It makes you who the real leader of the western world is: the one who
leads people by example, or the one who leads by executing people?

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-
gay2feb02,1,5780102.story?coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=2&cset=true

The only surprising thing about this is that opposition leader and
Shrub stoolie Stephen Harper offered a reasonable compromise on the
wording of the bill.


Bob Dog


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February 2, 2005


THE WORLD
Canada Proposes Legalizing Gay Marriage Across Nation

The government acted to prevent discrimination, the prime minister
says. The clergy wouldn't be compelled to preside over such unions.

By Maggie Farley and Andrew van Velzen, Special to The Times

TORONTO - Canada's government introduced a bill Tuesday to legalize
same-sex marriage nationwide, describing it as a crucial protection
for minorities despite deep divisions over the issue in Parliament
and among citizens.

"The government cannot, and should not, pick and choose which rights
they will defend and which rights they will ignore," Justice Minister
Irwin Cotler said at a news conference in Ottawa after presenting the
bill. "I appreciate the concern, sometimes even the anguish, that
some Canadians feel."

Polls show that Canada's population is almost evenly split, with a
slight majority supporting same-sex marriage.

Prime Minister Paul Martin said that because courts have allowed gay
marriage in eight of Canada's 13 provinces and territories, the
government should ensure that there is no discrimination against gays
in the remaining areas of the country. The new legislation would
define marriage as a civil union between two people, as opposed to
the current definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.

In December, Canada's Supreme Court ruled that excluding homosexual
couples from marriage laws and benefits violated the country's
Charter of Rights, and the ruling paved the way for Tuesday's
legislation. If the measure is passed, Canada will become the third
country, after the Netherlands and Belgium, to recognize same-sex
marriage. A number of other countries recognize civil unions between
gay couples but don't refer to them as marriages.

In an effort to defuse objections from religious groups, the bill
states that religious officials who disagree with the law will not
be compelled to preside over same-sex marriages. But many
conservative and church groups still regard the legislation as an
attack on the traditional notion of marriage and family.

Calgary's Roman Catholic bishop, Fred Henry, wrote in his recent
pastoral letter on homosexuality that the goal of changing the
definition of marriage was to create "a powerful psychological
weapon to change society's rejection of homosexual activity and
lifestyle into gradual, even if reluctant, acceptance."

In early January, Toronto's Catholic archbishop, Cardinal Aloysius
Ambrozic, urged the prime minister in an open letter not to go
forward with the legislation. "Can we say with certainty what the
social outcome of a redefinition of marriage would be?" he wrote.
"In all humility, none of us can do so."

But gay citizens say the government is simply catching up with
Canada's changing mores.

"Gay marriage has been legal in 80% of the country for two years
now," said Mitchel Raphael, editor of Fab magazine, a Toronto-based
gay publication. "The other provinces and territories have such an
insignificant number of gay people, the law will have more of a
symbolic effect. And even if it doesn't pass, gay marriage will
still be legal here."

Winning support will be a political test for Martin, who faces
resistance from Parliament's largest opposition bloc, the
Conservative Party, and almost a quarter of his own Liberal Party
lawmakers. The Liberal Party does not control the justice committee,
which must approve the bill.

To pass, the measure needs 154 votes in Parliament. There are 308
seats in the body; one is vacant and the speaker votes only in case
of a tie.

A poll by Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper released Tuesday showed
that 139 Parliament members intended to back the legislation. The
Globe said 118 legislators - including 28 Liberals - were opposed and
that 49 others either were undecided or declined to state their
position.

"We know where people stand," said University of Toronto political
science professor Nelson Wiseman.

"It's going to expose the divisions in the Liberal Party. The
opposition will play it up, but I don't think it will have any
lasting reverberations."

Conservative leader Stephen Harper, who controls 34 fewer votes than
Martin in Parliament, proposed Tuesday that the government compromise
by extending the privileges of marriage to same-sex couples while
leaving the legal definition unchanged as a union between a man and a
woman.

Martin, a devout Catholic, has said he struggled with the issue and
even asked advice from his priest. But he decided that as the leader
of all Canadians, he must guarantee that human rights trump religious
tenets. He dismissed suggestions that his support of the issue would
erode his political and popular support.

"We have a very ambitious agenda, and we will fulfill it," he told
reporters in Ottawa.



Times staff writer Farley reported from New York and special

correspondent Van Velzen from Toronto.

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