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Saskatchewan MP Supports Bishop Henry, Warns C-38 a Direct Attack on Religious Freedom

OTTAWA, April 12, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Maurice Vellacott, Conservative MP for Saskatoon-Wanuskewin says that Human Rights Tribunal cases against Bishop Fred Henry show the connection between freedom of speech and freedom of religion. While Paul Martin and Justice Minister Irwin Cotler claim that the new legislation to change the definition of marriage to include homosexual partnerings does not pose a threat to religious people, Vellacott says the evidence is against them. “This militant attack against the Calgary bishop is another example – in a growing body of evidence – exposing the dishonesty of the Prime Minister’s claims,” he said.

“Bill C-38 is a direct attack on religious freedom, and the Justice Minister knows it,” adds Vellacott.

When the government began to change its tune about imposing homosexual marriage on Canada, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a letter warning that such a change would pose a threat to religious freedoms guaranteed under the Charter. Bishop Henry, however, went one step further than his brother bishops and issued a letter addressing the germ of the issue, the Catholic teaching on the sinfulness of homosexuality itself.

In a now-famous passage, Bishop Henry wrote in his letter, “Since homosexuality, adultery, prostitution and pornography undermine the foundations of the family, the basis of society, then the State must use its coercive power to proscribe or curtail them in the interests of the common good.” Henry, in giving the full Catholic teaching on the subject has, with a few episcopal exceptions, been alone among Catholic bishops in his fight.

At Saturday’s March for Marriage, Archbishop Marcel Gervais, fresh from the Papal funeral in Rome, said that he also supported Bishop Henry’s stand against normalizing homosexuality. Archbishop Gervais said “Our government wants sodomy to be accepted as part of the norm and we refuse that.”  The Archbishop said he stands “arm in arm” with his brother bishop in Calgary, Bishop Fred Henry. Thus far, Archbishop Gervais is joined, not by other Catholic bishops, but by Protestant ministers and spokesmen. 

Vellacott cites the government’s refusal to support provincial marriage commissioners who have been forced to resign because of their refusal to participate in homosexual unions. “It’s about time the Justice Minister came clean with his real agenda and started telling Canadians the truth about the serious anti-constitutional ramifications of his anti-marriage bill,” said Vellacott. “This attack on Bishop Henry is an attack on the freedom of religion, the freedom of conscience and the freedom of speech. It is an assault on the rule of law and the constitutional foundations of this country, and puts in jeopardy the principle of equality before the law,” warns Vellacott.

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