all aware that there is a whipped vote in the Liberal Party.
There are those on the government frontbenches, the ministers, who have no choice. They have to, they are forced to, they are obliged to, and they are pressured and induced to vote with the government. I find that really abhorrent, a very sad statement. That would be on the Prime Minister's conscience in terms of the judgment he makes in respect of that and he will live with that. When he is long gone from this place, he will have to look in the mirror and respond to why he actually did that, why he needed to do that when it was not at all required.