Politics
Thursday June 3, 2004
Conservative Leader Harper Would Let Parliament, not Courts Decide on Homosexual 'Marriage'
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OTTAWA, June 3, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper was asked about homosexual 'marriage' yesterday and responded, "my intention would be to remove the reference to the Supreme Court and to have Parliament make a decision on this."
Harper added that the Supreme Court would respect the decisions of Parliament. "I am confident that if the Parliament expresses its views clearly on this, which is something that Parliament refused to do under the Liberals, then I am quite certain that the Supreme Court will understand and respect Parliament's competency to deal with such a matter," he said.
Harper was also asked about using the notwithstanding clause in relation to the issue. Harper did not respond to the use of the clause specifically in the case of the Supreme Court forcing homosexual 'marriage' but answered generally that as Prime Minister use of the notwithstanding clause is legitimate. "The use of the not-withstanding clause is, I mean this clause is part of the Constitution, it's a legitimate part of the Constitution, but we would certainly use it in a very prudent manner," he said.
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