Same-Sex Marriage Divides Canadians

Same-Sex Marriage Divides Canadians
Analysis - By Mark Bourrie - IPS 9/8/03

OTTAWA, Sep 8 (IPS) - Canada's parliament will resume next Monday under the shadow of an issue that was not even on the radar screen in the national election of 2000: same-sex marriage.

When courts in the country's three largest provinces ruled earlier this year that refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples was discrimination under the constitution, marriage of gays and lesbians was in effect legalised in provinces with about 60 per cent of Canada's population.

By last spring, the federal government was left with only three choices: take the issue to the Supreme Court, which was likely to uphold the lower courts' decisions; draft legislation to create a uniform system across the country; or use a clause in the constitution that allows the government to exempt itself from court rulings for five years.

The Liberal Party government of Jean Chretien chose what seemed to be the safest route: accept the decisions of the three provincial high courts and bring in a law to make marriage rules conform with the equality rules in the constitution. The government expected the law to pass easily but, in the past six months, a broad coalition of church groups and neo-conservative politicians has emerged to block the pending legislation.

And according to recent polls, support for legalising same-sex marriages -- as opposed to civil unions lacking the label ''marriage'' -- is slipping.

The country is split by generation, with most people over 50 opposed to same-sex marriage and those under 50 supportive.

Canadians also split regionally on the issue. Some 60 per cent of all people of voting age in mostly French-speaking Quebec accept same-sex marriage, while only 20 per cent of people in the western province of Alberta want the practice to be legal.

The U.S. debate on same-sex marriage has also spilled over into Canada. One-half of all Americans who regularly attend worship services said in a recent 'Washington Post' poll they would leave their current church if their minister blessed gay couples -- even if their denomination officially approved those ceremonies.

The issue has also split some of Canada's churches. A priest in east coast Newfoundland was censured by the Roman Catholic Church for challenging its opposition to same-sex marriage.

"I will not perform same-sex marriages here, but I also will not encourage anyone to try to stop the government from allowing same-sex couples to do so elsewhere," Rev. Paul Lundrigan said in a sermon that was reported widely.

Lundrigan said the church has picked a poor issue to oppose vehemently when it stayed silent in the past on other topics like child sexual abuse.

"The church should have spoken out on so many other tragic issues and didn't," the priest said. "I think that the hierarchy of our church has lost the moral ground to make judgment on how best to raise children."

That is not the view of many Roman Catholic clerics. One western Canadian bishop warned Chretien, a Roman Catholic, that his salvation is threatened if he goes ahead with his plans to legalise same-sex marriage.

Chretien, who is retiring early next year, was undeterred. "I am the prime minister of Canada. When I am prime minister of Canada, I am acting as a person responsible for the nation. The problem of my religion, I deal with it in other circumstances."

Even mainstream conservative politicians were shocked at the vehemence of the attack on Chretien.

"Churches should not be telling members of parliament what to do," said former prime minister Joe Clark.

"I am a Roman Catholic. I was not elected as a Roman Catholic. I was elected as someone with a long career in public office, whose views are known," he added.

"My constituency and the dictates of democracy require that I vote as an individual who considers these questions carefully, rather than vote on the basis of my faith."

While the opposition right-wing Alliance Party largely opposes Chretien's plan, other conservative politicians are looking for a workable compromise. Progressive Conservative (PC) leader Peter MacKay is proposing that the word ''marriage'' be dropped from all civil unions.

Under his plan, only churches would be allowed to grant ''marriages'' and they would be free to choose whether or not to wed same-sex couples.

The position is similar to that of gay PC MP Scott Brison, as well as a group of backbench Liberal MPs who proposed the idea to the prime minister during the summer. But Chretien rejected that "compromise" offer.

But the prime minister might not have the political strength to remain unwavering. Informal tallies show that at least 126 MPs intend to vote against legalising same-sex marriages, leaving opponents only 25 votes short of the 151 needed to defeat the bill..

Even if the government loses the vote or chooses to stall until after an election, expected in 2004, gays will still be able to be married in Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec, where courts have already approved it.

To outlaw same-sex marriage, the federal government would have to take a second and controversial step of invoking the constitution's seldom used ''notwithstanding clause'', to skirt the court decisions. It allows the government a renewable five-year exemption from any constitutional court ruling regarding minority rights.

But even some MPs who oppose the legislation say they would be loath to invoke the clause.

So would some senior Liberal cabinet ministers.

Justice minister Martin Cauchon says he will not waver on same-sex marriage, saying that he cannot, in good conscience, deny gays and lesbians equality before the law.

"I'm telling them that their union doesn't have less value than a heterosexual union, that their love doesn't have less value than the love of a heterosexual couple, that their family doesn't have less value, that their kids don't have less value, as well.. It's a question of dignity," Cauchon said.