Mr. Speaker, Canada has a Charter for Rights and Freedoms of which we are all very proud. It is part of our Constitution. What we are debating today in the general sense would be unconstitutional. It would be illegal .
As passionate as people feel on any side of this, there is no use in debating it as it would be breaking the law. It would be unconstitutional under the present Constitution, of which many, if not all, parliamentarians are very proud. Certainly our party will stand by and defend the rights of the people of Canada as defined by the Constitution.
There are two particular rights in the charter that are pertinent to the discussion we are having tonight. One is the right of religious freedom. My colleague from the NDP referred to it. However, on the other side of the coin, the Supreme Court has always protected freedom of religion. Churches can choose not perform same sex marriages, and that gives respect to the right of religious freedom.
On the other side there is the right of equality. All Canadians have to be treated equally. That is a right under the Constitution, so we cannot make a law that denigrates that right by treating Canadians differently.
The one way to achieve that is to amend the Constitution. It is parliamentarians and not judges who make the law. Parliamentarians wrote the charter and the Constitution, and those can be amended. That is open to any party to propose in the House of Commons. At any time, any Parliament could move to change that.
I am quite proud that all the parties in this Parliament, in the House of Commons, have said they refuse to do that. They refuse to change the Charter of Rights and Freedoms because all Canadians should be treated equally. I am proud members of Parliament have made that decision on the charter. For that reason, this debate should not proceed because it could not result in a legal outcome.
In closing, I am proud of parliamentarians from all parties for refusing to override the rights of small groups and minorities or the rights of any Canadian to be equal. I will stand by that as my input to the debate.