WINNIPEG, August 2, 2002 (LSN.ca) – Manitoba’s socialist NDP government passed legislation 31-22 yesterday allowing homosexual adoption and giving homosexual couples privileges normally reserved to married couples. Bill 34, The Charter Compliance Act, alters 56 provincial statutes to extend rights to homosexuals.
The Progressive Conservative Party allowed its members a free vote on the “morality” issue and all members voted against the measure. Conservative Party leader Stuart Murray said he favoured rights for homosexuals. However, in a twist of the common “I’m opposed but” tactic, Murray said he voted against the legislation despite his personal support for it since he was representing the majority of Manitobans.
Campaign Life Coalition MB believes it is a great injustice to the children who will be adopted and that they have a right to be placed in a family situation mirroring the natural family relationship that they should have had, under normal circumstances, with their biological parents. Most of the public was not aware that this law was being implemented. It appears to have closely followed the tactics used by the Ontario government when it suddenly passed an almost identical law without public debate and without any real debate in the legislature. PC MPPS were ordered to vote for the bill or stay home. Homosexual activists were in the Ontario legislature at the time and it is likely Manitoba homosexual activists were also well aware of the imminent passage of the Manitoba bill. Coverage can be found in the Winnipeg Sun, August 2.