OTTAWA, ON, July 20, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a late-night Tuesday vote the Canadian senate voted 47-21 to pass the same-sex “marriage” bill C-38. Three of the 95 sitting senators abstained from the vote. The law will come into effect as soon as royal assent is given to it.
Normally Canada’s Governor-General, the Queen’s representative in Canada, would sign the bill. However, LifeSiteNews.com spoke with Eric Richer at the at the Rideau Hall press office who said that Governor-General Clarkson would not be signing the bill as she is recovering from illness; instead the Deputy Governor-General, Supreme Court Justice Morris J. Fish, is slated to sign it later today.
Once the bill is signed into law, Canada will become the fourth country in the world to sanction same-sex marriage, following the example of Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium. Four so-called “hold-out” jurisdictions—Alberta, Prince Edward Island, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories—will now be forced to acquiesce to federal law against their better judgment.
“We will proceed to issue marriage licences to same sex couples, much to our chagrin, following proclamation of the federal Civil Marriage Act,” said Alberta Premier Klein earlier this month.
A press release from Campaign Life Coalition, the political arm of Canada’s pro-life movement which has fought the bill since its inception, said that the passage of the bill “reeks of dishonour, dishonesty, and public disdain.”
“Usually, when a coup against a society is carried out,” said the press release, “it is done under the cover of darkness, with silent forces working surreptitiously. However, the legal ‘redefinition’ of marriage in Canada constitutes a public coup carried out in the full light of day and without any sense of shame.”
Jim Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition, said “The harm that will flow from this unnecessary legislation is incalculable, and may take generations to undo. Decent and fair-minded Canadians deplore this travesty of justice and should resolve to punish the perpetrators at the polls regardless of political party”.
Aidan Reid, Director of CLC’s Public Affairs in Ottawa, lamented “A cabal of parliamentarians, encouraged by activist courts and abetted by a compliant media, has foisted a new tyranny on Canadians – one that tramples on the true nature of marriage, harms families and ignores the rights of children.”
CLC vowed that they will work toward the repeal of the legislation by working towards electing MPs committed to respecting human life and upholding real marriage and defeating those who do not.
“All of this doesn’t mean that the question is over once and for all,” Conservative Senator Noël Kinsella said after the vote. Conservative party leader Stephen Harper has several times vowed to revisit the same-sex issue if voted into office.
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