 | ||||
| ||||
|
EQUAL MARRIAGE DEBATE CONTINUES IN HOUSE OF COMMONS, CONSERVATIVE PARTY CONVENTION First crucial vote could happen within weeks Debate will resume in the House of Commons next week on Bill C-38 – the equal marriage legislation – but this week the discussion shifts to Le débat sur le mariage égal continue à la Chambre des communes et au congrès du parti conservateur Premier vote crucial pourrait avoir lieu dans les prochaines semaines Le débat sur le projet de loi C-38 recommencera la semaine prochaine à la Chambre des communes – le sujet sera également abordé cette semaine à Montréal, lorsque des conservateurs de partout à travers le pays se rassembleront pour le premier congrès de politiques du nouveau Parti conservateur. With over 110 MPs left to debate the bill in the Commons, the bill could reach second-reading vote as early as the first week of April. This is a crucial step: if a bill is defeated at second reading, it dies. If it passes second reading, it will be studied by a legislative committee and then returned to the House of Commons for the final vote (third reading). It must then go through the same steps again in the Senate. |
Canadiens et canadiennes pour le droit égal au mariage a besoin de votre aide! | |||
|
You can watch the debate live on CPAC (Canada's political channel). You can also read a full transcript of Parliamentary debate on the bill on the Canadians For Equal Marriage website at Equal-marriage opponents are planning a massive Parliament Hill rally on April 9 to try to intimidate Parliamentarians as the bill moves closer to a vote. But opponents are focusing their immediate efforts this weekend on the Conservative Party convention in A resolution endorsing Stephen Harper’s position in favour of second-class citizenship for gays and lesbians will be debated on Saturday by the whole convention. But delegates will be hearing from a newly-formed group called Conservatives For Equal Marriage. The new group launched a website www.conservativesforequalmarriage.ca with two purposes: to articulate the Conservative Case for Equal Marriage and to provide a voice and a vehicle to those people within the Conservative Party who support this view. “It’s actually a very Conservative thing to embrace equal rights. As you may recall, it was under a Conservative government that women were first given the right to vote. It was also a Conservative government that established the Bill of Rights,” said Gary Mitchell, a Conservative candidate in Canadian For Equal Marriage National Co-ordinator Alex Munter will also be at the Conservative gathering. Munter and Laurie Arron, CEM’s political co-ordinator, participated in the Liberal convention earlier this month, making sure Liberals were reminded that the vast majority of Canadians support the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Over 90% of Liberal delegates voted in support of a resolution affirming equal marriage rights.
If you have not yet had a chance to contribute to Canadians For Equal Marriage, to help our grassroots campaign to match the efforts of our well-funded adversaries, please go to www.equal-marriage.ca/donate.php right now. IN THE NEWS :: DANS LES MANCHETTES CALLS FOR TOLERANCE DISMISSED AT FUNDRAISER AGAINST EQUAL MARRIAGE TORONTO: A political rally and fundraiser organized by “Defend Marriage Trust” (a coalition of right-wing political organizations and Christian fundamentalists groups) shocked and frightened the half-dozen supporters of the federal legislation who attended and were eventually forcibly removed. “These are the same organizations that have opposed the legal inclusion of lesbians and gays into Canadian society at every step,” said Sheldon Hubert. “They seem to have no room for the Charter of Rights, nor the concept of tolerance, in their image of society.” “They believe that including lesbians and gays into this civil institution will somehow destroy society as we know it. I am very saddened to see such U.S. style political rhetoric enter so aggressively into our Canadian debate. It truly scares me,” said Mr. Hubert. Mr. Hurbert and his friends heard about the gathering and wanted to hear first-hand the views of this organization. “It is a shame these people can’t recognise the beauty of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It allows for both the freedom of religions to practice marriage according to their faith, AND the freedom of lesbians and gays to have equal treatment under the law,” said Bob Gallagher, spokesperson for Canadians for Equal Marriage. The Calgary Sun, March 16, 2005 -- The notwithstanding clause is not a millstone to be avoided, but a life preserver to save us from a flood of judicial tyranny. The time has come for the Alberta government "to throw marriage a life preserver," according to the Defend Marriage Coalition. But unless Alberta MLAs receive an unprecedented awakening from their constituents in the next few days, March 22 marks the date Alberta's notwithstanding clause provision, protecting the definition of marriage as one man one woman, will pass into oblivion. Klein Tories who claim to support traditional marriage have decided to quietly let this sunset clause -- in the Alberta Defence of Marriage Act -- set. The notwithstanding clause provision was originally brought forward as a private member's bill and supported by the government as a proactive measure to uphold the traditional definition of marriage in anticipation of any future court decisions to the contrary.
GAY MARRIAGE FOES TARGET MP
Halifax Herald, OTTAWA - Opponents of same-sex marriage plan to try to end the political career of South Shore-St. Margarets MP Gerald Keddy.
Mr. Keddy is one of just a handful of Conservative MPs in Canada who plan to vote for the Liberal government's same-sex marriage legislation.
That position has earned him the enmity of activists with the Defend Marriage Coalition, a national organization opposed to the government's bill enshrining the marriage rights of same-sex couples.
The group plans to hold rallies outside his constituency office, set up a website opposed to him, target him at a Conservative convention in Montreal this week and, most emphatically, try to make sure he doesn't win the Conservative nomination in his riding before the next election.
"There will be pressure on him," said Gwen Landolt, an Ottawa activist with Real Women Canada, one of the groups in the Defend Marriage Coalition. "He's certainly in our sights." JUDGE SAYS CALIFORNIA CAN'T BAN GAY MARRIAGE SAN FRANCISCO - A judge ruled Monday that California's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, saying the state could no longer justify limiting marriage to a man and a woman. In the eagerly awaited opinion likely to be appealed to the state's highest court, San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer said that withholding marriage licenses from gays and lesbians is unconstitutional. "It appears that no rational purpose exists for limiting marriage in this state to opposite-sex partners," Kramer wrote. The judge wrote that the state's historical definition of marriage, by itself, cannot justify the denial of equal protection for gays and lesbians. MORE I'd heard tales of the coming of the Defend Marriage bus, a motorized supercoach thundering its way across the country to save civilization. I want to ride that bus. Shooting a film that deals with the subject, we finally have something to photograph. Full-page newspaper ads raging in the Sun, National Post and other papers seem to indicate that this suddenly materialized mass movement is big enough to affect the rotation of the planet. "Disaster! Suicide! Pedophilia!" One screams, "Our greatest Canadian treasure is about to be dumped into the garbage can of history!" This is Canada speaking, finally, with some help from busloads of dollars pouring in from Christian groups in the United States. The magic bus's mission: target individual MPs and let them know, with a bus in the face, that they will be punished both by God and the voters if they vote for ending civilization. MORE Looking for transcripts of all the equal marriage debates in the House of Commons? They are now available on our website at the following URL: http://www.equal-marriage.ca/resource.php?id=189. Visit often as this section will be continually updated.
| ||||
|
home | local | links | mp info | parties | about us www.equal-marriage.ca | www.mariageegal.ca
| ||||
