OTTAWA, October 6, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Supreme Court of Canada began hearing the case for same-sex marriage today, beginning with a statement from lawyers for the attorney general, who said allowing same-sex couples to “marry” is the only just decision. The hearings, including 28 presentations, will continue until Friday. A draft bill to legalize same-sex marriage was sent to the court last year by former Prime Minister Jean Chretien.
This morning the Court denied a request to have an amicus curiae appointed to defend the traditional definition of marriage. In a memorandum to the Court, dated Monday, October 4th, Senator Anne Cools and Roger Gallaway, M.P. for Sarnia-Lambton, asked for a ‘friend of the court’ to be appointed saying that Justice Minister Irwin Cotler “has a personal opinion and an agenda to allow same-sex marriage, which are contrary to the law currently in place.”
The memorandum contended that the Justice Minister has a duty to uphold the law “as it is, not as he personally wants it to be.” Senator Cools argued, “The first duty of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice is to support the law as passed by Parliament which is in place.” In asking for an amicus curiae, Cools and Gallaway made the point that the law cannot contradict itself. “The Queen in Parliament… assented to statutes that declare that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, to the exclusion of all others, for life.” Cools writes, “the Queen’s lawyer says that when she assented to the laws in question, she was wrong; not only wrong – but she acted unconstitutionally.” ph