Mounties: PM’s office issues keep quiet order

Harper tells Tory MPs to stay mum on Mounties’ wedding

By STEPHEN MAHER Ottawa Bureau, Halifax Chronicle-Herald

OTTAWA — The Harper government has forbidden its MPs from discussing the first same-sex Mountie marriage, referring all questions on the subject to Stockwell Day.

But Mr. Day, public safety minister and a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage, wouldn’t speak about the upcoming nuptials of two Nova Scotia Mounties, Const. Jason Tree and Const. David Connors.

"The minister won’t have any specific comments on this," Melissa Leclerc, Mr. Day’s communications director, said Wednesday. "That’s their private life. There’s nothing much we can say."

It has been reported that the prime minister’s office has designated Mr. Day to respond to any questions about the marriage of the two men, a signal intended to keep other MPs from discussing the potentially controversial subject in the media.

Mr. Day is missing an opportunity to show compassion to the two officers by publicly congratulating them, says Joe Comartin, the NDP public safety critic.

"Because he is the senior law enforcement officer in the country, you expect him to acknowledge that the law is in place, and they have every right to do this, as a heterosexual couple would," Mr. Comartin said. "Let’s say it was a heterosexual couple of mixed race — for the first time, Mounties of mixed race marrying — you would expect him to acknowledge our human rights legislation and congratulate them."

Mr. Comartin said Mr. Day likely doesn’t want to comment about this marriage because his party has promised to bring same-sex marriage before the House for another vote, a vote most observers believe is destined to fail.

When Mr. Day was leader of the Canadian Alliance, the Liberals attacked him for his evangelical Christian beliefs, including his belief that everything in the Bible is literally true.

In the 2000 election campaign, a Jean Chretien spokesman, waving a Barney doll, mocked Mr. Day on television as someone who believed that human beings and dinosaurs coexisted.

Mr. Day should put aside his personal beliefs to signal the government accepts the same-sex marriage law, Mr. Comartin said.

"He’s got his personal beliefs and he’s got his responsibilities as a minister of state specifically responsible for these personnel, and I think his responsibility as a minister should override his personal beliefs."

The news that constables Tree and Connors will wed in Yarmouth in June has been carried by newspapers and television stations across the country.

The couplesay the force has been very supportive, and a spokesman for the Mounties has welcomed the news of the engagement.

Nobody seems to be upset by the marriage, say two Nova Scotia Tory MPs.

"Not a word," said South Shore-St. Margarets Bay MP Gerald Keddy this week. "Not a whimper. Not an e-mail, not a phone call, nothing. It’s a non-issue."

Mr. Keddy was one of only four Tory MPs who voted for the same-sex marriage bill last year. But he had no comment on the upcoming wedding.

"I really haven’t given it any thought," he said. "It’s just not been an issue. It’s easy for me to leave it in Mr. Day’s hands."

Bill Casey, the MP for Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley, who voted against the bill, hasn’t heard much from constituents about the marriage either.

"I don’t think it’s a big issue," he said. "It’s the reality of the law of the land now, and it makes for interesting reading."

Mr. Casey said the change in the law doesn’t seem to have had negative effects, and people are slowly adjusting to it.

"For people that have had one definition of marriage for most of their lives, for decades, this is an adjustment," he said. "This is a big adjustment for people my age, especially."

© 2005 The Halifax Herald Limited

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