Thursday November 18, 2004

Canadian Parliamentary Committee Blocks Vote on Traditional Marriage

OTTAWA, November 18, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A private members bill on the traditional definition of marriage which was to be debated as early as Friday in the House of Commons and then voted on likely early in the new year has been blocked.

In a vote this morning the Subcommittee on Private Members' Business of the Standing Committee deemed a Private Member's Bill defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman non-votable.

The blocking of the bill occurred despite changes to the parliamentary system whereby all Private Members' Bills are now initially considered votable. However, the new rules still allow the crushing of these backbench MP intiatives since they allow the Standing Committee to deem a votable bill as non-votable, which it did in this case.

The committee responsible for the vote is the Procedure and House Affairs Standing Committee made up of parliamentarians from all parties. LifeSiteNews.com has been informed that Conservative members of the committee fought to have the bill remain votable but were outvoted.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Canadian Conservative MP Introduces Bill on Definition of Marriage
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/nov/04110806.html

jhw

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/nov/04111801.html

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