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Canadian Pro-Family Groups Respond To Supreme Court Reference Decision

OTTAWA, December 9, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Most Canadian pro-family groups have strongly criticized the Supreme Court today for its response to the Liberal government's reference to the Court on its not yet formally introduced nor voted upon legislation to allow homosexual 'marriage'.

Campaign Life Coalition President Jim Hughes said, "The Supreme Court has chosen to direct government legislation rather than telling Parliament that they should draft, debate and vote on such legislation before the Courts speak."

Hughes called the Prime Minister to task for trying to "stifle legitimate debate by having the Court rule before draft legislation has even been presented to Parliament". He continued "We are a free nation ruled by elected representatives and more and more we are being ruled by an un-elected judiciary and not by our own elected representatives. The cart is definitely before the horse."

CLC is urging Canadians to "contact their MPs in their constituency offices" and ask them "to vote against any government legislation which approves of 'same-sex' marriage".

REAL Women Canada notes that "To pass this controversial same-sex marriage bill, the Prime Minister requires, because of his split caucus, that all 39 Cabinet Ministers and possibly the 28 Parliamentary Secretaries, vote for the bill." Gwen Landolt of REAL Women charged that Canadians represented by these Parliamentarians "will be disenfranchised on this most crucial question of this generation."

Bishop Richard Smith, President of the Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops told LifeSiteNews.com, "We would hope that all lay Catholics would make their views known to the MPs that we do want any legislation that's going to alter substantially the nature of marriage defeated, and we would hope that Catholic politicians in particular would act accordingly."

Vancouver Archbishop Raymond Roussin gave the strongest Catholic response by reminding Catholic law-makers of the Church's teaching that they have a moral duty to clearly oppose the legislation and that voting in favour of a law so harmful to the common good is "gravely immoral."

The Catholic Civil Rights League (CCRL) denounced the Supreme Court's decision "as an unprecedented pre-empting of parliamentary debate by the judiciary."

CCRL President Phil Horgan stated, "The court should have returned the reference questions to Parliament for the proper stages of the introduction and debate of a bill before they gave an opinion." Commenting on the precedent-setting nature of the decision, Horgan said, "As far as we know, this is the first time the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled on proposed legislation before it was introduced in the House. Involving the court at this stage was an attempt to circumvent the democratic process in order to impose a fundamental social change that many Canadians do not want. This is a bad and dangerous precedent that could be invoked in future to stifle debate on other divisive social issues".

The CCRL head advocated an active response to the government's intent to pass legislation now given a go ahead by the Court. Horgan said, "Parliament still must introduce and debate this legislation before it becomes law. We will be working with all Canadians who value true marriage to defeat any legislation in favour of same sex marriage every step of the way. The decision must now be made by the public and their elected officials, not the courts. We want MPs to know that they will be held accountable."

The CCRL is demanding that the Prime Minister and his Party "call off their whips in caucus and cabinet" so that the Members of Parliament will be able "to vote their consciences on legislation going to the core of their beliefs". "The true test of religious and conscientious freedom in Canada" says the CCRL, "will not be limited to churches and their congregations."

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) organization statement, however, was considerably weaker than the other Catholic spokesmen and organizations. The CCCB was especially pleased with the Court's affirmation of protection for religious officials. The organization urged "Members of Parliament to have a full, informed and vigorous debate on this issue," and asked that "there be a free vote so that all members may vote according to their conscience."

The CCCB said it intends to be part of the debate and urged all Catholics, "especially those who have the experience of marriage, to play an active role" in the debate. In its statement the CCCB did not explicitly call for defeat of the upcoming legislation, did not urge Catholics to work for that defeat and did not note the responsibility of Catholic politicians to vote against the upcoming legislation.

REAL Women, Focus on the Family and Canada Family Action Coalition have also responded by calling for a national referendum on the issue.

Campaign Life Coalition Press Release
http://www.campaignlifecoalition.com/press/2004/041209respon...

Catholic Civil Rights League Release
http://www.ccrl.ca/index.php?id=201

Canada Family Action Coalition release
http://www.familyaction.org/Articles/issues/family/marriage/...

REAL Women release
http://www.realwomenca.com/press.htm#thecourts

CCCB Release
http://www.cccb.ca/PublicStatements.htm?CD=&ID=1602

Focus on the Family response
http://www.fotf.ca/familyfacts/news/120904.html

Centre for Cultural Renewal Response
http://www.culturalrenewal.ca/centreblog.htm

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