CTV is announcing that in order to placate the social conservatives (read: people of conscience, not knuckle-draggers) in his ranks, Paul Martin has agreed to make changes to Bill C-38.
They include:
- Stronger guarantees that Charter rights will not override religious freedoms
- Justices of the Peace who do not want to perform civil marriages of same-sex couples will not have to do so
- Churches are not required to rent out their halls for same-sex weddings
- Religious educational institutions will still be allowed to preach that homosexuality is against God's law, without being subject to hate crime laws
I wonder though, if same-sex marriage is a right, how these amendments will stand up under a Charter challenge.
The amendments don't go so far as to protect individuals who are not members of the clergy (such as Sunday School teachers, Youth Leaders, students, Lay Leaders and parents).
I don't think the same-sex lobby is going to be pleased with the proposed changes and I have no doubt that at the first opportunity, many of these issues will be brought before the courts.
canadianna
4 comments:
This shall be labeled Article #1001 in the "Martin Clinging to Power Campaign."
1. Remember that these are Robert Fife's summations of the proposed amendments, not the amendments themselves. These will take some thrashing out in committee, and I suspect that definition extensions will be possible.
2. Section 2(a) of the Charter defines religion as a fundamental right. But at no point in the text of C-38 is marriage (as a concept) declared a right. Certainly the issue will come before the courts, but not on the argument that SSM is a fundamental right.
I have some more thoughts on the issue here.
I grabbed the following from the same CTV story (emphases mine):
No consensus, however, has been reached, according to Scott Reid, the Prime Minister's communications director.
Reid said Martin only promised that he would be open to the four amendments, although MPs at the meeting apparently left with the impression they had a deal.
"There is a long-standing commitment that all amendments will be treated fairly -- whether they come at committee or report stage," said Reid. "The Prime Minister told caucus what he's said publicly -- as part of an open process amendments will be considered fairly on their merits."
So it all depends on what you think Paul Martin's 'promises' and 'commitments' are worth.
Those poor suc...I mean, loyal M.P.'s...
As for any ammendments -- marriage is a provincial responsibility, so I don't know how much 'protection' the fed's can guarantee on anything related to their new socially-engineered chimera. Yes, and 'gay rights' certainly have trumped religious rights so far, and nothing leads me to think that will change.
Ruth, his name is Brockie
This has changed since I read it. None of what you've put there was there this morning.
But I agree, any changes are irrelevant. No 'guarantee' is really a guarantee.
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